Sketchup crashes for me multiple times every hour - it always has with every iteration for many years. Is that normal? It is a nightmare…
I am always using a Mac, it is usually a reasonably uptodate sketchup (currently 21) and my Mac is usually running the latest OS (currently Monterey)
Thanks
It’s not normal for SketchUp to crash frequently. Is it actually crashing? Do you get Bug Splats? If so, are you sending the reports in with something that identifies them as coming from you? Or are you just seeing “Not Responding” messages?
Graphics card driver problems are a common cause of frequent crashes. Your profile indicates your computer has an Nvidia graphics card. Apple stopped supplying updates for Nvidia GPUs a long time ago. It’s entirely possible that the graphics drivers are out of date and can’t support the requirements.
Please complete your profile with that information.
According to the system requirements, SketchUp 2021 requires MacOS 10.16 or newer. According to your profile you are running 10.12. Are you still using the Mac with a Nvidia graphics card? The newest versions of MacOS that run on it don’t support the Nvidia graphics.
Hi
I am running Monterey 12.4 with a and the graphics is Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB
Please put the correct information in your profile.
You should correct your forum profile to say that. The incorrect information there led two people astray in their answers.
FWIW, I am running SketchUp 2022 (22.0.353 to be exact) on Monterey 12.4 and a Radeon Pro 5500M without crashes. This leads me to suspect that some extension is responsible for your crashes, especially since you say it has been ongoing for years.
Took a while to find out how – but have now updated.
You didn’t answer my questions. Is it actually crashing or just not responding?
Share your .skp file so we can see what you are working with. Perhaps you’ve got something in the model that is causing a conflict. Maybe it’s an extension you have installed, too.
Is disabling them as good as deleting them? If so I will switch them all off (I have 10 in total) and if that fixes everything I will add them back one by one.
I have recently done a complete wipe of my computer and re set up as new, slowly adding any applications directly as I need them.
Thanks
You must be a very patient person. Or maybe you only use SU occasionally? What you describe would mean the software is virtually unusable for you.
I am another Mac user and so, incidentally, are most of the SU Team. So there must be something very wrong your end.
If it ends up looking like an extension, it would be usful for you to post here with the apparent culprit.
The file is 19mb – is that ok to upload?
For this current issue it has been locking out with rotating beach ball and I have had to force quit – sometimes I wlll wait 30 mins before forcing quit. Other times I will give up after a short while. I work on much bigger files and they freeze or crash – not always multiple times an hour, but certainly frequently each day. (I am an obsessive ‘file saver’ for this reason) This particular file was certainly freezing multiple times an hour. On this occasion after successfully getting a result with Ambient Occlusion – then it freezes.
Upload it to Dropbox or another file sharing service and post the link here in the forum.
Here is a link to the actual skp file and a screenshot showing the full amount of extensions I have (in case there is a known issue with any of them) – most of which since last night are disabled. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dvox3pqk4gmadml/AADexg9VTfovgTMiTcJjACIXa?dl=0
I have added lots of materials in case that creates an issue?
Thanks
I don’t see any known problem extensions on your list, but I did notice that the manage tab shows that there are three extensions due for update. It could be a bug or compatibility issue that was fixed.
I had no problem opening your model and so far it has not crashed my Mac. I have to leave now, but I’ll keep fiddling with it and see if it crashes later.
I found two non-fatal issues with your model, though:
Illustrating what @slbaumgartner described about your model.
Fixing the incorrect tag usage.
Purging unused stuff.
Reduced file size by nearly half.
Kitchen Table Options purged.skp (8.9 MB)
Thanks Steve – much appreciated.
Initially I imported a dwg file from autocad that was a ground floor plan – most of which is in the master tag. And yes I think there were endless lines and edges that automatically by default were tagged. Not sure what I should have done – perhaps untag that first imported dwg file, group it and have it as one single item in a layer?
Today my file is not freezing. Yet to discover if it is because of all the extensions I switched off? (early yesterday I also deleted the plist file as that was suggested by someone in a search). I have now done the updates.
Hi Dave
Thanks for doing that. Was it largely a question of deleting the master tag contents to solve the incorrect tag usage? Or is there a program/tool?
On another 63mb file I followed some online instructions to purge (window/Model Info/Statistics and then select purge unused.) – but it did not seem to do anything? The file size remained at 63. Either there was nothing to purge (seems unlikely with my track record!), or I did something wrong…
You could delete the tags and choose to make whatever had the tags untagged. I used an extension to untag all of the geometry in the model which gave me the report to show how much geometry was mis-tagged.
Then I used another plugin to purge unused stuff, again because it reveals how much stuff is purged. As you can see, only three of the 17 tags were unused. I expect those three were assigned to the geometry that was corrected in the first step. The fact that 98% of the components in your model are unused is a telling sign. It implies to me that you brought in a lot of components, maybe from the 3D Warehouse, to try out but you never really got rid of them. Deleting them from the model space does not remove them from the file.
I also see that you are using groups instead of components where components would make more sense and be more efficient. There also seems to be a fair amount of excessive group nesting. That also makes your model larger and more inefficient.
Maybe you got lucky. 
Probably not anything really wrong. Honestly, though, most SketchUp models I see from users, especially if they are using components from the 3DWH can stand a bit of a diet. You could poke through the furniture objects and I’ll bet there’s stuff that can be deleted from them to lighten them up.
Here’s a simple example from the model you shared. Does the way you are using the model benefit from this detail on the edge of the class panel? Admittedly this doesn’t add a lot to the file size but if it isn’t part of the “story”, it doesn’t need to be there.
Another minor thing just as an example. You have half-laps modeled on the legs. Are they necessary? There isn’t a similar detail added to that stretcher between the feet. Joinery details would be important if you were using the chair for shop drawings but probably not important if you are showing the chair in an arrangement as you have in the model.
And yet another thing. The selected groups (which should really be components) in this chair have a dark blue color applied to them but the faces inside are painted green. The blue is thus serving no purpose. While a color doesn’t add much to file size on its own, a texture could add a lot. And since the blue isn’t being used, it could be removed without hurting the model at all.
Look at your 63 Mb file for similar sorts of unneeded detail. Be brutal about stripping the unneeded stuff from it to make the model as lean as you can get it while still making the point.
Hi Dave
Fantastically helpful!
The extrusion was simply extruding from the original very detailed architects ground plan (and yes – unnecessary).
I need to improve my group/component management. Like most of us probably, self-taught and once you get a result that works, you are less likely to look to improve!
Is ‘group nesting’ when you have a group within a group? I find it very useful, but maybe there is a better way to achieve the same thing.
In this instance I don’t think I brought in anything from 3DWH – but I often do.
Halflaps…
I am mainly a furniture/lighting designer and none of the designs in the drawing are resolved/finalised! The beauty of sketchup is roughing ideas – but I have not worked out how to present decent production drawings. Is Layout any good? Production drawings in Solid works are great, but the program is nothing like as good at sketching ideas.
Often I find if I have coloured something one colour (or material), if I change it sometimes the internal faces retain the original – I just have to be more careful!
I have been using sketchup for 6 + years for all sorts from designing houses, large scale public works of art, and furniture. Clearly I need to go back to some basics and improve my working processes!
Thanks so much
I think that is common. I know that having used SketchUp in the past on barely adequate computers led me to streamlining my modeling. Also seeing lots of models which have caused problems for others, I have refined my workflow even more.
Yes, that’s nesting. It has its place but it’s easy to get a bit out of hand with it. As for other ways to achieve the same thing, it depends on what you are trying to achieve with it. How’s that for evasive.
It’s quite common to get components from the 3D Warehouse that are, to put it bluntly, morbidly obese. I recently saw a model from an interior designer. There was a table napkin with napkin ring component in the model (actually a dozen of them) that contained more entities than the king-sized bed with a big poofy duvet and pillows. That model needed a crash diet!
Yes, that’s the nice thing about SketchUp but you can also add the details when the design is finalized. And yes, LayOut in conjunction with SketchUp is very good for creating the documentation to send to the shop. My primary use for SketchUp and LayOut is to create shop drawings for furniture. Here’s an example of one I did a while back. Entire model created in SketchUp.
Materials applied to faces override materials applied to component/group containers.
I think we can all do that.
