Upgrade advice
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If you know people using Windows 7 and Windows 8, you might try checking each one out to see how you like 'em and which one you'd prefer. I've been running SU 8 & 2013 on Win 7 with no problems. My parents have Windows 8 - I don't care for it.
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@solo said:
it is faster than Win 7
What do you base that on, Pete? I have it on my laptop and really don't like the interface and have a program loaded to avoid it as much as possible.
However, if it would help with SU/Thea...... -
ugh, don't go windows 8 if you can help it. I bought a new laptop recently because the CPU died on my 4yr old one. The new one came with win8 and I found it awful. I am now back to win7, which is imo the best Windows os available for using lots of software. Be aware that if you buy a budget PC with windows 8 preinstalled, some of the hardware (like networking) won't be compatible with Win7.
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There is absolutely no reason to choose 7 over 8.1. You're paying to get an older product which will not get any major updates, which will be dropped from support sooner, and which has no benefit over the newer one.
8.1 has the start button included so you can work the same way as you do with Win 7. If you really hate Metro (which is great once you get used to it) just press windows button + d on boot up to go straight to desktop, you will notice Win 8 boots up way faster.The core system is better and faster, sure change is difficult and if you want the speed and also the old look then try this: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027945/how-to-banish-metro-from-your-windows-8-pc-forever.html
If you like using keyboard shortcuts then 8.1 is for you as you can cycle between screens, explorer, desktop etc with shortcuts like windows button - C,X,D there are a whole bunch.
But then again it's just like SU8 and SU 2013, upgrade when you feel comfortable.
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@bob james said:
@solo said:
it is faster than Win 7
What do you base that on, Pete? I have it on my laptop and really don't like the interface and have a program loaded to avoid it as much as possible.
However, if it would help with SU/Thea......It's said to handle multithread programs better... so it possible will help a bit with Thea. Sorry, no actual comparisons, still using Win7 (and probably will for a while). No idea if it helps with SU (most likely not, but I happy to be proven wrong
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@solo said:
There is absolutely no reason to choose 7 over 8.1. You're paying to get an older product which will not get any major updates, which will be dropped from support sooner, and which has no benefit over the newer one
...
But then again it's just like SU8 and SU 2013, upgrade when you feel comfortable.
Well, to an extent, I agree, especially if you are starting from sratch with a new PC. When I was dealing with Win8, there was no 8.1 yet, so I'm glad to see the start button is back officially. I tried to like it, but I just hated Metro. It was just a useless layer between me and getting stuff done.
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Interesting discussion folks. I'm learning a lot.
Still waiting for the recovery report on my hd. Haven't yet determined if I really have a mb problem as I need to continue on a project definition on paper that can't wait.
My bro-in-law has a 128gb ssd for me when he gets his new 256gb ssd setup. I'll use that for my systems drive and an hd strictly for data files.
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Put in another drive, too and back up your data files. I use Cobian back up and automatically create backup files every night. I keep the last two of those.
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@dave r said:
Put in another drive, too and back up your data files. I use Cobian back up and automatically create backup files every night. I keep the last two of those.
Good idea
Good thing I thought of it
(kidding of course ) -
As your profile shows you as a free user, doesn't that suggest there is no reason not to upgrade to 2013. It costs you nothing and it's the only version that will be updated. Staying on an older version just means a bigger jump perhaps later.
From what I have read, the only complaints apart from a few fixed bugs have been that 2013 wasn't a whole new bunch of bells and whistles, surely that is a bonus to those that don't like change.
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Progress update
PC is up and running. All my data files were recovered intact, so far as I can see.
Motherboard is OK. I installed a 128gb SSD as my prime drive for Windows7 and all apps. The recovery drive (500gb) will be my data drive (both are SATA).Of course nothing goes smooth even on a virgin install. I won't bore you with details.
Right now all that is running is Firefox with my old profile ported to a clean install.
AVAST antivirus is also working. All that took 2 full days.
Tomorrow is Thunderbird email and SU 2013.Question. Where does SU8 store the config files (shortcuts, toolbars, etc)?
Can I simply copy/overwrite them to the 2013 locations? If they were registry items I know they are toast.And I will re-download all the plugins I actually use.
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You can't just copy the toolbar settings from SU8 to SU2013. They use different toolbar managers anyway.
If you have SU8 running, you can export the keyboard shortcuts as a .DAT file and load it in SU2013. Look under Window>Preferences>Shortcuts.
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Could not get SU8 to run in old drive, so Shortcuts are toast. I did print them out several months ago so I will try to find it. I know what pile it's in, just not how far down.
But I copied the install file to the SSD and reinstalled SU8 (but only temporarily). I WILL go to 2013. Then I copied over the Plugin dir and most of the other files just to test the install.
It seems OK. And it comes up REAL fast, 3 seconds.
But my mouse is not responding the way it used to.
SU does not see the "middle button" so I can't pan.
I can't remember if there is a setting in SU8 for this. -
I'm not clear on what you have installed and what you haven't. As has been said multiple times on the forum, do not simply copy your old plugins to the SU2013 Plugins folder.
To get Pan with the CMB, you need to include the Shift button. Does Orbit work with the CMB? If not, you can go into the mouse settings in the Control Panel and change the button assignment so it'll work.
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@dave r said:
I'm not clear on what you have installed and what you haven't. As has been said multiple times on the forum, do not simply copy your old plugins to the SU2013 Plugins folder.
To get Pan with the CMB, you need to include the Shift button. Does Orbit work with the CMB? If not, you can go into the mouse settings in the Control Panel and change the button assignment so it'll work.
First, I resurrected SU8 not 2013.
I never needed the "shift" btn with the center button on the mouse to pan.
Orbit works, but again, the CMB has no effect.
The button assignments are in my mouse setup s/w and the button is correctly set.
Win7 dropped mouse settings from the control panel so I can't change them there.
I'll play some more tomorrow. -
@jgb said:
I never needed the "shift" btn with the center button on the mouse to pan.
You didn't, huh? Well, that's been the standard method for activating Pan at least since I started using SketchUp with V3. Here's a screen shot from the Quick Reference card.
So if you didn't access Pan that way, how did you do it using the CMB?
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I (may) have missed the mentioning of lisence agreement differences between SU8 free and SU Make 2013
So that might also be something to take into consideration to you as a ..... designer/inventor/???.... just in case of any commercial use of your products! -
@dave r said:
@jgb said:
I never needed the "shift" btn with the center button on the mouse to pan.
You didn't, huh? Well, that's been the standard method for activating Pan at least since I started using SketchUp with V3.
So if you didn't access Pan that way, how did you do it using the CMB?My mistake.
I meant ORBIT. Been away from SU for 3 weeks now so I forgot how my finger memory worked.
The thing is my CMB does nothing, so neither PAN nor ORBIT work.I am thinking now it may be my mouse driver is not compatible with Win7 as I had setup issues before I brought up SU8.
The KB & Mouse are so old (but functioned beautifully before on XP) that Logitech no longer support them. I'm gonna try to find the drivers later today. -
Chasing down the wrong alley.
Just uninstall the Logitech driver altogether and don't install one. It might be the CMB will start working correctly. If not, you should be able to change the CMB function in the Control Panel.
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@dave r said:
Chasing down the wrong alley.
Just uninstall the Logitech driver altogether and don't install one. It might be the CMB will start working correctly. If not, you should be able to change the CMB function in the Control Panel.
Fixed.
The problem was my old Logitech setpoint install disk was not Win7 compatible, so it did not install any drivers. Win7 default drivers were the culprit.
I went to the Logitech site and found the driver download page for my "old" combo set, and it had a Win7 set. 3 minutes later and a reboot, SU8 Orbit and Pan are working.
Now I can delete the SU8 install and replace it with 2013. But it will be next week, I got some other priority stuff to do first.
Thanks to everyone for the good advice.
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