

- GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MAC OS X
- GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DRIVERS
- GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DRIVER
- GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MANUAL
- GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SOFTWARE
OpenGL Capabilities Mac OS X chart for different graphics hardware. OpenGL Wikipedia article gives a good, in depth summary of OpenGL function. Or, visit the SketchUp Mini and SketchUp Plus support Web site at XYZ for technical support help with your video card. A temporary solution is to disable hardware acceleration in SketchUp while troubleshooting the problem.Ĭonsult the Video Card Compatibility section of the Readme file (in the SketchUp installation directory) for additional details regarding compatibility issues for specific video cards. Difficulties with Sketchup tools, performance, and rendering (such as mysterious graphics appearing on your screen) are usually the result of a video card not fully supporting OpenGL (despite claims by the manufacturer), an out-of-date video card driver, or incompatibility with 32-bit color depth. OpenGL incompatibility is a significant system configuration issue leading to problems with SketchUp. Therefore, Trimble cannot guarantee that SketchUp will work with hardware acceleration on your system.
GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DRIVERS
Video card device drivers are proprietary and are maintained solely by the manufacturer of the video card in your system.
GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DRIVER
Trimble cannot control the quality of the OpenGL driver on your computer system. Check the system settings for your video card to see if it supports hardware acceleration (using the System Preferences on Macintosh OS X). Note - Hardware Acceleration might only be available on your system for certain resolutions and color depths. Disable this option if you are having problems with the 3D rendering of your models or if your video card is not 100% OpenGL compatible and does not support hardware acceleration. Consequently, incompatibility problems can occur requiring a fix from the video card manufacturer. Most 3d drivers are designed for games, and are often not tested using other 3D programs. Unfortunately, only some 3D drivers in the consumer video card market are 100% OpenGL compatible and can use this feature (though many cards claim to be 100% OpenGL compatible). SketchUp can take advantage of hardware acceleration if your computer has a 100% OpenGL compatible video card. This performance enhancement is known as Hardware Acceleration. These chips significantly enhance OpenGL performance upward of 3000 percent. These cards perform the rendering calculations using a specialized chip called the Graphics Processing Unit or GPU (instead of relying on the CPU). Many video card manufacturers have also built cards that support the OpenGL standard. However, these drivers rely heavily on the CPU to perform the rendering calculations of OpenGL (a task that is not done efficiently by most CPUs). Most Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems come with a software-based OpenGL driver.
GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SOFTWARE
OpenGL is the industry-standard, used in numerous software applications and games, to draw 3D geometry. Aside from having a fast CPU and large amounts of RAM, your video card and video card drivers must be 100% OpenGL compliant.
GOOGLE SKETCH UP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MANUAL
The following is taken from an old SketchUp user manual technical reference, but the information still applies today:ģD applications, such as SketchUp, require abundant system resources. If unchecking "Use hardware acceleration" fixes an issue, this is a great indicator that there's an issue with the driver's implementation of OpenGL. If there are any changes to OpenGL in the driver such that it deviates from the OpenGL standard, issues in SketchUp may appear such as issues selecting a face. SketchUp uses most elements in the library, including some aspects of OpenGL that aren't used very much by other applications. Sometimes, the OpenGL library will change for various reasons. When SketchUp uses a video graphics card, it's up to the graphics card manufacturer to provide the OpenGL library with a driver. But either way, for the best results using SketchUp, what is needed is a partnership of processing power.įor a little background: SketchUp uses the OpenGL library for rendering 3D.

SketchUp rendering can either be CPU-bound (Central Processing Unit) or GPU-bound (Graphics Processor Unit) - depending on which Style settings are enabled in SketchUp. Rendering calculations are initially performed on the CPU which passes on its results to the GPU to convert the information into the stuff you see on the monitor. With an 100% OpenGL compliant driver, SketchUp can use hardware acceleration, and use specialized graphics RAM build on-board a graphics card in addition to the computing done through the Central Processing Unit (CPU, located on the motherboard) and the motherboard RAM. A deficiency with OpenGL support from a graphics driver is often the reason for the modeling misery some people experience.
