SketchUp Pro will give you access to regular updates and support, access to features like plugins and materials, as well as additional programs like LayOut for professional plan drawings. The limitations on the web-based versions are likely to catch up to any woodworker that uses SketchUp frequently to design their projects. Recommended SketchUp version for woodworkers Our Recommendation: SketchUp Pro Free Trial You’re very limited to the materials that SketchUp offers. But there are many other great plugins that are commonly used by woodworkers to add additional functionality like drawing compound curves and rounding corners in your pieces.Ĭustom textures and materials aren’t allowed in web-based versions. We teach you to install and use the Cutlist plugin in our SketchUp For Woodworkers Intro course. Web-based versions also lack the benefit of plugins. An omission which is more painful as the complexity of your models grow. SketchUp Free also hides the outliner, a tool which I find essential to navigating, identifying, and selecting components. The online version contains all the essential tools, but their grouping hides many of them and makes it more diffucult to find and slower to select. Navigating is more cumbersome in SketchUp for web. ![]() I find that the web-based versions (both Free and Shop) have some shortcomings that woodworkers are likely to bump up against when designing their woodworking projects. SketchUp Free is freely available, whereas SketchUp Pro ($299/year) and SketchUp Go ($119/yr) are a yearly subscription. ![]() SketchUp Free and SketchUp Go are both web-bound tools that you run in the cloud. Let’s start with the biggest differences between the available versions: SketchUp Pro is a full-featured desktop applications that you install on your computer. Our recommendation for woodworkers is that you use the SketchUp Pro version, even if you start with the free trial. Before you can start learning the basics of the software, you first need to choose a version. In the last couple years, the entry point for learning SketchUp has gotten more confusing because there’s been several new versions of SketchUp to come out. Our recommendation has been updated to reflect that. JNote: Up until recently, SketchUp offered an older full-featured desktop application SketchUp Make 2017. Our purpose in life is to set and then reach such ambitious (and modest) goals.Which Version of SketchUp Should Woodworkers Use Now that would be a goal worth striving for. By doing so, Google could raise awareness of SketchUp from 1/1000 of 1 percent all the way up to 1 percent of computer users. Google should partner with Apple and other computer vendors to bundle SketchUp with every computer sold. That’s a shame because this program truly delights the mind. I’ve never felt restricted by the free version of SketchUp, although I sure am curious to explore the features of the professional version sometime.Ĭurrently, less than 1/1000 of 1 percent of computer users in the world have ever heard of Google SketchUp. When you combine free computers with free creativity software (such as Google SketchUp and OpenOffice) and free Web services (such as, YouTube, and Picasa Web Albums), you end up in an interesting place.įor those who might be wondering, the free version of Google SketchUp has more than 90 percent of the features of the $500 professional version. Interestingly enough, a lot of Windows computers making their way into the donation stream here in the United States can run SketchUp. You’ll need a 600MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, Windows XP, and a 3D-class video card that supports OpenGL. The Windows requirements are not as high. ![]() On the Mac side of things, you’ll need a 1GHz PowerPC™ G4 or faster computer with 512MB or more of RAM, with Mac OS 10.4 (or higher). The system requirements for SketchUp are listed on the SketchUp Web site. Older computers don’t have sufficient processing power to run the program. Note: You’ll need a computer from about 2005 onwards to use SketchUp. Find yourself a SketchUp buddy (youth or adult) to explore the program with. Here is a book review I wrote for PCWorld about Google SketchUp for Dummies.Īfter that, download SketchUp and dive right in to explore how the drawing tools work. ![]() Aidan is the author of Google SketchUp for Dummies. Then I would search YouTube for any of the SketchUp videos made by Aida Chopra, Google’s chief evangelist for SketchUp. The other SketchUp videos by the same YouTube producer are also excellent. I love showing people this YouTube video on how to create a chair using SketchUp. At this point you might be wondering, “What is the best way of getting into Google SketchUp without buying any books?” First, I’d browse through some of the excellent SketchUp screencasts on YouTube.
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