How to Install Sketchup 2017 Make in Linux

Bottom Line Up Front:  This post provides a how-to install SketchUp Make 2017 in Linux using Wine.  The result is fully function with everything I tested, including the "sketchup-webhelper.exe" program.  Installation is time consuming, but woth it. 

Background:  Recently, due to COVID, I have found myself down the YouTube rabbit hole and interested in traditional hand-tool woodworking.  It is interesting.  A common tool people use is Sketchup to create to scale 3-d models for their projects.  I was disappointed to learn that it does not have a Linux version and there is no TRUE alternative to Sketchup in Linux.  I tried an alternative first then gave up and tried sketchup after a quick YouTube tutorial to get me over the short learning curve for basic usage.  I decided that Sketchup was fantastic and worth using.

The options I had were:

1.  Use a different program.  The closest native program was FreeCAD; however, the learning curve is quite steep.  I already said it was not intuitive for me.  It does have some features that Sketchup doesn't; however, I will return to learn it if/when I need that capability.

2.  Boot into Windows to install / run there.  That is OK, but my primary useage and programs are in Linux, so it is a bit inconvenient to do that.  Still, my dual boot session does have it installed.

3.  The Web version of SketchUp worked fine; however, once the trial period expires, the functionality is more limited than the SketchUp Make 2017 free version.  I also did not see myself using Sketchup enough to justify a subscription.

4.  Try using WINE to install and run SketchUp Make 2017.  WINE works and I do keep it installed on my computer.  Heck, I use it for some of my older windows programs and games but not everything works flawlessly in Wine.  For that reason, I try to stick with native Linux software.  

Given the choices I had, I opted to try WINE.  The project keeps improving and getting better all the time and programs that used to fail suddenly start working sometimes.  

My initial search for using Sketchup Make under Wine looked promising.  Some posts said it was garbage (people to try the standard install and quit if the installation software fails).  Some posts said it installed but some items didn't work.  I did fine one that  said it worked flawlessly.  I set out to install SketchUp Make 2017 and it was a tough start.  I had errors from the start trying to get it installed and I spent hours upon hours between my primary computer and a second computer.  I was successful and everything works in my installation with minor exceptions.  Here is a screen shot of Sketchup in Linux running with the 3D Warehouse and Plugin Warehouse visibly running.

This BLOG post is to share my success installing the program in an effort to make it less tedious for you, as it is a tedious process to begin with.  I did post my results at WINEhq.org; however, it won't be long before my notes are hidden and people don't look at my post.  Hopefully Google will pick this post up in their search engine.

When finished, what works?:

Everything I have tested.  That includes the SketchUp Warehouse part of the program ( sketchup-webhelper.exe ). .  A quick list of most items I have tested: 

• Installation
• Drawing Tools
• Plug-ins (Most... although the plugin from Sketucation website did not work... but plugins from there were downloaded and installed (Fredo6 series primarily).
• Opening
• Saving
• Editing

Installation:

Up front, this process takes a while, but it is worth it.  If you try and run the installation file, it will fail on its own.  It took me well over 8 hours and a few different attempts to get a near-flawless installation for the software.  The following steps should work.  I am using Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS and my instructions are based on that.  If you are using a different distribution your packages may be named different.

1.  Preparation:

Before you install anything, I recommend you head over to www.sketchup.com and click login.  Create a Tremble account.  That is necessary because Sketchup Make 2017 no longer supports other password validation options. 

Getting started you should have installed Winetricks and Wine (32 & 64 bit versions).  The specific software versions I used for your reference.  These were all installed from my default Linux repository.

- Linux:  Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

- Wine 5.0.3 (from repository)

- Wine Tricks:  0.0+20200412-1 (from repository)

*  For your information, my initial attempt was using "Play On Linux."  Play on Linux did not work easily and when I did get it installed using Play on Linux, the installation had issues as many other reports indicated.

NOTE:  

For a couple steps, WineTricks did not re-open so you may need to 'restart' WineTricks... but give it a little while as some steps run in background take a few minutes.

You will get a lot of warnings because it is a 64 bit arch... but those are OK.  WineTricks is just telling you (excessively) that things may not work as expected in 64-bit software.

NOTE
Received suggestion for command line options to get through this step from "Ian". I am adding this here, for those who would prefer to do it via the CLI. This will cover from Step 2 through the end of Step 6. I have not tried it myself, but I will do if/when I need to reinstall.  

Ian said: "I found I was able to use the command line to issue many of the install commands, which made it easy to restart winetricks on each step, and saved me a lot of dialog clicking."

winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 arch=64 &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 corefonts &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 tahoma &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 riched30 &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 richtx32 &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 vcrun2015 &&
winetricks prefix=SketchupMake2017 dotnet46 

2.  Run WineTricks

3.  Create new Prefix.  Select "Create new wineprefix".  Select architecture 64 and give it a name.  I used "Sketchup2017" but it doesn't really mater.  After you create a prifix, it will be added to the intial Winetricks menu as a option to select as a prefix. You will need to remember that to ensure you select the correct prefix for winetrick if it needs restarted or you need to modify something in the future.  WineTricks should now have the prefix in the windows title bar.   

4. Open Winecfg:  

4.1.  Ensure Wine prefix is set for Windows 7.  

4.2   (OPTIONAL)  Setup a drive for your download folder in your Linux profile.  This will save you a lot of directory navigation later.  Below is my example where I setup my E: drive.  Select Ok and the window will close with Winetricks reappearing.

5.  Install Fonts:  Confirm your prefix (listed in the titlebar).   Select in Wintetricks: "Install a font".  Select "corefonts" and "Tahoma2" and install.  

6.  Install Key Components and Programs.

6.1  riched3.0:  Select in Winetricks: "Install a Windows DLL or component"  Install the following (One at time!) Select riched3.0 from list.  Winetricks my crash, but give it time.  

6.2 richtx32:  Restart winetricks & select your prefix (will be near bottom of list).  Select "install windows dll.:  Select richtx32  (This also fails in script.  Can't tell if they installed or not, as both ended with error of can't find a ocx file... or something to that effect)

6.3  vcrun2015:   Restart winetricks & select your prefix. Select "install windows dll".  Choose  vcrun2015 and install.  The second of the  popups should message you, "Working around wine bug 37781."   That is a good sign.  Don't be alarmed by other messages... you should shortly see a MS installation window.  There are two separate installations, so let the process work out.

6.4  dotnet46:  Restart winetricks and select your prefix if necessary.  Select "install windows dll."  Select and install  dotnet46  (This is a cumulative install so it includes the previous version 4.5.2).  You will see  LOTS OF WARNING MESSAGES....  Keep going.  you will eventually see an extraction and running of dotNet installer.  After it finishes, another file extraction and install should start.   

This next install one will start with a warning that MSInstaller not installed.... but keep going.  They take a while and it appears to hang... but it will finish.  

Do NOT select reboot after installation.  The next thing will be a message indicating winetricks is doing a work-around in progress.   Another running of .NET install preceded by MS warning.  It too will finish.. but it takes a bit.   

DO NOT select reboot now... do it later

6.5  Verify Prefix Settings:  From WineTricks, select "run winecfg" and verify that the default settings are still Windows 7.  If a previous step didn't successful complete, a step may have left it set for XP.  If that is the case, you may want to run through the installation again of vcrun and dotnet.

7. Install Sketchup:  From the Winetricks window, verify the prefix (titlebar) and it is still your sketchup wineprefix.  Then select "run explorer" from the menu options.

7.1  Initially winetricks will re-open followed shortly by the old "Windows File Explorer". Navigate to your downloaded version of Sketchup2107 and run the installation file.  

If you didn't create a drive earlier, you will have to navigate down through the tree to find your file.  The Root partition is listed in explorer with the "/" next to folder.  Clicking the "/" will bring up your computer root directly and you can navigate to where you have stored your download.

7.3  Sketchup Installation Prompts:   

7.3.1.  When prompted to install a prerquisite for Vistual C, say yes... it should only take a moment and then you are into the Sketcup Installation.  

7.3.2.  Installation Location:  I selected the default installation location.  Quickest and easiest.  

7.4.  Linux Desktop:  After the installation completes, you should now see six new icons on your desktop.  Three of these are .lnk (link) files.  You can delete these as they are windows shortcuts.  In Ubuntu Gnome, there are also .desktop versions.  In order to run Sketchup from these icons, you will need to right click each of them and select from the context menu the option to give permission to run to launch the program.

7.5.  Sketchup  

Start Sketchup and enjoy.  

NOTE:  If after installing everything in the above manner, you find that you still have problems with the Warehouse or other plug-ins that use web interfaces, you should try launching from the command line using the following, and if it works for you, modify the Sketchup.desktop file to make it permanent.  Please note, that you will need to ensure that the highlighted parts need to be updated to match your profile and wineprefix name.  Shout out to "uberlinuxguy" (comment below) for this tip, as it sounds like it has helped some people.  I haven not needed to try it yet. 

WINEPREFIX="/home/<USER>/.local/share/wineprefixes/Sketchup2017" WINEDLLOVERRIDES="libglesv2=d" wine C:\\Program\ Files\\SketchUp\\SketchUp\ 2017\\SketchUp.exe

NOTE:  You will need to get a login to the company cause they no longer support using your google ID to login with the warehouse, etc...  

8.  Post Installation Considerations:

8.1  Free Version:  You will initially have a 30-day trial of pro features.  Once those expire, you will still have everything the web version has plus object explorer.  One key feature you will loose is the Solid Tools feature.  While I have not tried at present, my recourse to that feature will be through plug-ins.  There are quite a few free ones out there and there is also a very capable solid tools plugin that is perfect if you aren't intending to do a subscription.  You can purchase a plugin for Solid Tools from Mind Sight Studios.  Their plug-in is called Booltools.  $20 for lifetime.  I have good expectations for this plugin to work.  A link is here (NOT AFFILIATE)  Bool Tools 2 (Mindsight Studios)

8.2  You may also consider using a menu editor to modify the default .desktop files to add them to other groups in your menu system such as Graphics or Office.

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