Upgrade advice
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I just suffered a catestrophic hard drive crash,
maybe even a mother board drive controller fail as well. Of course I have no backup. 
Anyway my hd data may be recoverable ($450 to do it) so I should be able to get my models back, but the OS files may have been scrambled. That may make it impossible to get SU8 up and running as before.
And if the mb is shot I face needing a new pc.
My pc is 9 years old, high end then, but still powerful enough for today. Just replacing the mb may be impossible as it cannot be had anymore. And it was running Win XP Pro.So I face the potential tripple whammy of new pc, new OS and new SU.
I have choices, for OS, I can stay with XP, or go Win 7 or 8.1.
For SU I can try to find an SU8 install or bite the bullet with 2013.XP & SU8 is well known to me, and worked very well, but what about the other combinations?
How well does SU8 / 2013 work with Win 7 / 8.1?Frankly, I would prefer status quo XP & SU8, if at all possible.
Right now I am constrained to use my Blackberry Playbook and Q10 phone, and I am suffering from SU withdrawl symptoms. A pencil and quad-pad just won't cut it.
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SU8 works just fine on Win7 and you could certainly go that route. I don't know why you wouldn't switch to SU2013. I haven't found any need to go back to SU8 after starting to use SU2013.
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I'd go with SU 2013 and Win 8.1 (it is faster than Win 7 and now with the start button too).
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Sorry to hear your pc went down for the count. That's a bummer. I wouldn't stick with XP as your OS since it will no longer get security patches past next April. I've been running SU7/8 on Windows 7 since it came out with no problems.
You can download installers for past SU versions here: http://www.sketchup.com/download/all
As for your mobo you might be able to find one on eBay but after 9 years it's time to upgrade your pc. I would recommend adding a USB hard drive to your parts list and use syncback or something like it to automate your local backups for next time.
Good Luck
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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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