Hi. I am running Sketchup 2025 and I am having a problem where the Layout project files are getting massive. The Sketchup file for my project is about 36mb and the Layout file has expanded to about 500MB. Its takes ages each time I need to save the project etc. I duplicated the Layout file and examined the resources and there seems to be a massive number of duplicated style files. I only have about 2 styles associated with the project. Has anyone had this problem or does anyone have any advice? I have tried rebuilding from a vanilla sketch and layout file and the problem keeps happening.
We are trying to work out what is causing the duplications. For now you could unzip the .layout file and delete the .style files. You would think that two of the files are actually needed, and knowing which ones those may be tricky.
Here are steps that should bring the file size back down. I will describe it for Mac, if youâre on Windows I would try 7-zip for the unzipping and making a new archive steps.
- Duplicate the .layout file, and rename the copy with .zip instead of .layout. For example, a MyFile.layout duplicate would be renamed to be MyFile.zip.
- Unzip that copy. On Mac you can double-click the file to get the folder you will need. With 7-zip you can extract the archive to a new folder.
- Go into the extracted folder, and into the ref folder.
- Select and delete all of the .style files.
- Go back up one folder, and select everything.
- Compress those files and folders into a new zip file. In 7-zip you would go into the extracted folder, select the files, and add to an archive. You can use the default settings in 7-zip.
- Rename the zip file to be a .layout file.
Open that file in LayOut, and go into File, Document SetupâŚ, and in References you can relink the .skp files you are using. That should reconnect only the styles that are needed.
Hereâs a fast screen recording of the steps for Mac:
Hi and thanks for the quick response. I completed these clear tasks and the file was smaller for a bit but after re-linking, making edits and re-saving it has re-generated 300 or so style files and the the layout file has bloated up again. Let me know if you want me to share the files with you directly or if you need any more information about my setup.
How many styles are there in the SketchUp model? How many scenes?
In the other case we know about there had been over 6,800 extra styles files made by LayOut.
Can you say whether you make edits to the styles inside LayOut? If you do, are you able to make the changes in the SketchUp scenes instead?
The most problematic Layout file (it is happening in all my projects at the moment) has 2 models, each with about 25 scenes and 6 styles. The Layout file has now generated 5,000 style file duplicates and is 1.6GB in size! So some of the styles have been duplicated hundreds of times.
By making changes to styles in layout I presume you mean the âEffectsâ overrides for ambient occlusion etc? I donât as a rule edit these in Layout but do in Sketchup because there is much more control.
Am I the only one with this problem? Is it some weird permission thing? I upgraded to Sequia at the same time as I installed Sketchup 2025
So far I only know of two cases, that happen to be Mac Sequoia. Iâve been using Sequoia for a very long time, and havenât noticed the problem. But, Iâm not in LayOut as much as you are.
There is an old bug that was fixed 10 years ago, which seemed to have been to do with opening a viewport to move around in the scene, then going back to SketchUp and updating the style and doing a save. That time it was happening on Windows.
Most likely this is a new issue, and not that old problem coming back. The LayOut team are going to let me know which is the right bug report, and then I would know more about whether this one is Mac specific.
I reproduced this issue this morning and we have a ticket filed. We had this earlier in development and had it fixed, so itâs a regression. Thanks for posting this.
Barry
Thanks Barry. Is there a workaround or best practice I can use until a bug fix is released? I use this for my day-to-day architectural work.
I havenât found a non-trivial solution yet. Itâd be nice to have a âpurge all stylesâ button to throw away all of the added style duplicates. Purging references doesnât do the trick.
@colin @Barry @justinchapman I was having this same issue but after a complete uninstall/reinstall of SU/Layout it all seems to be working fine again with no extra styles neing created
@Foxtail that sounds interesting. What method did you do to uninstall Layout and Sketchup? Did you delete all files including pref.s? Have you been using templates or models from the previous problematic iteration or have you had to start everything from scratch?
Yes, I deleted all files and preferences but I am using the same files that I was working on before uninstalling.
@Barry does the reinstall address the issue as previously identified and do you recommend it? Do we have any timescale on releasing a patch for this problem? It is a key part of my professional workflow and I am counting on Sketchup on Sketchup sorting; as the problem was fixed previously hopefully its a quick one!
Posting to let you know that I have the same âbloatingâ of layout. I am a Mac user on Sonoma 14.7.2.
My Sketchup file of 63Mb goes to 125Mb in layout and exports to pdf as 260Mb which takes forever to export.
Iâm planning to go back to 2024 version as it worked seamlessly until there is a fix? I believe we can now work back to previous versions?
I believe the problem has been tracked down, and a fix should be in the next update we do.
For now there seems to be no better work around than to continue using LayOut 2024.
Thanks Colin. Really appreciate the update and response.
If you share the file with one of us, we can reduce it. But until the fix comes out, donât do a lot of trial-and-error with changing styles on viewports. This shouldnât affect all users, but if you use a lot of style-overrides in LayOut of your SketchUp models in 2025, it could.
b
Hi. I have just read through the release notes for 25.0.633 and didnât see that this bug has been fixed. Has it been? I had assumed it was going to be at the next release based on previous advice but I donât want to risk using it again if it isnât working properly. Thanks.