I created a Sketchup file of my partner’s parents garden (for a redesign) which I made on the free, online Sketchup initially. I have since downloaded it and edited the file on a 2024 desktop version of Sketchup. Then a few months passed and I upgraded to Sketchup 2025. Now every time I try to open the file on Sketchup 2025 it crashes, however it does work on the free online version (but it extremely laggy and slow due to the file size). I want to be able to use this on the paid-for version where it wasn’t laggy.
I’ve tried everything I can think of, like resaving it from the online version, trying to copy and paste the contents into a new file, taking out some bits in case that’s what’s slowing it down, and copying it to my desktop instead of Dropbox in case having it on there is slowing it down, but it still crashes.
This is the screenshot I get when I try and open any version of it in Sketchup 2025:
It opened with no error messages with SketchUp 2026 on my PC. Some of your plant components are on the heavy side, but otherwise it works OK for me. I guess that @bmike is on the right track with his suggestion about the graphic engine. If your profile is correct, you are using an older Intel-based Mac with an integrated graphics adapter that doesn’t support the new graphics engine so you should try switching to the “Classic” engine before opening models.
Yeah it’s a 2018 Macbook Air, with this graphics card: Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB
I’ve opened larger files though and it’s been ok, I wondered if there was too much geometry in the foliage, but just weird as it worked before on my laptop ok.
How do I switch to the ‘classic’ engine? I’ll download the new 2026 SketchUp and give that a go, thanks.
Oh my god, it works! Thanks so much, you have no idea how many hours I’ve wasted trying to resave it in different formats whilst slowly going mad. Great that I can now continue editing it!
This new graphics engine that Sketchup uses, I found I could still open other files on it but occasionally when I used the colours and textures palette it would colour everything black (I’m guessing it couldn’t handle the amount of info that came with a specific colour/texture).
If I keep this Classic Graphics engine on Sketchup - what am I missing out on from the new engine? I use Sketchup a fair bit for work so would be good to know if I need to upgrade soon.
There are two kinds of improvements you will be missing:
The new graphics engine has much higher performance than the “classic” one. However, it requires adequate hardware that your Mac may not have.
The new graphics engine provides enhanced rendering such as the PBR materials that @bmike mentioned, ambient occlusion, environments, and other features that the classic one does not support.
