Running SketchUp 7 in VirtualBox or Wine (with 3D acceleration)

For this article some Windows, Linux, VirtualBox en Wine knowledge is assumed. The VirtualBox configuration that I use is WindowsXP guest on a Linux (openSUSE 11.2) host, but the information in this article can also be applied on different configurations. This solution in this article may also be applied to older or newer versions of SketchUp.

Symptoms

When starting VirtualBox the first time, it maybe even works with minor glitches. A next time, when the introduction wizard is not shown, it will not start, showing a dialog with this error message:

SketchUp was unable to initalize OpenGL!
Please make sure you have installed the correct
drivers for your graphics card.

Error: ChoosePixelFormat failed

When closing the dialog another dialog with some garbage-squares flashes by, followed by an error submission dialog.

Quick solution

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp7\GLConfig\Display\HW_OK=1

Step by step instructions for VirtualBox

Add a Windows virtual machine

Under Settings - Display enable 3D acceleration (and also enable 2D acceleration if that option is available.

Increase Video memory, I put it on 32 MB

Start the Windows virtual machine and install SketchUp

Start regedit and change the registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp7\GLConfig\Display\HW_OK=0

into

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp7\GLConfig\Display\HW_OK=1

Start SketchUp and find it working more than acceptable. There are few minor cosmetic glitches with the menus, but besides that it works very fine.

Step by step instructions for Wine

Download and install SketchUp under wine, eg.

wine GoogleSketchUpWEN.exe

Start regedit, eg.

wine regedit

Change the registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp7\GLConfig\Display\HW_OK=0

into

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp7\GLConfig\Display\HW_OK=1

Also under Wine SketchUp runs very fine, with the same minor glitches as under VirtualBox. However, in Wine the keyboard shortcuts (like T for tape measure, space for selection, etc). are missing and I couldn't log in to the SketchUp warehouse. So bottom line, I prefer VirtualBox to do my SketchUp drawings.

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