SketchUp 8

Good to know:

  • We've added the ability to pre-select a face when using the Push/Pull tool. The Push/Pull tool now behaves similarly to our other tools (e.g. Move), but be sure that you don't have an incorrect face selected prior to activating the tool.
  • The Scenes dialog has been reworked to show scene thumbnails. The first time you open the Scenes manager with a pre-SketchUp 8 file, we generate thumbnails for all of your scenes. You can always stop this process or tell SketchUp never to generate thumbnails for that model.
  • The timezone drop-down has moved from Model Info to the Shadow Settings dialog box. We've also added additional UTC offsets, including fractional hour offsets.
  • We upgraded our API's Ruby interpreter from version 1.8.0 to 1.8.6, which is a better supported, more stable version. This gives API users the benefits of hundreds of Ruby bug fixes, but version 1.8.6 is also more strict on Ruby syntax. If a script is broken, you may need to contact the script's original author to get an upgraded version.
  • The DWG and DXF import and export features now support 2010 versions of AutoDesk software.
  • The Display shadows setting is now a button, not a checkbox. You can find it next to the timezone drop-down in the Shadow Settings dialog box.
  • Match Photo's opacity, background photo, and foreground photo settings have been moved to the Styles dialog box.
  • (Mac only) The Display shadows checkbox has been removed from the customized Shadows toolbar. You can get the same functionality by dragging the Shadows toggle separately to your customized toolbar.
  • (Mac only) The Eraser and Zoom extents tools have been removed from the main toolbar. See this article for more information.
  • (PC only) You can now save toolbar positions via the View > Toolbars > Save Toolbar Position menu item and then restore them via the View > Toolbars > Restore Toolbar Position menu item.

The following notable issues have been fixed:

  • The reported area of materials is now correct with scaled or internally rotated components.
  • (PC only) Importing shortcuts on the PC now allows you to overwrite our defaults if you had changed them.
  • (Mac only) Disabling Auto-activate paint tool now actually disables the auto-activation of the Paint tool.
  • This new release contains fixes for two security issues:
    1. The authors of the third-party libpng graphics library published a vulnerability warning for older versions of the library. It is unclear whether the way SketchUp uses libpng could be exploited, but the library was updated to version 1.2.44 as a precaution.
    2. SketchUp could fail to properly handle certain types of invalid edge geometry when parsing a malicious .SKP file, resulting in a potentially exploitable crash. We would like to thank Dave Weston from the Microsoft Vulnerability Research Center (MSVR) for reporting this issue to us.

Known Issues:

  • Materials created by Building Maker can look excessively black during LOD processes or when "Shading without textures" is enabled.
  • Building maker system requirements message can be incorrect when launching Building Maker via SketchUp. You do need to have Internet Explorer 7 installed, even though Chrome is listed as an option.
  • When editing a component and hiding the rest of your model (using Model Info > Components) images aren't hidden.
  • Solid tools and Outer Shell operations do not maintain Dynamic Component attributes.
  • Selecting a hidden group or component with the outliner does not reveal the component.
  • (Mac only) DWGs with 3d solids, body and region entites can no longer be imported due to a DWG library bug.
  • (Mac only) In rare cases, memory can increase rapidly when editing components with the Component browser open. If you notice this you'll want to save your model and restart SketchUp
  • (PC only) Importing shortcuts may cause a multitude of dialog boxes - one for each default shortcut you override.

LayOut 3.0

Released 9/1/2010

Good to know:

  • You can export your LayOut files to DWG/DXF.
  • You also have more control over dashed and dotted line patterns.

The following notable issues have been fixed:

  • Exporting to PDF would fail if your document included a font that was not licensed for embedding. We now substitute a different font so that you can still export, but the export may look different from your on-screen document.
  • LayOut 2 often couldn't open corrupt files. LayOut 3 can open many of these files, though some data may be missing.

Known Issues:

  • We changed the way dimensions offset from their connection point. As a result, when you open a LayOut 2 file with dimensions in LayOut 3, the offset point will be on top of the connection point. To reconnect a dimension to another entity, you must first move the offset points along the extension line to get them out of the way. You can then select the connection points and move them.
  • Dashed lines from LayOut 2.1 files will look different when opened in LayOut 3; the spaces between dashes and dots are now four times longer than they used to be. To get the dashes to look like they did before, select the lines and then select .25 x in the Dashes Scale drop-down.
  • (PC only) Exporting to PDF with a "dash-dash-dot-dot-dot" line style does not export correctly.
  • (PC only) Custom icons and toolbars will not be saved when upgrading.
  • (Vista and Windows 7) SketchUp's "Send to LayOut" command may not work if LayOut is already open. You can fix this by following the steps below:
    1. Right-click on the LO3 desktop icon.
    2. Select Properties.
    3. Click on the Compatibility tab.
    4. Check Run this program as an administrator.
    5. Click Apply.