Sketchup 7 Pro freezing system - Mac Pro

Hello,

Since moving to Sketchup 7 Pro in our architecture office, it has crashed a number of machines on a regular basis: not the normal Sketchup application crash, but a complete system lockup where a hard reboot is required. The cursor still moves on the screen funnily.

Doesn't seem to be related to any particular tool or procedure.

The problem is occurring over a variety of machines...I will try and get all of their specs. In the meantime, here are the specs of my machine. All the machines are running SketchUp 7 Pro (7.0.8656) on Mac OSX 10.5.6. So theoretically we have the most up-to-date video drivers...

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro1,1

Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

Number Of Processors: 2

Total Number Of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB

Memory: 5 GB

Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP11.005D.B00

SMC Version: 1.7f10

Video Card:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

Slot: Slot-1

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0393

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 3011

Whose responsibility is it to fix this bug, and if it's Apple or NVidia can Google please get on their backs? The constant crashing is annoying, dangerous for our server, and generally not acceptable given that we have new software and fairly new machines.

Anyone got any fixes in the meantime OTHER than turning off hardware acceleration...which is not a viable option in terms of usability on our models.

Thanks,

Nick

Have you tried ThawUp? It's a Mac patch for these SU issues posted over on SketchUcation. A Google search gets you there fast.

Another running process could be interfering. Some Mac users had to turn off AirPort while using SU. Turning off Fast feedback in SU system preferences helped some people.

Mac complaints have slowed down in Groups over the last few months.

Being a Pro user, you should file a technical support request. In SU7 go to Help > Contact Us. Their Mac people keep track of reported problems by video card. And Apple has contacted them to see how their updates work. On occasion SU Mac folks have tracked down driver problems and filed more official reports.

You probably should include a list of other running processes.

Thanks.

I have filed a technical bug report.

Looks like ThawUp is intended for those Macs with integrated Intel

GMA950 Graphics Cards which are hanging temporarily when

selecting...rather than the complete system freeze that we are

experiencing. I shall give it a go and see whether this helps.

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2753&p=12822&hilit=thawup

It's all a bit concerting because, in about five years of 30 people

using various versions of OSX in the office, nothing has ever crashed

anyone's entire system before. Lots of application crashes,

obviously, but never anything to take the whole thing down and make a

'Force Quit' impossible.

Appreciate that it's probably NVidia's fault for not providing up-to-

date OpenGL drivers for "old" video cards...

Will report back if I find any other fixes.

I've been having the same issue as Nico on my recent iMac for the last few days.

The windowserver log lists a whole load of failures to allocate some

backing data store and then a sigtramp death. The main log shows

thousands of SU errors relating to trying to free a specific address

that is apparently misaligned. Interestingly it is always the same

address even across reboots.

In a system like OSX it really should be close to impossible to break

the entire system like this. Somebody somewhere has made a major boo-

boo!

Tim, have you filed a boo-boo report with SU? It seems like some SU engineers would like to see your log. In SU7 > Help > Contact Us.

For Information:

I crashed it last night and then left the computer on all night

(turned the monitors off obvisouly) just to see if it the crash would

resolve itself given time. Was still frozen this morning. "Major boo-

boo" is an apt description.

this is the exact problem I've been having since switching over when it first came out. I am just now sending my system info to

SketchUp...please do the same. I'm glad to hear this is not unique to us.

Howdy Everyone,

After looking at Tim's crash logs, it looks like WindowsServer is

having troubles allocating memory because it ran out of swap space.

This can happen potentially happen if Spaces is enabled and using the

maximum number of spaces: 16.

If Spaces isn't the issue, check and see how much disk space you have

remaining on your system:

1. Open a Terminal window.

2. Type "df -k" without quotes.

If you're really low on disk space, try clearing up some room.

Enjoy!

well that applies to Nicoloco and I too...well...no, not at all...

Hi there.

Not running Spaces. And have checked and have plenty of free diskspace (only at 56% capacity on main hard drive).

Still crashing if 'Fast Feedback' is turned on and not crashing if it is turned off.

Am still seeing a lot of errors in the Console log which mainly alternate between the following:

16/02/2009 12:27:43 [0x0-0x16b56b4].com.google.sketchuppro7[59296]

SketchUp(59296,0xa077d720) malloc: *** error for object 0xa06eb6d8:

Non-aligned pointer being freed followed by:

16/02/2009 12:27:41 [0x0-0x16b56b4].com.google.sketchuppro7[59296] ***

set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

Any ideas?

Nick

I am crashing SU on my MacBook Pro too, any suggestions would be appreciated.

You all can create a system profile to send in to help with diagnosis.

In a Terminal session enter:

system_profiler -detaillevel full > ~/filenameofyourchoice

That will appear in the User directory.

Find recent crash reports related to SU at Finder > ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/

We'll need a few more details. Probably simplest is to throw away the /Applications/Google SketchUp 7 directory and reinstall. If that doesn't work, we also place materials, styles, templates, plugins etc... in /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7 and ~/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7. After you've saved whatever changes you've made (ruby plugins, for example), from those directories, throw them and /Applications/Google SketchUp 7 in the trash and resinstall.

Does the crash log give any clues?

b

So how consistent is the crash? Can you make it crash in 5 minutes of use every time? Or an hour? Is it only on machines with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards? If you can turn this into a consistent way of crashing, I can work with Apple to reproduce it. Send us the steps.

But how consistent is it?

b

Barry,

The crash was happening every time running Sketchup 7 Pro between

30-45 minutes into use. The crash would result in a total freeze of

the system and require a hard restart. Apple-Alt-Esc would not work.

Interestingly the cursor was still moveable on screen and iTunes would

still be playing in the background (when running) until the end of the

current song before going silent.

The crash was noted on the following machines/graphics cards:

MacPro 2.66 GHz - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

iMac 24" 2.8 GHz - ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

I have removed and reinstalled all of the Sketchup 7 folders/files

twice now, and am running it without any additional plug-ins.

Since turning off 'Fast Feedback' the crashes seemed to have stopped

until last Friday when I had been using SU 7 on and off for about 5

hours (we had a deadline) and then it froze the computer in the

afternoon. Turning 'Fast Feedback' back on made it crash again after

about 30 minutes. The crash seems to happen more predictably and

sooner when working in a relatively complex file (30.8Mb - 180,000

Edges, 55,000 Faces, 2000 Components, 4000 Groups), even when the file

has been recently purged. However, I have experienced the crash while

building a very low complexity massing model from scratch.

I have emailed a series of crash reports to sketchup-help@google.com

on the 24th February. However, these seem to be 'normal' crashes, and

not the ones where the whole system locks up. Unfortunately, they do

not seem to produce crash reports...I can't find one for the crash

which happened last Friday.

Our main problem at the moment is that we don't really have the time

to 'encourage' our computers to freeze, as we are working to deadlines

and it affects all the other programs/files which are open; sorry we

can't be of more help, but if you need any more information to help

your enquiries then let me know and I'll see what I can squeeze in.

Regards,

Nick

Hello,

Since Yesterday I've been working with SU 7 in the office.

I work on a MBP, MacOS 10.4.11.

While having had hardly any problems at all with SU 6, my system kind

of froze both yesterday and today. Yesterday my Finder started

flashing, showing all active applications at random, today the "Force

Quit" tool froze, after Force Quiting Sketchup. So a Reboot was needed

in both cases.

Yesterday another application might have been involved, I'm not sure;

Skype.

As the system froze I wasn't able to send a crashreport. At least, I

wouldn't know how.

The crash today happened after a couple of very staightforward steps:

hidding a face, going into a component, copying, back pasting and

extruding.

My system only has frozen once before, as far as I can recall.

The file in question of yesterday has a problem with the glued component, where two faces seem to be Z-fighting while I only can find one. I could send in a copy.

My Mac.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 800 MHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07

SMC Version: 1.16f8

Serial Number: W87383EYX92

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0407

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 3175

Displays:

Color LCD:

Display Type: LCD

Resolution: 1440 x 900

Depth: 32-bit Color

Built-In: Yes

Core Image: Hardware Accelerated

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Display Connector:

Status: No display connected

I can try to reconstruct this and keep an eye open with future crashes. Where do I post my findings?

Ok, I found it.

Guess I found it a bit hard to read through this thread.

Sorry.

Just another thought to Nick et al, when you have issues like these and the entire machine (not just SketchUp) goes out:

Read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564 and try it (booting in safe

mode), to see if it changes anything. First one to report a machine

crash in SketchUp in safe boot mode wins a... um... a pony.

b

In Safe Boot mode now with only a clean install of Sketchup running (and Firefox). When (sorry 'If') it freezes, I will try and send some info from the Console Logs.

Hello Barry,

I've been playing around with the last Autosafe in Safemode and then

something isn't in order (with this component?). Should I try the same

stuff in a regular setting? How much information do you need.

I have Files and Crash Log files (non of SU, though).

I'll send in what I've got asap, please let me know when you want more

information.

Hello again,

After thinking it was something in my particular file I realize SU

doesn't work in Savemode. Draw a recangle, select a tool; PushPull,

Move or Line, and it stops working.

I've sent in a file. What I'm discribing there doesn't seem to have

much to do with this. All the same I would like to bring it under your

attention.

Kind Regards, Bob.

Really? It works for me. I did have to turn off fast feedback. I did check that my graphics driver was loaded (I have an ATI card):

kextstat | grep ATI

com.apple.ATIRadeonX1000 (5.3.6)

Try turning off fast feedback, and I'll research this further.

b

Let me correct myself after looking closer on another machine with NVidia: in safe mode, I load:

com.apple.NVIDIAResmanPPC (a PPC machine)

com.apple.nvidianv40halppc

but in regular boot it also loads

com.apple.GeForcePPC

Not that this should prevent you from running - that's a separate

issue. I would still like to get you running in safe mode to see if

the problems persist.

b

I'll see into this after monday. What happens under the Mac interface is a total mystery to me. So your suggestions might need a little more explanation.

You're talking about the terminal.

I'll see what I can do and get back to you if I have any questions.

Barry,

I've been looking in to this. I can turn off fast feedback and the

freezing seems to stop.

The way I got Sketchup to "freeze" all together - it didn't really, I

could still deselect the tools- I haven't been able to reproduce yet,

but when I start over on a clean slate everything in SU seems to work

fine. So far, the freezing I've only managed to reproduce with fast

feedback enabled. Now it stops when I close the file and open a new

file.

There are some more things I could say about the way the component

behaves. I'll send that in via the regular channels, as soon as I find

time for it.

So I suppose that when I encounter such a bug again, the procedure

would be: run Sketchup in Safemode and see where it stops. I think

that's clear to me by now.

If I may intrude.I am finding that I am crashing with my MacBook Pro, in SketchUp 7 when I am running Firefox.

When I quite Firefox, I have not crashed nearly as much if at all.

.....

any thoughts on that?

aloha

red

Quitting the internet is an old work-around solution for some of the Leopard problems. There are several postings mentioning internet here http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupissues/browse_thread/thread/6054408288057eec

which still may apply in your case - or not.

bob, safe mode runs with a minimal number of services/drivers/

processes. A basic, default video driver is loaded instead of the

regular one used in regular mode. If a program functions has better

performance in safe mode (albeit without the with an inferior video

driver) then you know those loaded services/drivers/processes are not

a source of the problem and can be crossed off the list of stuff you

are running in normal mode. It is a useful, diagnostic test to try

isolating potential causes for this problem between Leopard and SU for

too many people.

I've figured out (thanks to smart Googlers) how to load your video driver in safe mode, and I can share if anyone is interested (running in safe mode, but notice slowness in using SketchUp).

To refresh: I wanted people to try this, mainly because it eliminates

the many variations from software installs. We've been running many

many machines without system crashes or hangs, so we need to figure

out what is unique about each of your situations. If your system

hangs, applications crash, or the system panics, please take a look at

the appropriate files in /Library/Logs/PanicReporter, HangReporter,

and CrashReporter and send them to us if they're SketchUp related with

notes about what you were doing when this happened. Try to recreate

it if you can (although I know that's painful and you really don't

want to see it happen again).

By the way, the pony I offered (for someone to crash in safe mode) is

still safe in my corral... :-).

Barry

Bob - sorry I posted before reading your recent posts. Yes, safe mode loads only essential kernel extensions. You can mark your video driver as essential for safe mode and it will load. If no one crashes in safe mode, then you need to work with your computer admin to determine what's causing the problem. If it's a particular file or way of modeling, then we'd love to find the bug. We need to clean this thread up, ("me too... I crashed once...") so that it offers useful information.

b

On 12 mrt, 20:43, Barry <sketchup-guide-bjan...@google.com> wrote:

> I've figured out (thanks to smart Googlers) how to load your video

> driver in safe mode, and I can share if anyone is interested (running

> in safe mode, but notice slowness in using SketchUp).

So with this you mean the most recent drivers?

Is there a need for this if Sketchup freezes with the default driver?

This should indicate already that there is a conflict between MacOS

(with the default driver) and Sketchup.

Using another videodriver might make applications stop sooner, in

which case it would probably be video driver related, I realize. I

don't mind looking into that, in my spare time. So Yes, I'd be pleased

to know how to load that driver.

bob

Bob - I'm not comfortable posting how to do this because someone could read it, screw it up, and mess up their machine and blame me. I'll have our support group contact you. If you can do it safely, and it helps diagnose the problem, then I'll reconsider.

b

I'm quite happy to play around with it, as soon as I find time. So far I haven't really had the opportunity, but would like to contribute.

What ever happened to the extentions manager we had in MacOS 9

(speaking of being used to crashes). I've been looking for something

like this more than once on my latest OS.

bob.

I also have another machine.