The advantage of using SketchUp Make to learn is that the software and your model files live on your computer, and the interface is nearly identical to that of SketchUp Pro. With SketchUp Pro, the Solid Tools, the ability to import and export vector files and the addition of the add-on program LayOut, are all worth the investment. SketchUp Make is “free for personal use”, if you’re making money using SketchUp, you need to have a license and the features of SketchUp Pro will make it easier for you to make money.

With any version of SketchUp, be sure to read the “Terms and Conditions”. The link isn’t easy to find, but here it is.

While SketchUp Make 2017 will no longer be updated, it is still available for download and installation and it will continue to be. Click here to read the official SketchUp Forum discussion about this.Ĭlick on the image to download SketchUp Make 2017 Where to get SketchUp Make But that doesn’t mean that “SketchUp Make” has ceased to exist, or isn’t a good way to learn how to make 3D models. With the release of SketchUp Pro 2018, SketchUp decided to provide a web-based software, called “SketchUp Free” rather than update “SketchUp Make” along with “SketchUp Pro”. So the question is: “which free version is best for me?”. If you decide it is worth the investment, you can then purchase a license. That has been, and will continue to be one of the wonderful things about SketchUp you can learn how to use the program with a version that doesn’t cost anything. If I were just starting out however, I would want to see what the program was like before I spent any money. When I first started using (and teaching and writing about) 3D modeling with SketchUp, the differences between the free and paid versions of the software were simple to understand (this 2015 post goes into detail about the differences between “SketchUp Make” and “SketchUp Pro”) In my work I use SketchUp Pro, and I consider the cost of the license and yearly maintenance a bargain.

This screen image is from SketchUp Free, the web-based, no-cost version of SketchUp

Sketchup make 2017