Rescue a SketchUp file, or save it for an older SketchUp
SketchUp says "This does not appear to be a SketchUp model", or "File not found or invalid", and days of work seem gone. Often most of the model is still in the file: a save that was cut off by a crash, a full disk or a cloud sync leaves the beginning of the file intact and loses the end. This tool reads what is there, shows you plainly what was found and what was lost, and writes the model again as a file SketchUp opens.
The same tool also saves any readable model for SketchUp 2017, so SketchUp Make 2017 and older Pro versions open files made in SketchUp 2021 to 2026, and converts models to STL, OBJ, GLB, DXF and PLY without SketchUp.
What to upload
- The
.skpfile that won't open. Files from every SketchUp version can be read: the format of SketchUp 2021 to 2026, the one of SketchUp 2013 to 2020, and older versions back to SketchUp 3. - Its backup if you have one:
.skbon Windows,.skp~on a Mac, in the same folder as the model. Upload both together: the file that holds the most of the model is used, and texture pictures missing from it are taken from the other. - Autosave copies, several files at once, or a
.zipof the folder.
What you get
- A SketchUp 2017 file of the model, which SketchUp 2017 (Make and Pro) and every later version open. It keeps the geometry with each edge's soft, smooth and hidden setting, components and groups with their names and placements (with their attributes), tags with their colours and visibility, materials with their texture pictures, placement and transparency, the model's units (millimetres stay millimetres), texts, dimensions, guides and section planes.
- A repaired file in its own version, when the file is from SketchUp 2021 or later and the geometry part survived whole (for example when only the end of the file or a picture inside it was damaged). It keeps everything, scenes and styles included.
- STL for 3D printing, in millimetres with Z up (or the unit you pick), every component and group in place; under "More options", also one STL per component or group.
- OBJ with its MTL materials and texture pictures in one ZIP, for Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and renderers.
- GLB (glTF) with textures, for web viewers, Blender, Unity and Unreal.
- DXF with 3D faces and PLY with colours, under "More options".
- The texture pictures used by the materials, the thumbnail stored in the file, a shaded preview of what was recovered, and a text report of everything below.
What the result page shows
For each file: the SketchUp version, whether the file holds zeros (from where, and how much), whether it ends early, which parts inside it are damaged, and what was read: faces, components, groups, materials, tags. A table lists what went into the SketchUp 2017 file and another what could not be carried over, with counts.
What recovery can and can't do
Everything still in the file can be taken out. What SketchUp never wrote, or what was overwritten with zeros, is gone, and no program can bring it back. When a file is zeros from start to finish, the page says so and lists where else to look: the backup file, SketchUp's autosave folder, the version history of OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox, Trimble Connect, and Windows Previous Versions or Time Machine.
SketchUp writes the list of what is placed where at the very end of the file. When the end is lost, components and groups are recovered without their positions; they are set side by side along the red axis so you can move them back. The component that was being written when the save stopped is recovered as far as it got, at the model's origin.
What the SketchUp 2017 file can't hold
Scenes, styles, and the camera of the original are not carried over: the file opens in the iso view with the default style. Groups come back as groups and components as components. A colourised texture keeps its colour, applied to the picture itself. Texts and dimensions attached to geometry inside components can't always be placed and are listed when they are left out.
Privacy
Results are deleted automatically after 30 minutes, or straight away with "Delete now".