Sketchup 2020 Pro stability issues

SketchUp Pro
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I had been avoiding installing Pro 2020. I had it, but had been using 2019 and was happy (enough) with that. However, at least once every year, I need to delete “everything Sketchup” and do a fresh install as it becomes unstable, probably as a result of competing plugins, but who has the time to sort those issues out as you’re trying to earn a living? One of the issues from having a “wild wild west” approach to plugin development. And, I’m certainly not dissing the incredible plugin developers with that statement, that’s directed straight at Trimble.

But, I felt it was time to do a reinstall of Sketchup Pro 2019 to clear out the underbrush. Deleted everything, installed fresh and - my license info was wrong somehow. Searched the available sources to no avail. Sent a ticket yesterday morning requesting a reply “ASAP”.

Of course, I still haven’t heard back.

Anticipating this, I bit the bullet and installed 2020. I had a license key that worked. Installed a number of “must have” plugins - some of which weren’t signed as “compatible” (but, I trust C. Eneroth) and went to work.

In the ensuing 24 hours, give or take, it has crashed probably a dozen times. Maybe two dozen, who knows, but I’ve definitely lost track.

And Trimble wants each and every one of us earning a living the hard way to pony up hundreds of dollars annually for this sort of sloppiness. If they run the rest of the business this way, Sketchup is in trouble.

I know I biatch a lot about SU. If I could wind the clock back 15 or 20 years, I might have chosen a different modeling software to play around with and learn. Not sure what else was available at the time, or if I would have been able to afford it. Sketchup certainly lulled me in with the ease of use thing. But, it’s an absolute pain in the butt trying to get paying work done in it now. So many glitches so much of the time. And customer service seems to have all caught covid. Except for Aaron, who’s always putting out fun vids. If I thought I’d live long enough, it would probably be wise to start learning something else.

/rant

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When SketchUp crashes, do you see a BugSplat dialog? If so, are you submitting the BugSplats and including your contact information?

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Yes, I see the bugsplat dialog. I’ve sent in hundreds over the years with as good of notes as I could recall about what I was doing and tools I was using. Never noticed a thing change. But I haven’t been since yesterday. I’m kinda done trouble shooting your software for you.

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If you want to send me your name/email via direct message, I can look into the crashes.

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I’d bet $$ that you are having a hardware issue. I hope you get sorted.

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Well, you may be correct. My 2014 iMac was acting up a few weeks back to the point I was looking at replacement. But, can’t get an iMac right now as Apple is changing models over. Problem has since “gone away”, so hoping I can hobble along until something is available.

So who know anything about SU on an Apple “Silicon” chip?

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Have you run any hard drive diagnostic tools n your iMac? If not I would.

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I have and had someone analyzing the report on the Apple website. Really no answer there. I think it’s a the on board video chip myself

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No, there should be some app you can download on your mac to test the harddrive. You shouldn’t need to read a report from any website for the results. I don’t have a newer mac to test one on for you (1st gen Mac pro is all I have) and I use PCs myself.

But yes, it could be the video card as well but I still wager that it’s hardware. Good luck

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No, it was an app I downloaded. I just uploaded the results to someone that claimed to know how to read it in Apple support forums. S/he didn’t really offer much in the way of help.

It’s an SSD drive, which I always thought were pretty bullet proof. But, I’ll check out this page you’ve linked to.

Another thing maybe going against me, as I’ve been told by Dave R, is that my files are on Dropbox. I guess the file on my SSD and the upload both ways from the cloud aren’t quite as seamless as advertised. But I need the ability to keep those files somewhere back up (local backup as well).

Thanks!

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