Skip to main content

SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements

Hector Sarmiento
Updated

Like many computer programs, SketchUp requires certain hardware and software specifications in order to install and run. These are basic requirements, though, so you may want to use our recommended suggestions to improve performance.

Note: we do include a few links to the Trimble SketchUp Help Center hosted by our US SketchUp partner as additional references. However, please note that any questions relating to your account and billings, you should always refer to our SketchUp Australia website and contact our team.  

Windows 11, Windows 10

  • Software Requirements
    • An internet connection is required to install and authorize your SketchUp subscription and to use some of the features.
    • SketchUp Pro requires .NET Framework version 4.5.2.
    For more information about the .NET framework, click here.
  • Recommended Hardware Requirements
    • 2+ GHz processor
    • Discrete Graphics card such as a current generation AMD or NVIDIA
    • At least 8GB RAM
    • At least 6GB of available hard-disk space
    • A modern GPU with at least 8GB VRAM. SketchUp’s classic renderer requires OpenGL 3.1 support. SketchUp’s performance relies on your graphics card driver and its ability to support OpenGL 3.1 or higher.
    • A modern GPU with at least 32GB of VRAM when interacting with models utilizing materials with Physically Based Rendering texture maps, Ambient Occlusion, and Image Based Lighting.
    • A 3-button, scroll-wheel mouse.
  •  

Mac OS 15 (Sequoia), 14+ (Sonoma), 13+ (Ventura), and 12+ (Monterey).

 

  • Software Requirements 
    • An internet connection is required to install and authorize your SketchUp subscription and to use some of the features.
    • QuickTime 5.0 and web browser for multimedia tutorials.
    • Safari. 
  •  
  • Recommended Hardware Requirements 
    • 2.1+ GHz processor or current generation Apple M1 processor
    • At least 8GB RAM
    • At least 6GB of available hard-disk space
    • A modern GPU with at least 1GB of memory. SketchUp’s classic renderer requires OpenGL 3.1 support.
    • 3-button, scroll-wheel mouse.
  •  
  •  
 

SketchUp's New Graphics Engine

Sketchup 2024 introduces a powerful new graphics engine that comes with some additional requirements:

  • For MacOS, you must use version 12.3.1 or above. We recommend at least 13 and above for optimal performance. 
  • The following MacOS GPUs are unsupported:
    • Intel HD Graphics 5000
    • Intel HD Graphics 6000
    • Intel Iris Graphics
    • Intel Iris Graphics 6100
    • Intel Iris Pro Graphics
  • The following Windows GPUs are unsupported:
    • Intel HD Graphics 4x00 series
  • For MacOS, the new renderer requires Metal 2 support. For more information on MacOS versions satisfying this requirement see Apple's Metal support page. 
  • For Windows, the new renderer requires DirectX12, feature level 11.0 support. See the Direct X diagnostic tool for more information.

For more information on how to change between the new and classic graphics engine, see Graphics. 

Compatibility Changes

 

SketchUp 2025
With the release of SketchUp 2025 we have added support for MacOS 15.0 (Sequoia).

SketchUp 2024
With the release of SketchUp 2024 we have added support for MacOS 14.0 (Sonoma). SketchUp 2024 is not compatible with MacOS 11.6 or older.

SketchUp 2023

With the release of SketchUp 2023 we’ve removed support for MacOS 10.15 (Catalina). We have added support for MacOS 13.0 (Ventura).

 

 

 

Unsupported environments

 

32-Bit Operating Systems- SketchUp is now optimized solely for 64-Bit and no longer available for Windows or MacOS in any 32-bit capacity.

MacOS Support- Current versions of SketchUp no longer support MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) or any versions previous.

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista- These versions of Windows are no longer supported and SketchUp no longer tests features or bugs on these older versions. While the software may still run properly, there may be some issues with features that haven’t been tested.

Linux- A Linux version of SketchUp isn't available at this time. However, you may be interested to see how others have had success running SketchUp on Linux using Wine.

Parallels/VMWare- Neither VMWare nor Parallels are supported environments.

Remote Desktop Connections- Due to hardware restrictions in shared environments we can't reliably predict how SketchUp will perform. At this time SketchUp is not supported via a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) on any platform.

External Graphics Cards (eGPU) - SketchUp is untested and unsupported on systems with eGPUs attached. While it may work for some users, we will not provide support for SketchUp on a system with this configuration.
 
Note: SketchUp will run on multiple-processor machines; however, SketchUp will only use one processor. SketchUp doesn't support hyper-threading or multi-threading at this time.
Note: You can use Logitech 3D Motion Controllers from 3Dconnexion to create models in SketchUp. The 3Dconnexion website has more information about these controllers.

Related articles

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.