Can't open existing or create new files

Technical Problems SketchUp
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1

Hey there. I was working on a decent size file and had the app hang while trying to start a GPU render with VRay (VRay’s GPU performance has tanked for me and caused problems after early June update to both Sketchup and VRay but that belongs in a different thread). I force quit and tried to restart the app. I couldn’t even get Sketchup to open without holding shift at startup to stop auto-open of last file. Now when I get the start screen, opening any existing file or creating any new file, the app hangs with the spinning wheel of death and does nothing.

What I’ve tried:

  • Restarted machine multiple times
  • Clean install of Sketchup Edit: Or so I thought… user error. See solution
  • Deleting (temp rename) Sketchup’s [Mac home folder] > Library > Application Support > Sketchup 2026 folder, restart machine, open Sketchup
  • Clean install of VRay
  • Deleting Chaos Application Support folder
  • Uninstalling VRay
  • Running app in Rosetta (since I’m using Apple Silicon)
  • Disabling Startup Screen to avoid thumbnail gen

Still no luck with existing or new files.

My setup:

  • Macbook Pro, M3 Max
  • MacOS up to date 26.5.1
  • Sketchup up to date SketchUp-2026-2-242-76.dmg
  • VRay up to date V-Ray 7 for SketchUp, update 4.1, vray_74001_sketchup_mac.dmg

Please let me know how else to troubleshoot. Thank you in advance to anyone who can assist.

2

Tried this fix suggested by @colin. Added:

"WelcomeDialog": {
  "ShowOnStartup": false
}

to my PrivatePreferences.json file and now the app just totally hangs and gives spinning wheel on startup. This did suppress start screen but I have no ability to click on menu items in the top menu bar due to spinning wheel.

3

I didn’t think to check because I wasn’t getting the splat screen. But I checked the Application Support folder and there is a BugSplatPreviousLogFile.log and the contents are kind of scary:

SketchUp Version: 26.2.0242
BugSplat previous log Link successful
Device Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
       Device Model: Mac15,10
         OS Version: 26.5
WGLUtils::UtilsState::ctor: Max GPU perf is 0
Renderer information:
  Graphics Engine Name: New Graphics Engine
  Graphics API: Metal
  GPU Name: Apple M3 Max

Max GPU perf is 0 ?! Did I fry something with my force quit during render init?

I also tried setting "UseNewRenderer": false in PrivatePreferences to toggle GPU usage and this had no effect.

4

Write to Chaos directly, they can most likely help you.

5

Thank you. I will definitely try. But I have uninstalled VRay and all other Chaos stuff packed with it and the problem still persists.

6

Then maybe someone who uses a Mac will try to help you. Anyway, for those in the States it’s an early hour and they won’t be back to work for a few hours.

7

No. I do not think so. A little web research says that the WGLUtils library is only used for Windows platform and that 0 is the default return value when the no hook into a Windows driver can be found.

Have you opened a ticket with SketchUp support?

8

Makes sense. I have now opened a SU support ticket. Thank you for the insight!

9

After a few attempts I’m able to get SU2025 running along with VRay. Also able to edit the same model that caused the bad crash without issues. Very strange.

10

The fix so far ended up being a true clean install of Sketchup. I was deleting the ~/Library/Application Support/Sketchup 2026 folder, but I also had to delete all of Sketchup’s folders and .plist files from ~/Library/Preferences before running the installer. A big thanks to Sketchup Support.