Sketchup

This sounds an awful lot like a video driver/OpenGL issue. You might want to try changing your video acceleration settings …turning them down and see what happens. If you turn it off completely and the program works, incrementally increase until it fails again.

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL http://www.TenonAndSpline.com/blog

...then, of course, turn it back down a notch so that the app works. ;)

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL http://www.TenonAndSpline.com/blog

Joe,

Sorry you’re having trouble getting SU to run on your computer. As Patrick mentioned, it could be an OpenGL setting. My understanding is that Vista doesn’t really “do” OpenGL and that the video drivers need to emulate it.

This is from the SketchUp Help page under Known Issues.

“Windows – SketchUp stops responding when the Learning Center window is displayed. “

“This can happen when the drivers for the graphics card doesn’t fully support OpenGL 1.5+. If updating the drivers doesn’t fix the problem, double-click on a SketchUp file to work around the issue.”

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Joe,

I had the exact same problem on my vista cpu at home. I gave up and installed it at work on a xp machine. Never could get the vista to run it, locked up everytime. I re-installed it several times with no luck. Better off putting it on another machine than messing with the settings on a perfectly running cpu just for one program.

runngt

-- It seem's I just make scrap wood and saw dust most of the time !

Thanks all.

I will very carefully try your suggestions. Will be walking on eggs as I don’t want to do anything to mess up my mission critical Adobe Photo Shop and Indesign programs (which work perfectly).

-- Joe

Patrick
In the NVIDIA control panel I see an adjustable setting that shows performance at one end at quality at the other. You can go all performance, all quality, or halfway. There is no incremental adjustment. Is this what you were talking about vis a vis video acceleration?

-- Joe

I think that’s what Patrick was referring to. Under Window>Preferences>OpenGL in SketchUp there are some options as well. You can try different combinations of checked boxes there. Of course you have to get SU open first. You could navigate into the Components folder under Google SketchUp 6 in the Program Files and open an SKP file from there.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

ok – I’ll look there – tomorrow. The rest of the day is booked.

-- Joe

Good luck with sketchup Joe, it’s worth persevering with.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

To all:
Sketchup now runs, all I have to do now is to go through the learning curve. Cutting to the chase, here is how to open it on a VISTA laptop (possibly a desktop as well) – Open C:Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp6/Componets/Architecture/”any”.skp file. I selected the first file there, and It opens up and runs like a champ. I created a shortcut for that file on the desktop so I don’t have to go through the tree each time. When I get serious about using it I’ll delete all the info in the “workaround” file and do a “save as” with a short cut on the desktop.

As some of you noted, it is some sort of driver problem. It seems funny that a back door way of opening the program gets around the problem. Also what is strange is that my computer was sent to the factory for a warranty issue back in January and it supposedly had all the latest and greatest drivers and bios installed. Also, I did the HP checkup today for updates, and it was up to date. Also went to the NVIDIA site and it looked like their latest driver was released in May 2007 well before mine was at the factory. Besides that NVIDIA said that no driver downloads are possible for laptops. (I think it has to do with creating an overtemp/fan problem that could cause a melt down. I think that at the present time there just is no real fix from NVIDIA or any other laptop mfg.

Anyway – I appreciate all you guys pointing me in the right direction. Mission accomplished!!

-- Joe

So, basically what I copied from the SketchUp site, huh?

Once you get SketchUp open, go into Help>Learning Center and uncheck the box for Show Tips at Startup. Close SketchUp and try starting it normally.

Glad you got into it anyway.

FWIW, I just built a new PC primarily for running SketchUp. I opted to put XP on it instead of Vista because of the bad things I’ve heard about Vista. I imagine that when V7 of SketchUp is released, the software will be able to deal better with the strangeness of Vista.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Running vista premium and sketchup never had a problem…

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

“Running vista premium and sketchup never had a problem…”

Some don’t. Many do according the posts on the SketchUp Help Groups and the SketchUp site’s FAQ. It’s good that you don’t have problems. It proves that SU can run on Vista.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

I think it’s a graphics adapter/driver issue more than an XP/Vista issue. I know several designers that run SU on Vista and it runs like a champ, it seems most of the people that have problems are trying to run it on a non Nvidia based adapter, or an on board adaptor..one thats integrated into the mother board. With Vista you have to make sure you have the most up to date drivers, and the most up to date version of Direct X.Like DaveR, I recently built a new computer primarily for doing drafting/design and I opted for XP as well….just to be safe. I know it works on that without issues!

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

DaveR – Yep, exactly what you said (about opening a file to start Sketchup). I’ll follow up on unchecking the show tips boxx at startup.

Brad_Nailor – My computer has a NVIDIA adaptor, but it is probably integrated into the mother board since the computer is a laptop. I’m not inclined to take it apart to look. I am confident that all the drivers including DirectX are up to date.

Those who run it successfully on Vista – are you using desktops or laptops?

Afterwhile I am going to download it onto my desktop which also runs Vista Home Premium and see what happens. It is about 9 months newer than the laptop. Probably use the desk top more anyway since it has a bigger screen and I don’t have to mess around hooking up a w/l keyboard and mouse.

-- Joe

As I mentioned before, Vista doesn’t really do OpenGL which is what SketchUp needs. I remember reading that nVidia (and others) had to write new drivers to deal with that.

A word of caution about using a wireless mouse. You may need to play around with the center mouse button assignments to get Orbit to work correctly. There are no issues with the wired mice though.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Are you saying that even though the w/l mouse center button works well with other programs it might not with Sketchup? If that is the case and if the desktop works I may forget about the laptop idea as too much of a hassle.

The only valid reason to use the laptop in the first place was to be able to use it in the shop (but only when there is no saw dust in the ar.

-- Joe

You can try a wireless mouse but many users have reported that they have to experiment with different assignments for the center mouse button to get Orbit and Pan to work. If you really want to use the wireless mouse, you can always use the Orbit and Pan buttons on the toolbar. Left and right buttons apparently aren’t impacted.

I’ve thought about having a computer in my shop but for the dust. I’m considering running CAT5 to the shop and then doing video, keyboard and mouse over CAT5. I could build an enclosure for the monitor (vented and filetered of course) and wired mice and keyboards are cheap. A plastic skin over the keyboard would prolong its life.

We do this at work in areas where staff need acess to physiological monitoring and other things while a patient is undergoing radiation treatments. It works well.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

The w/l mouse works fine.

BTW – I unchecked the show tips box at start up. While the introduction screen does not open, Sketchup still crashes. Guess I’m just destined to open it with a file, which really isn’t a big deal.

To run video, keyboard and mouse over CAT5: Is there a ready made interface for same? If so what about kicking it up a notch and doing it with a w/l router?

-- Joe

Do you get the Orbit function with the center mouse button on the w/l mouse?

Instead of opening SketchUp with a file that contains components you probably don’t want, you could save your template file to the desktop and use that to start. You’re going to want to make a decent template file anyway if you’re going to do woodworking sorts of drawings. The existing templates aren’t well designed for that but a new customized one is simple to make.

I don’t know if you could do that stuff with a w/l router. Maybe. The hardware for the remote mouse, keyboard and video is pretty simple. I’ll have to get brands and models though.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Maybe I misunderstood what you meant about the center mouse button. My w/l mouse has no center button, but it does have a center wheel that can be pushed down or tilted left or right. It also has left and right buttons on its nose.

I assume the orbit function works as intended. If I hold the wheel down the drawing can be orbited by moving the mouse. If I scroll the wheel the drawing zooms. It will zoom even when the orbit function is engaged. It doesn’t appear that the left and right tilt do anything.

10-4 on making a template. Right now I am just celebrating the high on getting the program up and running.

You don’t need to get me brands/models to remote the mouse, keyboard and video, now that this laptop is going to work. I was just curious – hadn’t heard of such a thing. But after thinking about it I have seen peripherals w/o a CPU in places like Doctor offices.

-- Joe

No, I think you did understand correctly. The center mouse button is the wheel. It appears that yours works correctly. Try holding Shift while pressing the center mouse wheel straight down. The cursor should change to the white hand of the Pan tool.

If you want a hand setting up the template, let me know. There are some little things you should do that may not be self-evident.

Cheers,

Dave

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Holdking shift while pressing wheel down changes the cursor to the white hand as you described.

I’ll let you know if need help with the template. May be a few days as I am behind on several other projects.

-- Joe

i work professionaly with cad and cam, yes i agree i download “s’ketchup” , great tool,really grear , but my first tool in wod work is my pen and a good sheet of paper, i retrocess, i almost not use cad, don’t know why, I have to speak with my shrink!

-- http://freewebs.com/linse_alain