Ipad pro keeps crashing

sketchup crashes on ipad when i go to move the files. I am able to use fine on PC

Best to describe exactly what your trying to do when things crash. “Move a file” , where and how are you trying to move the file ?

Whenever, i try to zoom in or out of an area or when i try to mover around in the project. my ipad shutsdown the application

O.K. Now we have some info. I suspect your trying to work with a large SU model. An iPad isn’t going to have the processing or graphics card power of a desktop machine or higher end laptop. It sounds like your iPad is just running out of processing power it will open the file but when you try to move about in the model your machine runs out of “gas” and shuts down SU. Things like a very geometry heavy model and or a lot of large textures can contribute to this. This is pure educated guess work without actually looking at the problem model.

@remhomes if you haven’t already, the following tips should help improve the performance when viewing larger models on your iPad:

  1. Check to make sure that you have profiles (and any other edge styles, like endpoints, extensions or jitter) turned off. Styles Panel > Edge Settings > Profiles.
  2. Check to make sure that you have shadows turned off.
  3. If you have materials in your model that use high-resolution textures, you might try to downsample the resolution of those textures before opening the model on your iPad.

What are the (official) limitations of the Ipad version?
I, also, cannot open multiple large models. Ive tried 2 so far and 1 instantly crashes when opening and the other always crashes within 30 seconds or instantly when moving in the model (such as changing scenes).

Is the Ipad version going to be made stable or will there always be permanent limitations with large models? What is recommended to be done to bring a large model into compatibility with the ipad version?

I’m trying to bring in a client workflow using the markup function but so far this is DOA.

Is there one of your models that we could take a look at? One that generally leads to a crash?

I have loaded models that are over 200 MB, and I have failed to load models that are under 50 MB. The smaller models that fail often have very large image textures in them. As JPEGs they don’t add much to the file size, but when used as textures they would take up a lot of GPU memory. The same problem can occur on desktop, making the textures be less huge would reduce the file size and make the model perform a lot better.

Mike covered that in his third point. The other two points help models that did open to then perform better.

Dropbox link:

Let me know when you have the file so i can remove the link.

Also note -since- this file, i have tried a few things with no success. File crashes on opening.

  • i have deleted all textures. This brought the model down to about 135Mb
  • unchecked “profiles” from all scenes
  • Exploded dynamic components in the kitchen area which were causing some minor problems in the main model early on (but eventually resolved) in the desktop version.

I have the file, and will try some other ideas.

Your version worked ok with my M1 iPad, though I could get crashing when jumping between scenes. If it’s ok I will ask the developers to look at my version of the file, to see what the main reason is for the crash.

I took your version and changed the materials so that none were bigger than 256x256. That one change reduced the file from 247 MB down to 144 MB. I did also turn off profiles in a few styles, and turned off animation. I will message you a link to my version.

The main remaining issue is the complexity of some of the components. The model is demanding even for desktop. Mostly I mean the 3D Warehouse components, but there are other elements, that may not even be used, that take up a lot of geometry. This for example:

is about 360,000 edges.

My ipad is a 9th gen ipad purchased less than a year ago (not an M1 ipad). The changes you made are essentially the changes i made. It always crashes just loading the file. Please ask the devs to look. My ability to use trimble connect, ipad and my workflow all directly depend on this results of this. The file i supplied is typical of files i create for archviz. We need real requirements of what limitations we need to be in then if the ipad version will not be (or maybe never be) as stable as the desktop version. Has this list been (officially) made? It ultimately means people like myself may need 2 models for every project. A main model and a slimmed down model for ipad use. That’s a problem and certainly a workflow killer. I cant have a client using this if its going to be constantly crashing on that client. Its bad then for everyone involved. I need to know how to slim down models as currently what i have tried (and you) hasnt worked for my ipad. The image you show is simply an imported DWG. Its a cad file from an architect. Interestingly and separately, I have zero issues running this model on my PC desktop but i have a beefy machine (although slightly outdated these days) for archviz creation.

A separate answer would be to have trimble create/allow a published model to only include portions of the desktop model sort of like how a scene is setup with hidden tags. Ie. maybe when publishing it doesn’t take the cad tags or shrinks textures automatically or does an automatic export process setup for ipad use etc. That would allow the user to use the full model on their desktop and the export would properly shrink the file as needed for best ipad usage making no need to the user to do this manually in their workflow. Maybe it adds a “publish for ipad” option.

I’m responding here so future people will have resources of whats going on but I’m also kind of answering a message sent to me specifically.
Getting random crashes on an m1 ipad as stated above with my model or me not being able to even load the model on the current standard Ipad (less than a year old and the current standard ipad) is a problem. It’s a problem for everyone trying to conduct real business. I cannot in good faith give a model to, in this case, a designer I work with so she can work with her clients while having it crash every 15 seconds in front of those clients. We will both lose our jobs. I don’t want to lose my job because I’m using the now non-beta fully released sketchup for ipad software. I shouldn’t be the beta tester for released software. The idea that there is no real known reason why it’s happening is even more of a problem because that it can’t be dealt with. Saying nebulously that “it’s too big” and it should be shrunk down in various unknown ways doesn’t cut it. Whats the normal size and details needed then to stay in spec? What are the rules that need to be adhered too? How does one guarantee a stable model? how does one track that it’s stable? These are basic questions for -any- software.

Having said all that. I have further tried reducing the model and I have brought it down to 83MB. It STILL crashes on opening every time on my standard ipad and my iphone Xr. These are the steps I have taken:

  • i have completely deleted all textures. This brought the model down to about 135Mb
  • unchecked “profiles” from all scenes
  • turned off animations
  • Exploded dynamic components in the kitchen area which were causing some minor problems in the main model early on (but eventually resolved) in the desktop version.
  • deleted the imported DWG files since colin noted they were large.
  • exploded all windows and doors (which were dynamic components from the warehouse).
  • run the cleanup extension on all exploded doors and windows after exploding.
  • purged unused and fixed problems then saving and publishing.

I don’t have any more ideas on how to reduce it further. It still crashes on opening.

To colin, I have posted both the full and the shrunk file.The full is still a work in progress so that’s just going to get bigger over time. Please send to the devs and let me know how to proceed. Also let me know when I can remove this link.

Thanks Colin. I have removed the link. I’m really hopeful this will lead to a productive solution and I’ve been a fan of SKP for well more than a decade and I think the ipad version has a lot of promise down the line.

I have those files, thanks.

I also downloaded both your files and I was able to open both of it without any problem. I was able to play animation of scenes both ot the files without any major slowdown. I do have a screen record if you need proof… :wink:

Keep in mind, I got my iPad Air with M1 last week and just “playing” with it on this weekend only without any previous iPad experience. After 2 days of using I can tell you it is - beside some minor bugs and missing features - the Sketchup for iPad looks really good. I have to get use to the Apple things and other basic, but I really feel it will be okay… :innocent:

1 Like

Thanks dezmo but we’ve already established that it opens on the m1 chip from colin but also as he said it wasn’t stable. On the A13 (current standard ipad) it doesn’t even load. This raises the larger problem of having an unstable product (at best or unusable at worst) in business settings with no real answers as to why or how to properly mitigate.

Separately, to your other point, I think sketchup for the ipad is a great concept and I look forward to it stabilizing so I can use it as a tool. It should maybe still be in beta though (or maybe only support m1 chips). Currently it may be a problem but hopefully the devs will give something concrete to work with and hopefully sooner than later. Ultimately, I would currently be happy if I knew the parameters of which I needed to keep the model inside so I could use it. Since I don’t have an M1, I can only troubleshoot for my clients on my a13 chip (which is less stable) so it’s a real problem for me to even troubleshoot properly and I don’t want to spend 1k to purchase an ipad pro just to support this one product.

I’m following up here.
Colin, were you able to give the models to the devs? if so, did they have any feedback?
Can we get concrete rules or tools that will allow us to export for Ipad efficiently and reliably especially for business use?
How do you recommend those with heavy models such as for archviz work with the ipad version?

I test on a 12.9" Pro (7 years old), and it crashes. On that iPad, a useable file would have to have 1/2 the number of faces that your file has. So your mileage will vary greatly between the most recent hardware and older models.

@jlo1 Thank you for your feedback and for the questions regarding performance, and recommendations. It’s great to hear that you’re wanting to do more with on iPad, and I understand your frustrations with the current limitations and the lack of actionable information about how best to work around them.

As has been noted previously, performance is not dependent on any one variable. Performance will vary depending on the make and model of any one of a number of different iPads depending on the model (iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro), the year that the device was made, and how the device was spec’d (CPU/GPU/RAM).

Performance bottlenecks that result in a noticeably degraded experience, or application crash can result from the application being asked to load models or perform operations that tax either the CPU, GPU, RAM, or all of the above. Depending on whether a model contains loads of raw geometry, or whether it contains loads of image textures, or whether users apply in-model graphic effects like shadows, edge rendering styles, etc.

We have not, and likely will not, document performance benchmarks that offer objective data about the hundreds (or thousands) of possible permutations of scenarios that users might encounter when working with SketchUp models that are specific to their unique ways of using SketchUp, or the specific device they happen to be using. Rather, we will continue to work to improve SketchUp’s performance and stability broadly, and Apple will likely continue to release hardware and OS updates that allow for SketchUp users to do more and more over time.

To that end, we have seen a dramatic performance improvement with M1 devices running iPadOS 16 (currently in Beta, & which Apple says is “Coming this October”). It has been the case, historically, that SketchUp’s performance is not only subject to the capabilities of iPad Hardware, but it is also subject to application-specific memory allocations that are imposed by iOS – referred to as ‘sandboxing.’ Meaning, that even if an iPad has 16Gb of RAM on board, SketchUp (or any app) was only allowed to utilize ~2GB max. We’re now seeing with the changes introduced to iPadOS 16, that on M1 devices, SketchUp is able to take advantage of MUCH more of the device’s available memory, and as a result, we have seen that we are now able to open and work with larger models that would not open previously.

2 Likes