Hi all,
I'm stuck on a stubborn issue and have already done a very thorough round of troubleshooting, so I'm hoping a staff member or graphics expert can point me to the next step.
## Symptom
SketchUp Pro 2026 (26.2.243) opens the Welcome/Home screen normally. The moment I click any template (e.g. "Simple – Meters"), the window goes half-white/half-black for about 1 second (the viewport never draws) and then the whole app closes back to the desktop. The modeling window with toolbars never appears.
The exit is completely clean: **no BugSplat, no Windows Error Reporting, no Application Error (Event ID 1000), no crash dump.**
It happens with BOTH the new (DirectX 12) graphics engine AND the classic (OpenGL) engine.
## Key finding: native OpenGL works
I ran an isolated native OpenGL context test (pure WGL, outside SketchUp: ChoosePixelFormat → SetPixelFormat → wglCreateContext → wglMakeCurrent → glGetString). It succeeds with full hardware acceleration:
GL_VENDOR : NVIDIA Corporation
GL_RENDERER : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980/PCIe/SSE2
GL_VERSION : 4.6.0 NVIDIA 582.66
GL_SL_VER : 4.60 NVIDIA
So hardware OpenGL 4.6 is fully working on this machine — the failure seems specific to how SketchUp 2026 creates/composes its viewport window.
## System
- OS: Windows 11 Home, build 26200
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 32 GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Maxwell, 4 GB), driver 582.66 (current security driver for Maxwell)
- 3 monitors, all 1920×1080 @ 100% scaling (uniform, no mixed DPI)
- License: PRO_TRIAL, authorized (NO_ERROR)
## Already tried (no change)
- Clean driver reinstall via DDU in Safe Mode (+ confirmed a single clean driver instance afterward)
- Forced the Classic graphics engine — SketchUp even showed the "we've defaulted your modeling window to use classic graphics engine" message, but the model still won't open
- Antialiasing off (AAMethod 0), UseFastFeedback off, UseMaxTextureSize off
- Single monitor only (Win+P → PC screen only)
- ALL extensions disabled (user Plugins + ShippedExtensions)
- Full reset of user data (AppData Roaming + Local)
- Reinstalled Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 (x64 + x86)
- Clean reinstall of SketchUp 2026 via the offline installer (as admin)
- Verified: no overlay/injector software running, no rogue opengl32.dll in the SketchUp folder, not an RDP session
## Questions
1. Which log does SketchUp 2026 write for viewport / graphics-context creation, and how do I enable it (env var, command-line flag, diagnostic mode)?
2. Why can the viewport (both DX12 and classic OpenGL) not compose the model window when hardware OpenGL 4.6 works fine outside the app?
3. Is there a known issue with the GTX 980 (Maxwell) or driver 582.66 on 26.2.243?
4. Is there a build/hotfix or a "graphics safe mode" startup that works around this?
Thanks in advance — happy to provide a screen recording or any logs you need.
Bug splats?
3 monitors?
Are they all attached to the GTX980?
What if you only connect 1?
Have you performed firmware updates available for the card?
There were some in relation to adding support for newer models , but it’s something most users never do.
Update — I also tested on a brand-new Windows user account, and SketchUp still closes the instant I open a model. So it isn’t my user profile/config either.
That now rules out (all with no change and no crash log of any kind — no BugSplat / WER / Event 1000 / dump):
• GPU driver — clean DDU reinstall; and native OpenGL 4.6 works fine OUTSIDE SketchUp (minimal WGL test: GL_RENDERER = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, GL_VERSION = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 582.66)
• Both graphics engines (new DX12 + classic OpenGL)
• AA off / UseFastFeedback off / UseMaxTextureSize off
• All extensions (Plugins + ShippedExtensions)
• Full user-data reset (AppData Roaming + Local)
• Visual C++ 2015–2022 reinstall + clean SketchUp 2026 reinstall (offline installer, admin)
• Multi-monitor / DisplayPort — tested with a single HDMI display, others physically disconnected
• NVIDIA DisplayPort firmware update tool
• Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access disabled
• A brand-new Windows user account
Every local variable now points away from my setup and toward SketchUp 2026 itself on this GTX 980 (Maxwell). Is there a way to enable a viewport / graphics-context creation log so I can capture exactly what’s failing? And is this a known issue on 26.2.243 with Maxwell cards? Happy to share a screen recording.
No BugSplats at all — the app exits cleanly with no crash dialog, no BugSplat, and no Windows error report
I’d be looking at the windows event logs.
I doubt it’s that old card with a mature driver running a generally quite unfussy piece of software.
SketchUp uses entirely different graphics APIs depending on whether you use the classic or new graphics engine.
The interface is running an old version of chromium - complete with various security flaws - I have seen it where certain security software sees this and kills the process. That wouldn’t register as a crash in SketchUp.
Big update — I can now reproduce this from the command line, which finally surfaced SketchUp’s own stderr diagnostics (the GUI hides them).
Launching SketchUp.exe “<a .skp file>” makes SketchUp open, render the Welcome/Home screen, then exit ON ITS OWN after ~4s with exit code 1 — no BugSplat, no WER, no crash dump. So it’s a deliberate exit(1), not a crash.
Captured stderr (new graphics engine):
Graphics Engine Name: New Graphics Engine
Graphics API: DX12
GPU Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
ValidateGraphicsPreferences: Starting up.
SaveUserRendererSettingsToPreferences: Saving graphics preferences: MSAA: 4 FF: 1
ValidateGraphicsPreferences: All done.
So graphics validation PASSES — the card isn’t being rejected. The CEF/Chromium debug.log then shows the Home screen (“/home”) loads fine, after which the CEF task runners are torn down (“No task runner for threadId 0..6”, “Failed to post task … FlushAndNotifyInBackground”) as the process shuts down.
So SketchUp exits cleanly AFTER successful graphics validation and after the Home screen renders — during the transition into the modeling window — with no logged reason (exit code 1). Same on the classic engine.
Does anyone recognise an exit(1) at that point, or know how to enable a more detailed SketchUp startup/render log? Happy to share the full stderr + CEF debug.log.
If Chromium is recording that log, perhaps deleting the temp files for it.
%appdata%\sketchup\WebCache-137.0.7151.121
Thanks Adam — tried it. I renamed %appdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2026\WebCache-137.0.7151.121 out of the way; SketchUp rebuilt it from scratch on the next launch (fresh ~18 MB) and still closes the instant a model opens. No change, identical stderr trace.
One thing I noticed in that WebCache: it holds the embedded Chromium’s GPU caches on D3D12 — DawnWebGPUCache, GraphiteDawnCache, GPUCache, ShaderCache (Dawn = Chromium’s WebGPU/DirectX-12 backend). So my next thought was to force the embedded Chromium to software rendering. But SketchUp.exe has its own Qt QCommandLineParser and rejects every Chromium switch outright (“SketchUp: Unknown option ‘disable-gpu’”, exits in ~0.3 s) — so --disable-gpu / --use-angle=swiftshader / --in-process-gpu never reach CEF.
For context on where it dies: reproducing from the command line (SketchUp.exe with a .skp argument, capturing stderr), the process exits with code 1 after ~4 s, no WER/BugSplat/dump. SketchUp’s own stderr shows graphics validation PASSES first (New Graphics Engine / DX12 / GTX 980 / “ValidateGraphicsPreferences: All done”, MSAA:4) and then it just exits with nothing further logged, while the CEF debug.log shows /home loads and the task runners are torn down.
Two questions:
- Is there a supported way (env var or switch that SketchUp does honor) to force the embedded Chromium / the modeling viewport to software rendering, so I can rule the Dawn/D3D12 GPU process in or out?
- Is there a switch/env to enable a more verbose startup/render log? Happy to share the full stderr + CEF debug.log.