Reason why Sketchup 8 may crash

KottonKing

I am having serious issues with Skethcup crashing. Last night I had a total of 23 crashes. Of all versions of Sketchup, version 8 is by far the most buggy. I can do some of the same things in an older version and no crashes... My crashes usually occur while using Sketchy Physics. It gets extremely frustrating while in the middle of making a model and BAM!!! Crash!

I make very complex Sketchy Physics models using all kinds of joints and literaly hundreds of grouped objects. I do understand that having such complex models broadens the way for more and more crashes and more often. But as I said I have made similar models in older versions of Sketchup and Physics with little to no crashes.

kachupp

I have a new Batch file (BTM 4nt/tcc only) solution.

: # Programmatically simplified description of what the batch file does.
: #
: # add default loop variable or user specified
: # make sure variable is numeric if not display error and quit
: #
: # display task
: #
: # start loop
: # hit anykey to cancel loop and batch file.
: #
: # if the registry key exist .and. the registry entry does not have the required key BarID
: # delete the registry entry (per :ToolBar_Label)
: #
: # show loop counter
: # loop
: # endloop
: #
: # display valid #COUNT entries
: # clean up environment
: # end batch file.

Extract and open the batch file in any text editor. Read the notes!

Advanced Batch file

TIG

@kachupp

This tool requires a not inexpensive 3rd-party add-on to Windows to be usable...
Can't it be done in a normal cmd/bat format ?

kachupp

@tig said:

@kachupp

This tool requires a not inexpensive 3rd-party add-on to Windows to be usable...
Can't it be done in a normal cmd/bat format ?

Hi TIG .. The functions I used in the script are available in the FREE TCC/LE "light" version
@isdigit[] .. @regexist[] .. @regdelkey[] ..@regquery[]

TIG

OK.

That's not so bad.
Might have been a good idea to explain that in the original post though
AND it's limited to 'home use'...

TIG

Reading your code it doesn't seem to overcome the ever growing list of Toolbar entries which are made from unused entries as a new toolbar arrangement is saved and supersedes the current one. This is what slows SketchUp's startup as all of the entries are read - even those that are subsequently unused...

For that you probably need to remove all toolbar entries with duplicate BarID values, but how do you decide which is the more current to retain? The highest ...BarN might work, but then because there are holes in the numbering do newly made ones with the same BarID fill the gaps to confuse the next use of this cleanup tool, or could you perhaps remake the lone BarID entry with the most recent values using oldest number [lowest] of BarN and erase the other higher numbered exact duplicate version ?
This gets us into a terrible tangle as several entries seem to refer to one another, so it'd be all too easy to cross-thread the Registry ! Aaargh!

kachupp

@tig said:

Reading your code it doesn't seem to overcome the ever growing list of Toolbar entries which are made from unused entries as a new toolbar arrangement is saved and supersedes the current one. This is what slows SketchUp's startup as all of the entries are read - even those that are subsequently unused...

For that you probably need to remove all toolbar entries with duplicate BarID values, but how do you decide which is the more current to retain? The highest ...BarN might work, but then because there are holes in the numbering do newly made ones with the same BarID fill the gaps to confuse the next use of this cleanup tool, or could you perhaps remake the lone BarID entry with the most recent values using oldest number [lowest] of BarN and erase the other higher numbered exact duplicate version ?
This gets us into a terrible tangle as several entries seem to refer to one another, so it'd be all too easy to cross-thread the Registry ! Aaargh!

Hi TIG

What I am finding is that Getting Started and Large Tool Sets are some of the duplicated BarID values you mentioned. SU doesn’t add the BarName value to its own making it a little more tedious to sort through manually. Its either visible or not 0/1

Will look into more on the weekend

This is what I got so far

ToolbarsUser-Bar0 = Standard
ToolbarsUser-Bar1 = Principal
ToolbarsUser-Bar2 = Camera
ToolbarsUser-Bar3 = Drawing
ToolbarsUser-Bar4 = Modification
ToolbarsUser-Bar5 = Construction
ToolbarsUser-Bar6 = Solid Tools
ToolbarsUser-Bar7 = Walkthrough
ToolbarsUser-Bar8 = Styles
ToolbarsUser-Bar9 = Views
ToolbarsUser-Bar10=Sections
ToolbarsUser-Bar11=Large Tool Set
ToolbarsUser-Bar12=Google
ToolbarsUser-Bar13=Getting Started
ToolbarsUser-Bar14= UNKNOWN
ToolbarsUser-Bar15=Shadows
ToolbarsUser-Bar16=Layers
ToolbarsUser-Bar17=Measurements
ToolbarsUser-Bar18= UNKNOWN
ToolbarsUser-Bar19= UNKNOWN
ToolbarsUser-Bar20= UNKNOWN
ToolbarsUser-Bar21= UNKNOWN possible toggles for menu items

Values after Bar21 are allocated to Plugins "BarName"
These unknowns maybe Menu item toggles

kachupp

My findings

The ToolbarUserCustom-bars appear to be backups of ToolbarsUser keys changing only x & y pos if moved.
The mess in the registry is made by users trying different plugins then adbondoning the plugins because it may not be what they are after these remanences have no way of cleaning them selfs up.

danielbowring

Absolute confirm on this - went from about a minute to launch to a second or two.

If you have python installed on your system, here's the script I used to remove the keys:
Usage: (all values have reasonable defaults, so just executing the script is fine)


$ clean_sketchup_reg.py -h
usage; clean_sketchup_reg.py [-h] [--path PATH] [--root ROOT]
                             [--pattern PATTERN] [--verbose VERBOSE]

Sketchup Toolbar cleaner

optional arguments;
  -h, --help         show this help message and exit
  --path PATH        registry path
  --root ROOT        root key
  --pattern PATTERN  remove pattern
  --verbose VERBOSE  verbosity

Code:


import _winreg as reg
import re
import sys
import argparse

def get_root_key(name);
    try;
        key = getattr(reg, name)
        return key
    except KeyError;
        pass
    raise ValueError('Root Key "%s" was not found' % name)

class Cleaner(object);
    def __init__(self, root, path, pattern);
        self.root = reg.ConnectRegistry(None, root)
        self.set_path(path)
        self.pattern = pattern

    def set_path(self, path);
        current = self.root
        for p in path.split('/');
            current = reg.OpenKey(current, p)
        self.active_path = current

    def clean(self, print_errors=False);
        removed = 0
        index = 0
        while True;
            try;
                key = reg.EnumKey(self.active_path, index)
                if self.pattern.match(key);
                    try;
                        reg.DeleteKey(self.active_path, key)
                        removed += 1
                    except WindowsError, e;
                        index += 1
                        if print_errors;
                            print 'Failed to remove', key, ';', e.message
                else;
                    index += 1
            except WindowsError, e;
                return removed

if __name__ == '__main__';
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Sketchup Toolbar cleaner')
    parser.add_argument('--path', type=str, help='registry path', default='Software/Google/Sketchup8')
    parser.add_argument('--root', type=str, help='root key', default='HKEY_CURRENT_USER')
    parser.add_argument('--pattern', type=str, help='remove pattern', default='^ToolbarsUser(Custom)?\-Bar\d+$')
    parser.add_argument('--verbose', type=int, help='verbosity', default=1)

    args = parser.parse_args(sys.argv[1;])
    
    root = get_root_key(args.root)
    path = args.path
    try;
        pattern = re.compile(args.pattern)
    except Exception, e;
        raise ValueError('Invalid pattern ; ' + e.message)

    cleaner = Cleaner(root, path, pattern)
    result = cleaner.clean(args.verbose >= 2)
    if args.verbose >= 1;
        print 'removed', result, 'keys'

Edit: Obligatory disclaimer, use at your own risk. I've tested it on my system and found no issues.

You can also use this script to clean webdialog entries:


clean_sketchup_reg.py --pattern "^WebDialog_.*$"

thomthom

@kachupp said:

My findings

The ToolbarUserCustom-bars appear to be backups of ToolbarsUser keys changing only x & y pos if moved.
The mess in the registry is made by users trying different plugins then adbondoning the plugins because it may not be what they are after these remanences have no way of cleaning them selfs up.

Some times dead entries multiply themselves due to SketchUp bug. It's not just uninstalled plugins.

kachupp

@tig said:

@kachupp

This tool requires a not inexpensive 3rd-party add-on to Windows to be usable...
Can't it be done in a normal cmd/bat format ?

Yes I have found a way to do a .BAT / .CMD style way very simple indeed

It appears just by deleting two specific keys instead of all has the same effect as resetting the DAY one toolbar
option. Then re-instate the deleted keys restores the two deleted entries without duplicate errors. These re-instated
keys do need the correct data not a problem will get to the bottom of it. "reg import whatever.reg" quick fix

It shouldn't in theory matter if you have thousands of useless keynames but it does because of a possible bug that's known. TT said so, I take his word as the truth Love your work Thomas

Will get back soon.. But the two keys we are interested in are ToolbarsUser-Summary / ToolbarsUserCustom-Summary
if they don't window each other its a problem. The data stored in those keys isn't hard to comprehend.