LayOut crashing frequently (SU 2023)

bubbavox · July 8, 2023, 4:17pm

Since I upgraded to SU 2023, I have been getting frequent LO crashes – maybe twice an hour on average. It usually happens when I render a page, after making changes in SU. If I open the file back up and try rendering again, it will often work properly. I render manually, with a shortcut, but I’m pretty sure it was happening with auto-render as well.

The models aren’t particularly unusual or large – single-family residential. I haven’t yet spotted a pattern of what might be causing it; I do have quite a few SU extensions (no LO extensions), but testing those individually would be tedious. Guess I want to make some noise about the issue, and see if anyone else is experiencing this or has any advice. I’m considering going back to SU 2022, but there are some features to 2023 that for now are worth dealing with the crashes. RTX 4090 GPU, Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, 64GB RAM.

List of my SketchUp extensions (1 = enabled)

        "ae_console.rb": 0,
        "ae_textureresizer.rb": 1,
        "as_rubyeditor.rb": 0,
        "Auto-Invisible Layer": 1,
        "Axes Manager2.0.0": 0,
        "Axes Tools1.4.0": 0,
        "CleanUp³3.4.3": 1,
        "cmd_auto-invisible_layer.rb": 1,
        "Create LayOut File2.1.0": 1,
        "DBUR_AxesManager.rb": 0,
        "DBUR_PurgeTool.rb": 0,
        "DM_Skimp.rb": 0,
        "Dynamic Components1.8.2": 1,
        "Edge Tools²2.2.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Combined Hidden Entities Toggle1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Component to Group1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Deep Make Unique1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Extended Deletion1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Extract layers1.0.0": 0,
        "Eneroth Flatten to Plane1.1.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Line Up Axes1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Open Containing Folder1.0.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Pipe1.0.1": 0,
        "Eneroth Scene Tag Visibility1.0.1": 1,
        "Eneroth Scene Visibility1.0.2": 1,
        "Eneroth Slicer1.0.2": 1,
        "Eneroth Solid Tools3.0.1": 1,
        "Eneroth View Memory1.1.0": 1,
        "Eneroth Visual Merge2.0.0": 1,
        "ene_combined_hidden_entities_toggle.rb": 1,
        "ene_component_to_group.rb": 1,
        "ene_deep_make_unique.rb": 1,
        "ene_extendedDelete.rb": 1,
        "ene_extract_layers.rb": 0,
        "ene_flatten_to_plane.rb": 1,
        "ene_line_up_axes.rb": 1,
        "ene_open_containing_folder.rb": 1,
        "ene_pipe.rb": 0,
        "ene_scene_tag_visibility.rb": 1,
        "ene_scene_visibility.rb": 1,
        "ene_slice.rb": 1,
        "ene_solids.rb": 1,
        "ene_view_memory.rb": 1,
        "ene_visual_merge.rb": 1,
        "Hide Tags In Scenes1.1": 1,
        "Hide_Tags_In_Scenes.rb": 1,
        "Make Named Group1.1.0": 0,
        "Material Replacer1.2.0": 1,
        "Material Resizer": 1,
        "Material Tools2.7.1": 1,
        "MaterialResizer.rb": 1,
        "PipeAlongPath.rb": 1,
        "Place Component1.0.0": 1,
        "Purge Tool1.0.0": 0,
        "QuadFace Tools0.16.0": 0,
        "Revit Importer for SketchUp1.2023.0215": 0,
        "Ruby Code Editor4.3": 0,
        "Ruby Console+3.1.7": 0,
        "Sandbox Tools2.3.3": 1,
        "Selection Memory1.1.0": 1,
        "Selection Toys2.4.0": 1,
        "Shapes Tool1.1.2": 1,
        "Skimp1.1.7": 0,
        "Solar North2.0.0": 1,
        "Solid Inspector²2.5.1": 1,
        "SUbD2.1.10": 0,
        "SuperGlue1.3.0": 1,
        "su_create_layout_file.rb": 1,
        "su_dynamiccomponents.rb": 1,
        "su_pcp.rb": 0,
        "su_revit_importer_installer.rb": 0,
        "su_sandbox.rb": 1,
        "su_shapes.rb": 1,
        "su_solarnorth.rb": 1,
        "su_trimble_connect.rb": 1,
        "Texture Resizer2.0.4": 1,
        "TOLIAS.rb": 1,
        "TONLIAS.rb": 1,
        "Trimble Connect2.0.9": 1,
        "Trimble Scan Essentials for SketchUp1.2023.0215": 0,
        "True Bend1.2.0": 1,
        "tt_axes.rb": 0,
        "tt_cleanup.rb": 1,
        "tt_edgetools.rb": 1,
        "TT_Lib2.rb": 1,
        "TT_Lib²2.13.1": 1,
        "tt_material_replacer.rb": 1,
        "tt_material_tools.rb": 1,
        "tt_named_group.rb": 0,
        "tt_placecomponent.rb": 1,
        "TT_QuadFaceTools.rb": 0,
        "tt_selection_memory.rb": 1,
        "tt_selection_toys.rb": 1,
        "tt_solid_inspector2.rb": 1,
        "TT_SUbD.rb": 0,
        "tt_superglue.rb": 1,
        "tt_truebend.rb": 1,
        "tt_vertex2.rb": 0,
        "Unreal Datasmith5.2.0": 1,
        "UnrealDatasmithSketchUp.rb": 1,
        "Vertex Tools²2.0.8": 0

Update
Still getting crashes. It usually (always?) happens when I’m rendering a page with multiple viewports. Some things I’ve been trying which seem to maybe help.

Render one viewport at a time, via the ‘Render’ button in SU Model pane.
Render in raster mode, then change it to vector, then re-render.
Hide layers containing the viewports, render, then unhide.

DaveR · July 8, 2023, 4:20pm

Are you getting Bug Splats? If so, are you sending them in with your name and e-mail addess so they could be linked to you? Might be that on Monday when @colin gets back to work he could look them up and give you an idea of what the issue is.

bubbavox · July 8, 2023, 4:24pm

I don’t usually get a Bug Splat – maybe sometimes? If I get one, I will do so.

colin · July 8, 2023, 5:09pm

I looked at the different kinds of crashes that people have sent in bugsplats for. The most common one was also the most common one for 2022, and if you were not seeing a problem in 2022, your problem may not be that one.

Looking at the other reports, people often send them in without any description as to what action had just been done. When you do next see a bugsplat, type in what the last few things you had done before the crash happened.

bubbavox · July 8, 2023, 5:12pm

OK will do. Typically the sequence of events is:

make changes in sketchup
LayOut: update model reference
LayOut: render images on page
crash

bubbavox · July 17, 2023, 2:11pm

Confirming that I haven’t seen any bugsplat dialogs, after maybe 40 crashes since I posted this.

It has happened on at least 2 files – one that is quite small and simple, and another of moderate size/complexity. Both projects were started in SU 2022, and using components/templates from older versions, and a few components from the 3D Warehouse.

And it doesn’t seem related to OneDrive (where I store projects), or automated backups – I disabled those services as an experiment, and still got crashes.

Is there some way I can view information about a crash – some log file, or in Event Viewer?

I will try and find time to do a SU/LO test project completely from scratch in 2023, without any plugins, and see if the issue persists.

adam · July 21, 2023, 6:52pm

I see that you say you use the “Render Images On Page” shortcut to re-render your viewports. Could you try for a while rendering your out of date viewports using the Render button in the SketchUp Model inspector when you have the viewports selected? Alternatively, could you verify that you still get crashes when auto-render is enabled?

Thanks,
Adam

bubbavox · July 25, 2023, 10:26pm

Adam, I tested the problematic pages (which happen to be the most complex 2D floorplan views, shown below). Yes it will also crash when using the ‘Render’ button (in the SU Model ‘tray’, so to speak) – I have used that method many times. Auto-render also crashes (as soon as I check the box) – I haven’t used auto-render in years, so it’s not exhaustive testing. No bug splat dialogs or anything.

~~I might have just discovered a workaround today, which seems to work at least some of the time. Will update with further discoveries.~~ nope still crashes

Right click a viewport, click Update Model Reference (as usual).
Select all model viewports on page.
Change them to raster mode in the SU Model Inspector ‘tray’.
Render all (I use the keyboard shortcut Render Images on Page) in raster mode.
Change desired viewport(s) to Vector (usually just top layer).
Perform Render Images on Page again.
And I’m left with what I want – a bottom layer in Raster, and a top layer in Vector which is transparent.

It would be nice to work in Raster through the whole process, converting to Vector or Hybrid at the end, as Raster is much faster. But unfortunately Raster is not transparent (nor is Hybrid), and I often have multiple layers, as shown in the example image.

Other notes about my workflow:

Often will group viewports with their dimensions, labels, and drawn objects.
Usually create new pages by duplicating a previous one, then changing which scene is shown.
Make 95% of view settings in SketchUp – style, tags, camera, etc. In the example page which is crashing, none of the SU properties were changed in LayOut.

I’m happy to provide any sort of assistance or information necessary to splat this bug!

bubbavox · August 9, 2023, 4:47pm

Update: the crashes are still happening with my attempted workaround (rendering viewports as raster, then changing to vector). Seems like it crashes less when I do this, but it’s hard to say. For my next drafting project I’ll either go back to SU 2022 or try an alternative app.

bubbavox · August 10, 2023, 2:55am

Got a crash dialog for the first time, after the usual rendering crash. Not a bug splat, per se.

adam · August 10, 2023, 2:57pm

Hmm, that is bad.

Would you be willing to share with me the file that caused this crash? Through a PM if you don’t want to share the file publicly. It would help a lot in attempting to figure out what exactly is going on here.

Adam

RLGL · August 10, 2023, 5:00pm

A Google search for “the memory could not be written”, seems to point to local issues. Among them is graphics drivers.

bubbavox · August 11, 2023, 12:24am

@RLGL Hmm, maybe I’ll try a rollback of my drivers. Thanks.

@adam I PM’d you the files. Update on my diagnostics:

I think the crash always happens when I have multiple viewports on the page – but it’s hard to say, because I usually have 2 viewports on the page (model A and model B in the files).

Today I spent about an hour following your earlier suggestion – to render viewports with the Render button – while being sure to have only one viewport selected when rendering. I went a whole hour without crashes! Note that it seems like if you have multiple viewports selected, the Render button will render them all at once.

It can be tricky to select the ‘model B’ viewports, since ‘model A’ is covering them up. I use the Layers pane > right click > ‘select’. This actually adds that layer’s entities to the selection, so be sure to have nothing selected before doing it.