Google SketchUp in Linux
Install Google SketchUp 2015 in Linux and enjoy this fantastic program.
Install Google SketchUp 2015 in Linux and enjoy this fantastic program.
Not being an architet or civil engineer I don't have a deep knowledge of AutoCad nor other Cad apps. However I enjoy creating mechanical designs for my projects. That's why Google SketchUp is a fantastic alternative because it's easy yet powerful enough for my requirements. And it's also free!
I've been using SketchUp for a while and during the past 2 months I'm using it more than ever before because I'm building a custom NAS case. Normally I run Windows XP on a virtual machine for using SketchUp but it's not the most elegant solution. I researched online how to run SketchUp with Wine but none of the information I found worked. At the end, a mix between many solutions did the trick.
Using LMDE2 I was able to install and run Google SketchUp 2015 successfully as described below.
For some reason I didn't have any issues when I first installed SketchUp 2015 in LMDE2 using Wine, a few months ago. However after reinstalling LMDE2 and getting all the updates, SketchUp didn't install any more. I got "Bad EXE format for …" error. I'm not sure whether Wine (version 1.6.2) or other packets got broken with the update. After a couple of days dealing with this issue I found a solution.
Download Google SketchUp Make 2015 for Windows (check your CPU architecture). I downloaded the 64 bits version.
Uncompress the file you just downloaded (SketchUp2015-x64.exe). It contains 3 files. Yo need the .msi one which is the biggest one (around 150MB).
Install SketchUp2015-x64.msi by running the following command in the terminal (make sure to be in the right path)
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine64" wine64 msiexec /i SketchUp2015-x64.msi
This command will install Wine profile and SketchUp in ~/.wine64 folder. You can choose another folder if you want to, by modifying .wine64 in the previous command.
After installing SketchUp, execute the following comand in the terminal:
vblank_mode=0 WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine64" wine C:\\Program\ Files\\SketchUp\\SketchUp\ 2015\\SketchUp.exe "/DisableRubyAPI"
You can save the previous command as a script.
NOTE1: When you run SketchUp there is a problem with "File" menu. If you open it (with the mouse or pressing [ALT]+[F]) SketchUp crashes. What I do is to use keyboard shortcuts for opening, saving and other options that are available on that menu.[CTRL]+[O] = open file[CTRL]+[S] = save file
Besides that I haven't had any issues.