Sketchup freezes after working for short time (Leopard)

Help, Working on OS X. I start a model and work for short while and it just freezes. Had my mac checked out by a technician, and he says no problems with the the mac.

Hi anno,

Just out of curiosity, are you on the Leopard operating system? We've had a couple users report freezing in Leopard, and we're working to resolve this issue. Even if you aren't on Leopard you may want to test whether the problem is helped by turning off your AirPort while working in SketchUp. If that doesn't improve things, you can also test whether this is a graphics card issue by turning off Hardware acceleration (in SketchUp open "SketchUp" > "Preferences" > "OpenGL".) Hope that helps!

That was really helpfull +

I'm having this too. Brand new Intel MacBook Pro.

Not only SketchUp freezes but the whole computer freezes, which I haven't had before in years, and I have to force re-start. My old PowerPC TiBook however was stable as a rock running the same version up until about 10 days ago when I switched to the new one.

Are you using Microsoft Intellimouse drivers?

Hi guys,

Just as a heads-up, we released a Mac update of Google SketchUp Pro 6 last week. This version resolved some previous Leopard issues, and it may help with the freezing problem too. If you haven't done so already, you can update SketchUp by browsing to "SketchUp" > "Check web for updates..."

I'm having the same issue and I've updated Sketchup to the latest version. (I'm using the latest Macbook Pro) Once it freezes, which seems to happen within ten to fifteen minutes of use, there's no way to get the computer to respond other than to force restart. I've never had this issue with sketchup in the past, in fact for me it almost seems as if it's appeared or gotten worse since the recent update. Has anybody figured out a way to prevent this?

(see my last post) I've been working on SU now for 45 min. and no freezes. I switched the hardware acceleration off in the preferences and that seems to fix the issue. The problem now is that my brand new computer is acting like it's five years old. SU is very slow to use without hardware acceleration on. Anybody heard any more promising news?

Hello,

I'm working with Leopard too (brand new MacBook Pro) and I've been having the same problems! Of course I don't want to turn off the accelerator because THAT IS WHY I bought a high speed computer.. While I'm working, after 10, 15 minutes and sometimes longer my mouse turns to a little circle moving color (meaning the computer is thinking, and thinking, and thinking) and suddenly it changes back to normal but my computer is frozen, I can't do anything...Then it goes back to that circle color and (thinks, thinks and thinks) and then back to a little hand... Of course it is still frozen. Then, I try to FORCE QUIT (by pressing CMD + Option + Q + ESC) and NOTHING happens....So what do I have to??? TURN OFF MY COMPUTER by pressing the power button for at least 5 seconds....meaning I'm doing harm to my brand new computer....AND I don't like that... I have checked for newer versions but there aren't...I think I have the latest 6.4.245. I was thinking on buying the PRO version to see if this still happens on that one.

Please...HELP!!!!

It's a very VERY good program to see bugs like these ones and the worst part of all ON A MAC!!!!!!!!!!!

---

Alan Kirsch

Hi Adam and Alan (and anyone else who might be having this problem),

Sigh. It sounds like we don't quite have this problem taken care of yet, do we? What I can say is that we're currently working to resolve the issue, but we need to make our reports as complete as possible. If you could send us your system profiles (upload them under the "Files" tab and then respond to this message with the file name), that'd be a huge help to our efforts.

Adam - interesting to hear that turning off Hardware Acceleration helped, but I understand why you're hesitant to do so. Some other users have reported that disconnecting from the internet has also been helpful. Have you tried this (either with or without hardware acceleration enabled?)

Alan - have you tried turning off Hardware Acceleration? I'd love to know whether this is a more universal solution. The steps to do so, if you need them, are below:

1. In SketchUp open the "SketchUp" menu.

2. Click "Preferences."

3. Click "OpenGL."

4. Clear the "Use hardware acceleration" option.

Thanks to both of you so much for your help!

Any update on this issue? I've turned off the hardware acceleration and so far no freezing. Unfortunately, SU relies so heavily on this feature that it's borderline unbearable w/o it. I've even tried rebuilding the model in the simplest form possible...

I am afraid if disabling the HA is the only solution available, I'll have to move my office to a more capable modeling program.

Try older GPU drivers. If you read through some of the recent postings, some Mac and PC users have reported success.

I've the same problem. Brand new MacBookPro bought to optimize SketchUp. Slowing it to the speed of sludge to stop it freezing not really an option.

I've found it's the first hour or so that is the worst time and moving quickly with the mouse: pan or orbit, that brings it on. Other high processor manouvers are fine so I think it's the graphics card somehow. Or the mouse drivers conflicting with the graphics card. I'm using microsoft intellimouse. what about everyone else?

Hi again everyone,

Just to let you know where we stand on this issue, we're currently looking into this issue as potentially being related to Leopard's current graphics drivers. We've filed a report with Apple, and we're really hoping that their next OS update is going to help the problem. I know I've said it before, but the more information we can get from our users, the more effective we can be in our reports. That said, we'd greatly appreciate anyone who can send us a system profile and/or answer the questions below:

• Confirm if this happens on any file, even a brand new file.

  • If it's on a specific file, please upload that file

• Is there anything else running when you use SketchUp... iTunes? Firefox? Safari? EVERYTHING [System Profiles tell us whats installed, but not whats happening when the crash occurs]

• Is SketchUp slow before the crash?

Also, thanks so much to everyone who's helped us so far, and we'll keep you updated as we find out more.

Hello all,

We have another update on Leopard freezing and finally something to try besides just turning off hardware acceleration. We recently had a few users report that updating their graphics drivers has helped. If you haven't done so already, we suggest downloading the update from the following page (which lists increased stability and compatibility as two of the benefits):

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/leopardgraphicsupdate10.html

Finally, if this does improve the problem, please let us know! Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up.

Just an FYI too, I've had pretty good luck since disabling the 'Fast

Feedback' option associated with 'Hardware Acceleration'.

SO FAR SO GOOD

I ended up reloading the newest sketchup version and along with 10.3 the problems so far seem to be resolved. I've been trying to "beachball" and haven't been able to do it so far. In playing with the settings; hardware acceleration has to be turned on. Without it it is painfully slow, jittery, and atrocious with line weights. So keep your fingers crossed, the ship may have been righted. Thanks for your help

You can run the latest version of SketchUp under 10.3? It says on the download page it needs OS 10.4 or higher.

Hi Vicky,

I too am having problems with SketchUp crashing within 10-15mins of use on very small models (current one just 36KB). I was formerly a heavy user (since v.3) of this programme but I would term it unusable in its/on my new setup .

Please find below my quoted text as posted on the SketchUp Pro Help Group. Everything still holds true, but none of the suggested fixes have brought improvement. I have the Leopard Graphics Software v1.0 installed, Hardware Acceleration is turned off and Airport turned off, all to no avail.

I successfully use a wide variety of other software without hitch (Photoshop CS2 and CS3, Bridge CS2 and CS3, PTGUI, Lightroom etc.) but unfortunately SketchUp Pro is the only app. that is giving me problems.

I'm running 10.5.3 and SketchUp Pro v6.4.245.

Quote

"Just started to use SketchUp Pro 6 on my new Mac Pro (Dual 2.8GHz,

Quad Core, 6GB RAM, 10.5.2) and it runs very slowly - spinning ball

and elasticated panning/orbiting. I'm using the standard 256MB ATI

Radeon HD 2600 card, and all the software is up to date at time of

writing, including the recent ROM update.

I built the model I am now having problems with on my 867MHz 12" G4

Powerbook (1GB RAM), running 10.4.11 and I can still interact quickly

with it on that machine.

The model is small (just 572 KB) and I can see no reason why there

should be this speed problem on the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro is devouring previously unwieldy Photoshop files, and

I've

been stitching panoramic images up to 500MB in file size.

SketchUp is the only application I am experiencing display and speed

issues with. I am running SketchUp v6.4.245.

Any advice?

Thanks."

End quote

Not sure what else I can do, but I can no longer function effectively with SketchUp on my current machine. Specs above.

I can send a System Profiler file if required but not sure how to upload - don't want to list the whole thing in this reply.

Any further advice?

Best regards

Colin Coutts

Hi all,

Same problem for me.

MBP, Mac OS X 10.5.4 (9E17), graphic card : GMA X3100 (Intel (0x8086), device 0x2a02, revision 0x0003) (see below)

I can reproduce the problem like this : install and open sketchup, import a model (even a small one), and clic some icon in the toolbar or try to move an object. You get the colorwheel for few seconds.

The problem is solved if HA is disabled.

Cheers,

Jej

Version du système : Mac OS X 10.5.4 (9E17)

Version du noyau : Darwin 9.4.0

OpenGL Driver Monitor :

Version : 1.4

Dernière modification : 27/04/08 17:52

Type : Universel

Informations générales : 1.4, Copyright 2007 Apple Inc.

Emplacement : /Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Driver

Monitor.app

OpenGL Profiler :

Version : 4.1

Dernière modification : 27/04/08 17:52

Type : Universel

Informations générales : 4.1, Copyright 2003-2008 Apple, Inc.

Emplacement : /Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL

Profiler.app

OpenGL Shader Builder :

Version : 2.0

Dernière modification : 27/04/08 17:52

Type : Universel

Emplacement : /Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Shader

Builder.app

Intel GMA X3100 :

Jeu de composants : GMA X3100

Type : Moniteur

Bus : Intégré

VRAM (totale) : 144 Mo

Fournisseur : Intel (0x8086)

Identifiant du périphérique : 0x2a02

Identifiant de révision : 0x0003

Moniteurs :

Écran LCD :

Type de moniteur : LCD

Résolution : 1280 x 800

Profondeur : Couleurs 32 bits

Intégré : Oui

Core Image : Avec accélération matérielle

Moniteur principal : Oui

Miroir : Désactivé

Connecté : Oui

Quartz Extreme : Géré

Connecteur pour le moniteur :

État : Aucun moniteur connecté

Hello

I have been having the same problems. Though what Vicky was talking about: switching off the Air Port, might

be true. I could hardly use sketchup before, it would close every few minutes.

I started using my laptop without being connected to the internet (LAN) and Sketchup started working like a dream.

A few days later, I got back to my place and connected to the LAN again and tried to do some sketchup work, and behold, it was up to its same antics, it wouldnt even open without the rotating ball of death :)

So I tried several restarts, nothing happened, then I wondered what I had done differently when I was away, so I yanked out the LAN cable, and TADA it worked perfectly!

I hope the google team looks into this...

Regards

Eduardo

Hi everyone,

So I've been thinking about this a little bit, and I'm wondering whether any of you have tried disabling the Learning Center and whether that makes any difference. We've had a few reports that the Learning Center takes up a lot of CPU on Leopard, and this may be related to the performance issues. Furthermore, this would explain why disconnecting from the internet would help the problem. If you have any thoughts, please let us know. Thanks!

I have a MacBook 2.4 Ghz, 2GB memory that crashed every time I orbited big models. although I solved the issue of slowliness of other commands by turning the HA off, my problem was the beach ball and then crash after using orbit. that problem is really solved by turning the airport off, I now can work on large files for longer periods without crashing and orbiting all the time, I haven´t had problems so far, but hope this issue is solved in the future because one of the great things of sketchup are the online resources.

Vicky,

First, thank you so much for taking time with this issue.

I also am having problems with my macbook pro. I upgraded from a several-year-old powerpc ibook to a one-year-old intel macbook pro specifically to enhance sketchup speeds. But actually it is running much slower now. In fact, sketchup runs faster on my 6-year-old dell laptop!

I can no longer use sketchup with this computer for my work. Even on very simply models with no other programs running on the computer, right when I start it up, it is slow. I have tried all combinations of disabling and enabling hardware acceleration and fast feedback. I do have one interesting piece of information. Every so often, it will run at full speed for a few seconds. For instance, I have occasionally grabbed a model with orbit tool and tried waving it around. Usually, nothing happens, or the image updates every few seconds. But occasionally, after a long pause, I will have full fluid motion for a few seconds. Then it goes back to its normal extremely slow self.

Here are my stats:

System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.4 (9E17)

Kernel Version: Darwin 9.4.0

Boot Volume: Hard Drive

Boot Mode: Normal

Computer Name: ABCDE

User Name: mike (mike)

Time since boot: 2 days 23:21

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"

Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1

Processor Name: Intel Core Duo

Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 2 MB

Memory: 2 GB

Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B08

SMC Version: 1.2f10

Serial Number: W86113LSVJ3

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

ATI Radeon X1600:

Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1600

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x71c5

Revision ID: 0x0000

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.068

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