Selection Tool process is slow, unbearably slow

Just saw that there is an open question with Intel on the Communities forum pointing to this very thread :

OpenGL SELECT function appeared to be broken starting with Trimble Sketchup 2015 through 2017. This problem seems to have happened before. Please help

I wanted to post on that thread but the Intel website won’t recognize my username for whatever reason :roll_eyes:

I suggest you guys post your system config with Intel driver version and the KBs you have installed. Let’s bring Intel’s attention on this bug.

hey Trimble Inc… do you even hear us?! we’re making a whole new branch of science of deleting some essential system updates, just to make a selection tool work… come on, it’s 2017, and the problem is few month old…

#fail

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#deaf (but good lip readers)

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…and again, you want little Trimble to jump up and down and get Microsoft’s and Intel’s attention that their updates break things, while we are one of the very very few software companies that ships and encourages you to keep older versions around just in case… I just launched Google SketchUp 8 Pro on High Sierra, as an example.

We had the same issue explaining this to Google’s founders, on why we shouldn’t just wipe out and update a professional’s version of SketchUp behind the scenes and without their knowledge. There ARE security reasons for doing this, so it’s not a simple decision.

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While it easy to point fingers at the other guys, for an issue that is as persistent as this one, my view (as a professional software developer with over 30 years experience) is that surely Trimble could design a software “work around” that would resolve it. However that plea seems to be falling on deaf ears.

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My hearing is fine, I sing professionally (edit: not always true if you’re from Colorado and your name is Mandy Harvey; go Mandy!)… what you’re asking for is clairvoyance.

Or, we go back to 2016 and allow software rendering and crappy performance but more devices. It’s why you can still download 2016 and keep 2016 installed with 2017… if you’re really stuck, running 2016 is an option.

I appreciate you listening (and perhaps even your sense of humor), but in my view, telling customers to use an older version is a sign that the new product is missing the mark. I still don’t understand why software rendering can’t be a user option on 2017, to accommodate computers that have issues with the graphics adapters.

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I think it’s enough, there is not any conspirancy.
If this has to do with Intel Graphics Chipset (because it’s not even a card, yeah, a card contains a chipset, it doesn’t matter) I think almost everybody knows nowadays what they can expect from them . And almost everybody who works with a computer knows how much hard to make something complex as SketchUP works in every single platform, all of them with different hardware and software.

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I’ve yet to convince anyone on this forum on this topic, but I’ll try one more time.

Take a step back, and let’s view this from our side, the software updater’s side and your side.

We release software, and it works in our testing. Everywhere, as far as we can tell, and we even write a program to check that to tell people ahead of time if it’s not going to work for them.

Then, something changes on the end user’s computer. They’re upset, because they feel they haven’t done anything. In reality, what they’ve done is to allow updates to their computer. Every software company involved in these updates tries to do this because they know how many technical noobs there are out there, and how many hackers and hack attempts there are, and they’re trying to help protect themselves and their users. That’s not a bad thing.

But when you want to control how software renders, displays things, or even works in general, updates are dangerous without extensive testing. Most updates have no affect on security, but are lumped in to the mix, believing to be a good thing.

So there’s an incongruence. I look at it as: all sides have their merits. But were I an end user and not on my side of the fence, I’d take action. For example, I haven’t updated 3 popular apps on my iPhone and never will because of bloat (for greater lack of privacy on my part’s sake) and the fact that everything they do can be done in a browser (not always as easily, but possible). This also allows updates to happen much quicker - the app has to be built, tested, and notably run through Apple’s approval process. Web does not. If you told me your issue was a bug in SketchUp, and it was on the web, we could turn around and fix that in reasonable time. SketchUp is a big client product, that takes a lot of infrastructure to turn around and fix, every time Microsoft or Apple or any video card company changes something.

But we do that in certain situations. Just today, we released the 3rd maintenance release of SketchUp 2017, because Apple is due to release High Sierra, according to the rumors on the internets, on September 25, and LayOut had issues on High Sierra. So it’s not out of the question.

From my viewpoint, you’re not only asking us to fix software from OS releases, but we should do something after Intel releases driver updates. Or NVIDIA. Or AMD. Or Apple. Or Microsoft. Or your anti-virus software. That becomes a bit tenuous but it could be done, because after all it’s SOFTware: crazy things are possible. And if the breaks are serious without a workaround, that would certainly be a good reason to tackle the issue. But there are multiple workarounds for this: don’t let Intel update your driver, or don’t automatically take updates from Microsoft. Inspect them, search the internet for reactions to them. As an ex-Apple guy, me and my ex-FruitCo buddies HATE how Apple now constantly nags you about minor updates. But we know why they do it. When I started working on SketchUp, @Last Software was on a “do not break” list for an OS, and even if it was our fault, the OS company would make it work and tell us about it. Ah, for the good old days of those fixes, and custom OS kernel patches by request before that in the 90’s.

You can dislike me or SketchUp for not addressing instantly someone else’s changes that affect us, but I hope you’ll at least have the knowledge to get that it’s not a simple black and white issue.

I wrote a whole bunch of extra thoughts in this thread, as I’ll link here and likely not respond in the future, unless there’s some extraordinary event that demands it.

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well, downgrading to a 2016 is a logic solution, but the 2017 files won’t work on the 2016 version (ok, I can run both versions and convert them when needed…)… and also, there’s no 2016 SU Make version available for download on the sketchup web site…

Barry and the rest of the team, don’t get me wrong. It’s a great great product especially for all us non-pros and I’m using it almost on a daily basis, but the lack of such an essential (selection) tool is making the product almost unusable at the moment…

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not if you wanna buy a SU Pro license (2017 only) and also not if already upgraded with the previous version disabled at least for new installations.

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@Barry

I understand what you are saying.
I have nothing against Trimble really.

The more I read the more I am suspecting the Intel driver as the culprit.

This morning my client started using Office on the same machine and he had display issues running Excel.
We had to disable hardware acceleration.

Also he had BSODs since the begining due to Intel’s latest RST driver. I had to remove that driver; it’s a good thing the stock WHQL one works fine.

It seems Intel can’t &$@$& write a proper driver anymore nowadays.

It’s funny : the first step that every Support representative or troubleshooting guide will ask you to do is to update all your drivers to the most current available. No one ever seems to think that maybe the newer versions of the drivers could be broken ?!

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I seem to remember instances of Intel, Nvidia and AMD releasing display driver versions that broke down SketchUp and other OpenGL-dependent software.

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I use Sketchup Make and was having difficulty with the selection tool after the 2017 install and a Microsoft update. Since Sketchup doesn’t take up much of my time I just grumbled to myself and wasted my time instead of trying to resolve the issue. Dumb me, I finally uninstalled 2017 and reinstalled it using “Run As Adminstrator”. Apparently I failed to do this on the initial install. Works great now.

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Just reading many responses on this topic tells me there are many things that can cause slow response of selection tool. I just corrected the problem on my computer after about 5 weeks of trial and error. In my case I needed an updated driver for my Intel graphics card. That alone had no effect. However, in checking for windows 10 updates, windows found two recent updates were missing. After downloading the two updates the performance of Sketch Up Make returned to normal.

I am still learning to use the program for woodworking drawings but I am most impressed with the program and the help that is available for those that pursue it. Thanks for your effort!

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Yesterday I experienced the lag again and I didn’t bother to fix it (HD4000). Just now, win10 did its 2017-09 cumulative update (KB4040724) and I tested and the lag is gone. Window’s description of this KB doesn’t say anything useful though.

I’m curious how long the lag will stay away this time…

Edit: it lasted for 10 days or so. Yesterday had to re-install the driver again… No idea what changed (don’t use SketchUp on the laptop that much).

Hi @maxB, I’m glad you fixed it.
It’s only curiosity, did the lag come without any apparent reason?
I mean, did you suffer from this issue without any automatic update?

OK, so I reported things fixed with this post:

However, I loaded up sketchup today and had the selection issue.

I checked updates, and nothing new was updated. Not in Windows Updates, not the video driver.

I restarted, and everything is working.

so I don’t know what to say.

@spawn Can’t really tell. Win10 is on automatic updates and I only use SketchUp on the laptop incidentally. Win10 isn’t that clear as win7 regarding its updates.

I just recently got this issue.

Sketchup pro 2017 is practically unusable like this. Any ideer how to fix it?