Corrupted 108MB File - Failed to open document - Hex data intact

Technical Problems SketchUp
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Hi everyone (and hopefully Colin!),

I’m in a bit of a desperate situation with a corrupted project file and was hoping someone here might be able to help me repair the header.

I am currently running SketchUp 2026 on ROG G16 with 16GB of RAM. While saving a fairly heavy 108MB gallery model, my memory must have maxed out, causing SketchUp to crash right in the middle of the save. Now, whenever I try to open the .skp file, I instantly get the “Failed to open document” error.

Here is what I have tried so far to troubleshoot:

  • The .skb backup: Unfortunately, recovering via the .skb file wasn’t successful.

  • The ZIP extraction: I renamed the file extension to .zip to try and extract the document.xml and materials, but my extraction tool throws an “invalid archive” error. It seems the internal table of contents/header is completely shattered.

  • Hex Editor verification: I opened the corrupted file in a Web Hex Editor. It is not filled with zeros. I can clearly see the .S.k.e.t.c.h.U.p. .M.o.d.e.l. string and thousands of lines of data, so the actual project geometry is definitely still in there.

This is the final gallery model for my internship, so losing this progress would be a massive setback. I’ve read on other threads that some of the staff here have a dedicated script that can rebuild these broken headers if the core hex data is still intact.

Here is the Google Drive link to the broken file: sketchup file

If anyone is able to work their magic on this and stitch the file back together, I would be incredibly grateful.

Thank you so much!

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I couldn’t open your file either. Maybe @colin could help.

Trying to compress to ZIP, the file diminishes it a bit more than I would like to see, an uncertain indication of some empty space lurking inside the file. I understand that a .SKP file is compressed, but that it is not a ZIP file in disguise, like a LayOut file is.

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Capture d’écran 2026-03-31 à 13.12.32
Capture d’écran 2026-03-31 à 13.12.32895×809 237 KB

it starts ok, but as line passes, you’ll see it becomes filled with errors, zeroes, unknown characters…

Colin might recover stuff, but you shouldn’t wait for it and start from whatever you have

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@colin Perhaps he’ll see it now that he’s tagged. Fingers crossed for you!

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I saw the earlier tag, and tried the file, but only saw what the others reported.

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