Troubleshooting: Handling SketchUp Model Display Issues

Every once in a while, depending on your SketchUp and LayOut preferences or perhaps the capabilities of your computer, SketchUp model entities don’t display well or at all in the LayOut document area.

In this article, you find details and solutions to the most common SketchUp model entity display issues.

SketchUp model entities look blocky

To balance performance with display quality, LayOut displays elements in the document area at a medium resolution. If your model entities look blocky, try increasing the resolution by following these steps:

1. Select File > Document Setup to open the Document Setup dialog box.
2. In the sidebar on the left, select Paper.
3. In the Rendering Resolution area, select Medium or High from the Edit Quality drop-down list.

SketchUp model entities appear as a gray background with a red X

If LayOut lacks sufficient system memory, LayOut displays SketchUp model entities with a gray box and a red X. Although the model entities aren’t displayed, they’re still preserved in the LayOut document.

To actually see the details of the model entities, try one or both of the following:

• Select File > Document Setup, and in the Document Setup dialog box, select Paper in the sidebar on the left. In the Rendering Resolution area, select Medium or Low from the Edit Quality drop-down list.
• Restart your computer. When you log back into your computer, launch LayOut and no other applications.

SketchUp model entities are blank

If your SketchUp model contains scenes, make sure all properties are selected when creating or updating the scene. For details about managing properties saved with a scene, see Creating Scenes in the SketchUp Make and SketchUp Pro area of the Knowledge Center.