Hello,
I recently reinstalled the newest version of SketchUp and started installing my dozens of plugins from scratch.
That’s what I was advised to do.
I found time to manually install them one by one instead of just copying RB files from my SU 2020 Plugins folder.
It seems that my former “wrong” method of doing things was better, because now almost every other installed plugin makes SketchUp crash. And I’m talking about both new and old plugins; the ones I’ve been using for years with no trouble.
Now, when I’m in Extension Manager and pick an RBZ to install, SketchUp will likely crash.
BUT! It will keep that plugin installed. So I theoretically COULD go through this and install my over-a-hundred of plugins, wasting hours on relaunching SketchUp.
I installed SketchUp with “run as admin” - I’m quite sure it’s been installed properly.
How to fix this nasty crashing? Please, help me.
Manually installing an RBZ instead of copying the rb and folders over, has no advantages. The usual recommendation is to install the extension from Extension Warehouse, to make sure you are getting the latest version of the extension.
Which exact version of SketchUp are you using? Not too long ago there was an update that helped in some cases where you are installing multiple extensions from the same developer at the same time.
I think you also need to explain what you mean by crashing, is it bug splatting? Does it freeze and you need to ‘end task’? does it just shut down?
Sounds more like you need to work out what the issue is with your installation before you install your plugins.
Does 2021 work properly or haven’t you worked with it enough to see. Have you checked that the Nvidia is being used and have you checked for updates to the driver for it.
Are you getting BugSplats? If so, did you submit any of them?
I’m using version 21.1.279. Is this the newest version?
I’m not getting bugsplats, just “plain” crashes. SketchUp doesn’t freeze - it just shuts down immediately.
When I reopen it, the plugin I tried to install is installed, so I assume that the crash happens only after plugin installation.
In my OpenGL preferences, I can see that my GTX 1070 is being used.
Box, how do I “work out what the issue is with my installation”? I followed the guidelines for what people call a proper SU installation, had no errors whatsoever.
This stuff is driving me insane. I can’t normally use SketchUp for like a week.
That’s very strange that it’ll just terminate like that. Have you tried temporarily removing installed extensions? Would be good to test, as if it doesn’t crash then when you install a new extension it might be an existing extension causing problems.
By “temporarily remove” you mean to delete or to disable?
I can try to disable them, but deleting would be a vicious cycle.
I started with installing extensions from trusted developers like you, Eneroth, Chris Fullmer, Fredo etc. and already experienced crashes, one after another.
Okay, I can see a new version, 21.1.299.
I have 21.1.279.
Do I have to reinstall SketchUp from scratch, or can somehow do a “patch” from the new installer?
Download and run the new installer.
It will overwrite the existing 2021 installation, since it is still a 2021 version and just a point update, not a new version. But it will prompt for confirmation first.
And AFAIK there isn’t a patch update.
I almost pinned a solution already, but my guts told me well that I shouldn’t trust SketchUp at all.
I installed the newest, newest SketchUp.
Now I’m getting this error while installing the most important plugin!
Edit: The plugin is working. I don’t know what the error means. Should I worry about the unknown future?
It’s the kind of internal Ruby error that can happen either on startup of a plug-in when a variable hasn’t been initialised, or at some other point when an error occurs that hasn’t been expected and checked for. If the plug-in is working in spite of the error, don’t worry about it.
But it would be worth reporting to Fredo on the SketchUcation plug-ins forum (SketchUcation.com/plug-in store)
Thanks, John!
Looks like everything is working fine now 
Something to know about is that there is an issue with how SketchUp handles unicode. A path that includes \u is highly likely to have problems. I’m happy if things worked out ok in this case, but having ‘user’ as the user name is going to break some things. So would naming the file as ‘upstairs.skp’ for example.
Wow, I’m genuinely shocked. How can any software have problems with file paths starting with a specific letter? This is ridiculous. I mean, it’s good that you told it, but it has to be resolved. How can we be limited from using one of the alphabet letters?
Use uppercase “U”.
The error is not in SketchUp itself but the Ruby script language interpreter.
This applies even to operating systems. Both Windows and the MacOS have a list of characters that are forbidden in file and folder names.
Okay, so only lowercase “u” is restricted, right?
Any other letters are restricted?
AFAIK, yes, and only as the first character of a folder or file name. @colin speculated in another thread about lowercase “p” but I haven’t tested it.
This sounds like SketchUp trying to interpret escape sequences in a string that already is Unicode. This should not be happening.
Has the “\u” been comfirmed to be the issue here?
Yes. The issue has existed probably ever since SketchUp started supporting Ruby. Dynamic Components, for instance, is suffering of it.
How do they suffer? You cannot make a dynamic component starting its name with uppercase “u”?