Google Sketchup Windows Opening Offscreen
Posted on July 7, 2012
Running more than one monitor is a real time saver. While most of the time programs work as expected, occasionally they don’t.
The culprit today was Google Sketchup. I had just moved my default monitor to accommodate CycberLink Power DVD. Which I now know it does not support multi-monitors. When I changed the default monitor it throws off any program that saves the location of the last window closed. Many programs do this so the program will open in the last position you closed it. For example if you close a program that is located at the top left corner of your monitor, when it saves the location is saves it as 0,0. Running multi-monitors and if you default monitor is to the right of monitor B then the you can start to have negative locations, such as -1280,0. Switch the default monitor to the monitor on the left and the next time you open a program it may open 1280 pixels off screen. And there is no hope of getting your mouse that far off screen to grab the window.
There are two ways to fix this issue.
Option 1. If you can maximize the window, by right clicking on the windows application bar at the bottom of your screen. When you maximize a window it takes the upper left hand corner as the starting point. Then uses the monitor size and sets the other corners to the max size. So the saved location is no longer used. If you get Sketchup to maximize you should be able to reset workspace by going to menu at the top and choose Window, then Preferences, then Workspace and choose Reset Workspace. If the preferences window opens off screen then you will need to go with option 2.
Option 2. This may mess with your icons on your desktop. Go to the program or screen properties that controls your monitors and disable all but one monitor and choose apply. Depending on how your system is setup you may have to reboot. Then open sketchup, since there is only one monitor it will force the program to the one monitor. Then go to the menu and reset the workspace. Now you can enable your other monitors and put all your desktop icons back where they belong.
If that fails you have the option to find the profile file for the program and rename it. This will force the program to open at it’s default location. If you try to uninstall the re install the program that will not work since the profile file is not removed.
Thank you, option two worked for me like a charm
Thank you, option two worked for me like a charm!
Changing the resolution didn’t do it for me.
In Windows 8, I sometimes have a second screen plugged in, but it was on the second-screen position even though my display settings (Win+P) were set to “PC Screen Only”.
Toggling this setting to “Extend” (despite no other monitor plugged in) then back to “PC Screen Only” did the trick for me.
RealGrounchy tip worked incredibly well. Thank you
Ditto!
There is a lot of advice around on how to fix this problem, but yours was the only one that worked for me. Thanks for posting.