I have been using Sketchup Pro 2024 for just over a year on my MacBook Pro 2019 (8GB RAM). When the models started to get too large for the computer’s low RAM, I decided to change my computer to one that is more compatible with the program, since Sketchup is the main thing I use the computer for. Based on information I read online, I got the impression that Mac computers are generally less compatible with Sketchup than Windows computers, so I decided to get a Windows computer. The computer I ended up with was an Acer Swift X 16 (Windows 11) with 32GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, Ryzen 7 processor and 1TB NVME - i.e. a computer that meets all of the recommendations and requirements that Sketchup themselves state on their website for the program to work as well as possible.
Anyway, since the computer change that happened a little over a month ago, nothing has worked as it should… After I bought the new computer (Acer Swift X 16) I downloaded Sketchup Pro 2026. Already during the first day I noticed that the computer froze from time to time. Not the whole computer, but I could not open other programs or pages than Sketchup (such as Microsoft Edge), I could not minimize or close Sketchup and I could not click further in the program (for example, change the drawing pen to the eraser). I solved this problem by clicking Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then “Cancel”. Then everything worked as it should again. After this problem I troubleshooted the problem online and got the answer that it is probably the driver routines that are the problem. I then made sure that the driver card was the NVIDIA Studio Driver (which was recommended) and made sure in my settings that no automatic dynamic switching occurs between AMD’s integrated graphics and NVIDIA dedicated graphics so that when Sketchup is used it is forced to use the NVIDIA GPU (also changed in the NVIDIA control panel). I have also adjusted the energy/battery & power settings on the computer as recommended. I have also turned off HAGS, turned off Fast Feedback, Anti-alising and Shadows in Sketchup and switched to the “Classic Graphics Engine” in Sketchup.
After this I continued to use the program but not long after (2-3 hours of use) it started to mess up again and now the program started to forcefully close sometimes and it is very small models that I model in (no extentions, no downloads). I then read online that Sketchup 2026 is sensitive to bugs as it is a very new version, so if you wanted to avoid these you should run Sketchup 2025 instead as it is more tried and tested and most of the bugs have been fixed. I then downloaded Sketchup 2025 but after a short period of use (4-5 hours) I started to notice the problem there too (i.e. the computer freezes and I cannot open other programs). I also solved this problem with Ctrl+Alt+Delete and Cancel. But after this the program started to force-close (Bugsplat) almost as soon as I started modeling in the program. After the third “Bugsplat” the computer froze completely and then I didn’t even have the program open.
After this I read further and understood that Sketchup 2025 has a new graphics engine which can be problematic, which is why the 2024 version is often recommended instead. I thought then - I’ll test it because it was actually the version I was running on my MacBook Pro 2019 when everything worked flawlessly. I downloaded this version but after a few minutes of use I realized that the problem remains - the computer continues to freeze from everything other than Sketchup and is solved with Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then Cancel.
I’m starting to get very frustrated and the whole situation feels pathetic since the reason I changed computers was because it would work significantly better with the program but it has turned out that the MacBook that was supposed to be “so bad” for the program outperforms my new computer that is supposed to be “so good” for the program according to Sketchup’s own recommendations and requirements.
Has anyone experienced similar problems and what have you done to solve it? Does anyone else have an Acer Swift X 16 and use Sketchup 2024/2025 or 2026 for it?
Personally I’d take the computer back and choose something else. Some systems just don’t work properly, an unfortunate combination of hardware and drivers that just clash and if you get one you’ll be fighting it forever.
Purely from my experiences on here i would tend to avoid the Ryzen, the are often involved in strange behaviour. Absolutely no proof of that.
Have you sent in the bugsplats with your e-mail address? @colin might take a look at them.
I agree with Box, I too have a prejudice against AMD products.
After purchasing the computer, have you updated all drivers? Especially the driver for the integrated AMD graphics might be out of date, even if you don’t use them.
Check that in the Nvidia control panel 3D application settings, Antialiasing and Anisotopic filtering are set to Application controlled.
Some thoughts (a little summary of what you can find on this forum about this issue ) :
I also agree that AMD Ryzen 7 is not the best choice for Sketchup because its single-threaded execution speed - which is important for CAD programs - is behind Intel processors. (CAD programs cannot take full advantage of multiple processor cores/threads).
The RTX 4050 Laptop GPU is also the weakest member of the RTX 40xx family. (… not to mention the RTX 50xx family…)
But while the above can count for a lot, you can’t ignore what modelling technique you use.
It is also matter how you maintain your computer’s drivers…(DO NOT trust Windows Update, always check the hardware manufacturer’s website and their own driver update program.)
Sketchup is currently undergoing a lot of (some fundamental) development, and not all extension developers can keep up with this, as you can often see on the forum that crashes can be caused by an extension. Don’t install “all” extensions, use the ones you really need (disable the rest.)
SketchUp should work quite well with mediocre graphics and I have no noticeable lags with my old RTX2070 or MX250 graphics. But as said, it is very CPU-intensive, while single-threaded.
Not sure where you got that impression but they are more than capable to run SketchUp. So if Mac is more your thing, there’s nothing holding you back to change..
I no longer use a MacBook Pro, but just a maxed out MacBook Air. Super singelcore performance, and no need to pay for the extra “pro” thing with lots of cores I dont use anyway.
sketchup performance is very good on this simple setup.
But obviously, I spend time making sure my tag structure is so that I dont have Layout viewports that has more geometry than needed. That is the holy grail of Layout performance.
So if I have a viewport of the house from above, I have everything inside the house turned off by its tag, even though its not visible anyway, the viewport still has to render it if the tags are on.
It’s good that you have arrived here at the SketchUp forum, as with all things there is a great deal of confusing misinformation out there, the SketchUp forum is not perfecT but the information and attention you get here is generally very reliable. SketchUp works great on Mac, period. Especially the new M series with fast clock speeds but I’ve been using SU on Mac for years as have many others.
24,25,26 there are some quirks but all in all they’re very similar and best practice is to use the latest version. Unless you have some specific extension compatibility issue I would stick with 26.
Windows and graphics drivers, can be a pain to get right. SketchUp needs RAM, but it leans heavily on your graphics pipeline, there is some good advice above to check you have the latest driver from the manufacturer and not trust windows to update correctly.
Do you use any extension? How many MB are the files you’re working with? How many edges? Sometimes people thing their computer is broken when the models they’re working with are actually just too big. Perhaps not the case here.
That was quite a long message. Here are some thoughts:
A lot of us at SketchUp use Mac most of the time, and Windows for additional testing. There are a couple of features that are only on Windows, but otherwise everything should work on Mac.
My old work Mac was also a MacBook Pro, 2019, and it’s still around for me to do Intel Mac testing. My newer work Mac is an M4 MacBook Pro, and it’s dramatically better performance.
I found the bugsplat you sent in, thanks for that. The type of crash that it was is something we have a fix for, but that isn’t yet in a release version. I can’t yet tell you when there will be an update, but I will add another message in this topic when the update is available.
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