SketchUp 2024 & 2025 Freezes

Technical Problems
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1

I’m going to try to give all the info I can but please understand I’m not super-savvy when it comes to technical issues so forgive me.

I have been working in SketchUp 2025 since it’s release with zero problems.

Then early last week one model in particular starting freezing occasionally while working in it. Not often enough to be an issue, but noticeable. Then the length of freezing started getting longer and longer, to the point of being annoying and unusable. So late last week I sent a customer service request for some help to SketchUp Support. Still haven’t received a response.

I have since gone back to SketchUp 2024.

The same model worked fine in 2024 until today, and now I cannot use SketchUp at all. Doesn’t matter what model I open, doesn’t matter the file size, it just freezes and I can do nothing but force quit and try again.

When the model freezes I cannot move my cursor unless I’m super-fast and get my mouse on one of my other monitors/screens. Then I can work in other applications (Adobe, web, etc) just fine with no issue while I wait for SketchUp to stop throwing a tantrum. If my cursor is on another screen and I move it to the frozen SketchUp screen then I’m stuck and have to do a hard shut down/restart.

Not always, but most of the time if I open another model I can work in it just fine with no issue. If I then open the problem model it freezes, and if I’m patient and close it out, then the previous model I was working with no issue now has the same freezing problem.

So… the problem model. It was 233MB. I purged everything I could and got it down to 198MB and thought for sure that would help. It did not. Then I ran the CleanUp3 plugin and got the model down to 135MB. I thought for sure that would solve the issue. It did not.

I’ve asked other coworkers to test the problem model to see if they experience the same issue on their laptop and none of them have any problems with the model. They can all work in it just fine.

I’ve sent two more customer service requests to SketchUp/Trimble but have still not heard back from them.

I’ve looked in this community for folks with similar issues and found a few but I don’t understand what their resolutions were. Something about graphics card. I’ve Googled how to find info about my graphics card and everything keeps saying “look for the Nvidia” or “Chipset Model” to find your graphics card. I don’t see the word Nvidia anywhere and under Chipset Model all I see is Apple M2 Pro… nothing about Nvidia.

Then I found something about making sure I’m using the correct GPU, or something like that.

Folks, as noted at the beginning I’m not tech smart. Sure, there are some things I can figure out but when I read a solve for an issue and it’s written like I’m supposed to know how to build a computer from scratch… I want to slowly back into the bushes like Homer Simpson. So it should be no surprise that I’m on a Mac as those on PCs typically seem more in tune with their machine.

Any thoughts about what could be causing this one particular model to wreak havoc? Unfortunately I cannot share the model due to client protected content (SF 49ers).

Thank you in advance!

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Forgot to say I’m on a MacBook Pro running Sonoma 14.7.4 with an Apple M2 Pro chip with 32GB of memory

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You might try sharing the .skp file that is giving you problems. Maybe there’s something in it that would give a clue to why you are having issues.

BTW, please update your forum profile. It says you’re still using SketchUp 2018 on Mojave.

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I’m not allowed to share the file due to client privacy concerns regarding some of the design in the model. It’s not me, it’s the client (49ers).

I updated my profile, thanks for catching that!

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I tried resetting SketchUp preferences file (as shown here: Did you know that most issues with SketchUp on a Mac can be solved in one of two ways?) and that seems to be working for the moment.

Sorry DaveR. I’ll delete this in a few days if the issue doesn’t come back.

6

I think they’re more worried about how much they must pay Purdy(as a packer fan I hope they give him all the money he is asking for)

It seems the file you’re working with is very big, have you used stuff from the 3D warehouse? Sino models there can make your file get big quite easily.

Also Macs haven’t used Nvidia gpu’s for more than a decade, they used AMD gpu’s until 2019, since the introduction of M series chips, all the gpu’s are custom made by Apple and Imagination(A company that designs ARM gpu’s). Unlike you do with windows and it’s hardware, you generally don’t have to worry about drivers on Macs, all those things are included with the OS update.

1 Like
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Yup … you have an integrated (SoC) Apple silicon GPU.

Regarding graphics, all you can do is switch between SketchUp’s new graphics engine (which uses Metal on the Mac,) or the older OpenGL engine.
The control is on the Graphics panel of SketchUp’s Preferences dialog window.