2016 runs fine, 2017 does not

mrossk · 16 Mar 2021, 20:06

Hello all, I wonder if anyone can help. For years, I've been happily running 2016 Make, on both a cheap-o Dell laptop (with integrated Intel graphics card), and a decent HP desktop(with a discreet graphics card.) Not so long ago, I "upgraded" to 2017 Make because of some plugin conflicts. 2017 runs really poorly on both machines, worse on the laptop. For the first few minutes modelling is fine, but then it gets progressively slower and slower. Literally waiting a few seconds for any command to be accepted. I have updated all drivers, rebooted Sketchup (to "run as admin),and anything else I can think of- disabling hardware acceleration (changing anti aliasing, etc...), but no luck. 2016 still runs well on my laptop. Unfortunately, I was too hasty to delete 2016 from my desk top, and have to struggle with 2017. There's no way to find an old copy of 2016, is there?
I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.
Thanks,
Michael

Dave R · 16 Mar 2021, 21:37

Hi Michael,

Two possibilities come to mind. Incorrect installation. You need to right click on the downloaded installer and choose Run as administrator for correct installation. If you didn't do that initially, close SketchUp, find the 2017 Make installer, right click on it, choose Run as administrator, and then when presented with the option, choose Repair.

The other thing to do is make sure your graphics drivers are up to date. don't trust Windows to tell you this. Go to the graphics card's manufacturer's site, get their latest drivers and install them. Windows updates often include graphics drivers that have been "optimized" for Windows. It's not uncommon to have them break things instead.

What is the GPU?

mrossk · 16 Mar 2021, 23:26

Hi Dave- Thanks for checking in. On both machines I have "run as admin and repair". My laptop has just a cheesy Intel graphics card, and I have run the driver updates. 2017 still lags terribly, but 2016 runs fine.
My desktop has an AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card. I know Nvidia is preferred, but none of my models are large or heavy, and I thought it should work o.k. for simple models. Again, before I foolishly deleted it, 2016 ran fine.
I saw that there was some sort of Open GL change between 2016 and 2017 Sketchup, though as far as understanding it, I'm out of my league. I wonder if there's something I can do to accomodate whatever that change was.
Is it possible to copy 2016 Make from my laptop to my desktop? I'm skeptical, but thought I'd ask.
Thanks again,
Michael

Dave R · 16 Mar 2021, 23:37

Hi Michael,

There was a change in the graphics pipeline. You could try changing the state of Use Fast Feedback in Window>Preferences>OpenGL and see if you get a different result.

As for SketchUp 2016, if you still have the installer on one of your computers you could use it. Copying the installed program isn't as straight up. I'm not sure if you can still get the 2016 Make installer. It might be available somewhere.

mrossk · 17 Mar 2021, 00:08

Thanks again Dave- Unfortunately I must have gotten rid of the 2016 installer (rookie mistake!), but I did find one for 2015. So if worst comes to worst, I have that.
Best,
MK

Dave R · 17 Mar 2021, 00:16

I found this link for 2016.