SketchUp no longer free

[Laszlo Nagy]

This article gives a pretty good overview of the fact that since the last upgrade of SketchUp, its free version, which is now called SketchUp Make, is not licenced for commercial work. Which is an interesting development because millions upon millions of people are using it:

http://cadinsider.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/07/-psst-sketchup-is-not-free.html

[Bricklyne Clarence]

We knew this was going to happen when Trimble bought them out from Google.

Trimble don't have as deep or bottomless pockets like Google, and unlike Google, have no interest in having Sketchup be freely available or popular or commonly used.


Obviously it's going to hurt them more than they realize now ( I mean, do they really think majority of the content in the Trimble Warehouse - formerly Google warehouse - the online repository of sketchup-built 3D objects, was created mainly by paying customers and licensed users?) but what do they care as long their bottom-line is served?

[stefan]

So are you still legally allowed to continue using older versions commercially for free?

That said, the price of SketchUp (about $500 + upgrade that now seems yearly) is fair for its versatility.