What Is an MSI for Google Sketchup?

Google SketchUp is a 3D drawing program that lets you make 3D models of objects, rooms, buildings and other items. You can use it to draw your living room and rearrange the virtual furniture. Or you can create a building or even a whole city and add it to Google Earth, or import information from Google Earth into your SketchUp model. The Google SketchUp MSI file is one way you can install Google SketchUp on your Windows PC.

Google SketchUp

• Google SketchUp is a free program available from Google. There is also a Pro version you can pay for that adds professional features for architects. The free version of SketchUp lets you create objects made up of edges -- straight lines -- and faces -- 2D shapes such as rectangles. You can push a 2D object to create a 3D one. SketchUp has precise measurements so that your drawing will be to scale, and you can apply colors and textures to your surfaces.

MSI File

• MSI files are files created to work within the Windows Installer framework. This used to be called Microsoft Installer, and though the name has changed, the initials in the file extension remain the same. It allows the software manufacturer to create a graphical interface for the installation and provides a way to easily uninstall it or roll back to the way the system was set up before the installation if that should be necessary.

Requirements

• Google SketchUp 8 provides a simple EXE file installer that you can use to install it on a Windows PC or a Mac. Version 8 also has an MSI for those who want it. In order to use it, you need Windows Installer 3.1, or newer, Windows XP Service Pack 2, or newer, and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, or newer.

Drawbacks

• There are some drawbacks of using an MSI file. It won't work on a Mac, so it's only usable on a Windows operating system. Also, the MSI file for Google SketchUp is much larger than the EXE installation file, because the EXE format allows for data to be compressed when the file is created.