Changing the language in SketchUp Pro is a useful feature that allows users to customize the software to their preferred language. SketchUp Pro currently supports a wide variety of languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. This extensive language support enables users worldwide to take full advantage of SketchUp's powerful capabilities.
The Mac installer always contains all languages.
The Windows installer gives the option to download additional languages during installation and choose them during installation:
Note that this is an additional choice, which comes after choosing the language of the installer!
However, it is important to note that SketchUp automatically switches back to English if the operating system language does not match the language version of SketchUp that is installed. This means that if you have downloaded the French version of SketchUp, for example, and your operating system is set to Dutch, SketchUp will automatically be displayed in English.
To maintain the desired language in SketchUp, it is recommended to change the default language of your operating system. By changing the language of your operating system to the desired language, SketchUp will automatically switch to the corresponding language when you start the software. This provides a seamless user experience and allows you to work more efficiently and comfortably with SketchUp in the language of your choice.
For Mac only
On a Mac, set your language in Settings > General > Language & Region. At 'Preferred languages' SketchUp will work the list from top to bottom according to availability. If, for example, it says 1. Dutch 2. French 3. English - then SketchUp will be shown in French since Dutch is not available.
In addition, on a Mac it is possible to specify a preferred language in the operating system for each program. Again, go to Settings > General > Language & region, now look at 'Applications', at the bottom of the window, and click on the plus sign. In the window that opens, choose Application: Sketchup and Language: whichever you prefer.
For Windows Only
On windows you choose the language or languages you want to use during installation. The English language is always installed. In addition you can choose which other languages you want to install.
After installation, SketchUp follows the language of your operating system, unless you have a Dutch operating system. Since SketchUp is not available in Dutch, SketchUp opts for English, even if you have other languages installed for SketchUp.
Do you want to use a different language than your operating system? That is still possible. This is slightly trickier on Windows than on Mac.
Do the following:
Right click on the SketchUp desktop shortcut, choose Properties
In the "Shortcut" tab, in the "Target" box, type the language you want after the text already entered. That would look like this, for example:
"C:\Program Files\SketchUp\SketchUp 2023\SketchUp.exe" /lang fr
or like this:
"C:\Program Files\SketchUp\SketchUp 2023\SketchUp.exe" /lang en-us
If you prefer German, type /lang de. Please note that you can only choose languages that you have installed. You can even create multiple shortcuts on your desktop, one for English and one for French!
If you are using a version other than 2023, or a different installation directory, then please change the path to match those differences.
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