Why Sketchup is taking so long to get a native arm apple silicon version?

Some softwares for 3D artist are already running natively on apple silicon, Blender and Cinema 4D are two of the biggest names, While Maya and archicad have already announced their software version running natively on ARM(apple silicon). The release of the new MacBooks with much powerful Soc`s is seting the trending for the future of the Pc industry. Though sketchUp runs fine through roseta 2 on the m1 devices, it could get a significant performance adapting to the arm architecture and the metal graphics from apple.

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What you say may be true, but don’t expect Trimble to comment. They never reveal their plans for products.

Oh sure, programming for apple silicon is so easy! I’ll do it :mage: tomorrow, yet before breakfast. :shallow_pan_of_food:
:slight_smile:

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I think we will have to wait until SketchUp users get their hands on actual hardware using the new chips before we will have good answers based on real trials. We can believe the MacBook Pros using these chips will be fast, but how fast running SketchUp?

Compared to the original M1, the chips announced yesterday (M1 Pro and M1 Max) have:

  • more CPU cores (no benefit to SketchUp as nothing about Apple silicon vs Intel will let Sketchup use more than one core. It wasn’t clear to me whether the new cores are any faster than M1 or just more numerous).
  • more GPU cores (TBD whether this will matter to SketchUp, probably depends on whether SketchUp can use them without having to be rewritten to Metal)
  • options for more memory (could help with gigantic models, multiple models open at the same time, or with running a renderer or other memory hogs at the same time as SketchUp/Layout. This is an important step since the memory is part of the SoC and can never be increased)
  • faster memory and wider memory bus (definite speed gains possible)
  • improvements in other sections whose relevance to SketchUp is very dubious, such as the neural engine and media processor
  • not part of the chip per-se, but Apple said the SSDs in the newly announced laptops are much faster than in the current ones
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M1 current market share is 0.8 %

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I think that is a pretty good number considering how long it has been out.

Note they are beta testing the iPad so work is happening in that direction.

Market share of M1 is not a deterrent. Never was as it is the future, and will run circles around… I’d never buy a Maserati, but if I needed to go fast I might consider it. What’s cool is the MacBook Pro M1s (aka the latest Mac Maseratis) are quite an affordable ride.

Pro users will start buying M1 Pros and Maxs now, and there will be no going back for us or Apple.

Sarcasm? As noted many developers have already ported w/ more to come, and SketchUp will as well. The iPad is at the gate and no doubt native SU for M1 Macs are right behind. (Did Apple give developers two years?)

I empathize with the OP as that news is what I impatiently came here looking for too.

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I’m sure it will at some point, but converting software to an entirely unrelated API isn’t going to be easy.
Especially as it is a piece of software used by professionals who expect stability.

Some 3rd party plugins may also need to be redeveloped, so if you do make the change SketchUp might not be the last piece to fall into place.
Apple have made a giant move to a different chip architecture, the last time they did this it took several years for it all to move across.

It’ll be great if it does happen, the M1 processors are really great at single threaded things and actually match the performance of my big expensive workstation even running on Rosetta.
If SketchUp do have a M1 native version on the way, it’ll be a real boon to Mac users.

I understand it takes some time to make the transition, but a lot of software have already done it, and a lot more have given either a date or a version that will run natively. Trimble hasn’t even said anything about it, maybe the iPad version is a step forward to the transition, but it would be nice to have official news for the users.

Trimble never comments about unreleased features or products.

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The SketchUp team uses Macs primarily and with apple moving entirely to M chips it makes sense this will happen naturally. While the market share of M chips is low it is probably much higher among sketchup users and will be growing.

Apple has never done this before either. Switching to Intel was not a parallel move.

Additionally, writing/porting for the new architecture is supposedly much easier than most think.

They’ve had their hands on these chips (M1) since late 2020. A full year, and I’d wager Trimble has had this in development the whole time.

I probably should have quoted MikeWayzoski in my post to make clear that I was commenting on his speculation about the new M1 Pro and M1 Max building on the M1 in ways that will benefit other kinds of apps but not SketchUp. That’s a different question than whether Trimble has plans or work in place to port SketchUp to Apple Silicon. In retrospect, my post (and Mike’s) was off topic and perhaps should be deleted.

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The M chips will soon be 100% of the Apple lineup, which includes all of their portable and desktop computers as well as their mobile devices.

I am sort of happy I left the Mac platform when OS X was released. I had by then been left high and dry by Apple two times. Now it would soon happen for the third time.

I don’t know what you mean, “left high and dry.” They typically have legacy support that lasts years. Anyway, the Mac platform is where it’s at right now. Their new M1X and Pro chips are flat out embarrassing for their competition in terms of raw performance and integration.

Typically they do not. After PowerPC came out, there were no updates for the 68xxx models. After OS X came out and they switched to Intel, there were no updates for PowerPC models. Now is the third time Apple switches platforms. So there is no “typically”.

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Well of course they don’t “update” the old hardware lines once they move on. But they do absolutely typically support legacy software on new machines for many years. This was the case in both moves you cited, and it continues to be the case with these chips. This is why the M chips have alsmot no problem running non native applications written for the Intel processors, including SketchUp.

We seem to have a different idea of the meaning of the word “support”. What I meant was that old machines that still had years of life left stopped receiving any software updates. You couldn’t even access the Internet.

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Not sure why you feel eft high and dry. I couldn’t be happier, more so since OSX, and then again with the M1s.
I see Apple cleaning out the attic, shaking of the dust, dumping those not committed to the platform(just milking all they can get for their poorly developed and poorly supported apps), while Apple pushes the edge forward. Keep up or fade away.