Question submitted by Devere, W.
CAN I USE THE FREE VERSION OF GOOGLE’S SKETCH UP FOR COMMERCIAL PROJECTS? IF SO, WHICH ONE?
Hmm, I’m not sure- you’d have to check with their user guidelines. (I wouldn’t want to give you bad information. Each program and company sets their own end user agreements and guidelines. You will have to read their fine print). In the past, I’ve only used Sketchup for my personal work, I found it helpful when making environments and such, but I have since moved on to other programs. (Like Modo/ 3DS Max, etc.) It is amazing to see how you can progress from the free options to more powerful programs on the market, though.
For what its worth, I generally don’t use free software on commercial projects. Many people do, though, and there’s no shame in that. It is why sites like Fileproto.com exist, after all. Still, I personally believe that if you are making a living as a professional, then you should support the people who make your software, so they can make a living too. As such, I own licenses for the software I use commercially. If you are a student, however, you can take advantage of all kinds of free, or severely reduced cost software. For example, take a look at the free fonts on https://www.fontspace.com/commercial-fonts that are specifically designed with commercial projects in mind. You may want to check with your school, or software manufacturer directly to discover what kind of discounts you are eligible for.
