Troubleshooting: SolidCraft won’t start

0.10.0 closes a few seconds after it starts (Windows)

SolidCraft 0.10.0 crashes at startup on Windows PCs that draw with Direct3D 12 and the system shader compiler. That covers older Intel graphics, PCs without a graphics driver (the “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter”), virtual machines and Remote Desktop sessions. Install 0.10.1 or later, which fixes it. Versions before 0.10.0 don’t have this problem.

Start in safe mode

Safe mode starts with default settings (your own settings stay as they are, for the next normal start), skips the “Recover unsaved design?” offer and draws with the software renderer.

• Windows: run solidcraft.exe --safe-mode from a terminal in the install folder, or add --safe-mode to the end of a shortcut’s Target.
• macOS: open -a SolidCraft --args --safe-mode
• Linux: solidcraft --safe-mode (Flatpak: flatpak run ai.storyteller.solidcraft --safe-mode)

Setting SOLIDCRAFT_SAFE_MODE=1 does the same. From 0.10.2, if two launches in a row stop before the window opens, the next one starts in safe mode by itself. SOLIDCRAFT_RENDERER=cpu uses only the software renderer and keeps your settings.

A design won’t open or hangs while opening

• Open the previous save. Every save keeps the version it replaced next to it as <file>.bak (see Files). Copy it to a new name ending in .solidcraft, for example bracket-previous.solidcraft, and open that. Work saved after the previous save is not in it.
• Check the crash reports. If SolidCraft crashed while the design was open, the newest report in the crashes folder (see the table below) usually holds a design.solidcraft with the design as it was. solidcraft-cli crashes lists the reports.
• Unsaved designs are in the recovery folder, not next to the file.
• Report it. GitHub doesn’t accept .solidcraft attachments, so zip the file (design.solidcraft.zip) and attach it to an issue, with the crash report if there is one.

Reset the settings

SolidCraft keeps its settings and its data in the folders below. All installed versions share them. No version changes anything outside them: no system settings, drivers or registry entries. Quit SolidCraft, then rename (don’t delete) the folders. SolidCraft starts with defaults and makes new ones. Rename them back to restore your settings, or send them to us with a bug report.

On Windows, paste %APPDATA% or %LOCALAPPDATA% into the Explorer address bar to open the folder. Releases before the rename used SolveCraft folders next to these; SolidCraft only reads them, so you can leave them alone.

• The recovery folder holds autosaves of designs that were never saved. Rename the data folder rather than deleting it, so you can still open those autosaves (.solidcraft files) with File > Open.
• The crashes folder holds crash reports. Please attach the newest one to a bug report.

From 0.10.2, SolidCraft also checks the settings files at start. A file it can’t read is renamed to app.ron.bad-<time> or graphics.json.bad-<time>, and SolidCraft starts with defaults instead.

“No graphics adapter” or nothing happens at all

SolidCraft needs Direct3D 12 or Vulkan on Windows, Metal on macOS, and Vulkan or OpenGL on Linux. Without a graphics driver it falls back to the system’s software renderer (WARP on Windows, llvmpipe or lavapipe on Linux), which is slow but works. From 0.10.2, if no window can be opened at all, SolidCraft tries the software renderer once and otherwise shows a message saying what failed (earlier versions closed without a word).

On Windows, if the graphics API cannot create the window’s renderer, SolidCraft tries the remaining APIs in order: Direct3D 12 → Vulkan → OpenGL, then software rendering. The status message and Preferences › Graphics say which API failed and why. The saved graphics preference stays unchanged. With an explicit WGPU_BACKEND, a failed start shows the error and exits without switching; change or remove that variable to try another API.

Things to try:

• Install the graphics driver from the GPU maker (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) rather than Windows Update.
• In a virtual machine, turn on 3D acceleration. Over Remote Desktop, try it on the machine itself.
• Run solidcraft --crash-log to list recent crash reports, and attach the newest one to an issue.
• On an Intel Mac (Intel Iris graphics, macOS 12), “Parent device is lost” at start comes from the Metal compiler refusing wgpu’s indirect-call validation shader. SolidCraft leaves that validation off on Intel Macs. To change it, set WGPU_VALIDATION_INDIRECT_CALL=1 (on) or 0 (off) before starting; a value you set is always kept.

The desktop stutters or freezes while SolidCraft builds bodies

Some graphics drivers hang on the shader SolidCraft uses to build bodies on the GPU, and the system then resets the GPU. SolidCraft already builds bodies on the CPU on the AMD FirePro D300/D500/D700 (Mac Pro 2013). On another GPU that does this, start SolidCraft with SOLIDCRAFT_CPU_TESS=1 set to build bodies on the CPU, and open an issue with the GPU’s name.

The interface looks blurry on Linux with display scaling

On Linux, SolidCraft runs through XWayland whenever an X display is available, because file drag and drop from a file manager only works there (niri is the exception and stays on native Wayland). A compositor that doesn’t let X11 apps scale themselves draws an XWayland window at 100 % and stretches it to the monitor’s scale, so text and icons look soft. That happens with fractional scaling (125 %, 140 %), and on GNOME 47 (RHEL and Rocky Linux 10) at any scale, 200 % included. The diagnostics in a bug report show it as about 1 physical pixel per point at a scale of 200 %.

Run SolidCraft on native Wayland instead: Preferences › Graphics › Window system › Wayland, which applies at the next start. Versions without that setting (0.21.0 and earlier) take SOLIDCRAFT_WAYLAND=1 in the environment:

SOLIDCRAFT_WAYLAND=1 solidcraft

On native Wayland, dropping files onto the window doesn’t work; use File > Open or pass the file on the command line. Wayland, XWayland and niri has the details.

SolidCraft closes right away on Windows

A graphics driver can crash the app while it starts, before SolidCraft can show anything (an old Intel Vulkan driver, igvk64.dll, did). Windows’ Event Viewer names the driver under Windows Logs › Application (“Faulting module name”).

From 0.11.1, SolidCraft on Windows starts Direct3D 12 first and loads no other graphics API when Direct3D 12 has a graphics card; Vulkan and then OpenGL are tried only on a computer without one. Earlier versions started Vulkan, Direct3D 12 and OpenGL together and preferred Vulkan. To choose the graphics API yourself, in any version, open a Command Prompt and start SolidCraft from it:

set WGPU_BACKEND=dx12
"C:\Program Files\SolidCraft\solidcraft.exe"

vulkan and gl are the other choices. setx WGPU_BACKEND dx12 keeps it for apps started from the Start menu after you sign in again. From 0.11.1 the setting can also live in graphics.json in the settings folder, as {"msaa": 4, "backend": "dx12"} (auto is the order above). Safe mode ignores it and always uses the software renderer.

With OpenGL on Windows, the window has the Windows title bar above SolidCraft’s application bar instead of using the application bar as its title bar. Some OpenGL drivers (older Intel HD and UHD graphics) otherwise show the picture a title bar’s height lower than the window, so clicks land above what they point at.

SolidCraft restarted, saying the graphics device was reset

When the graphics driver stops responding, the system resets it (on Windows, “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered”), and the graphics device SolidCraft draws with is gone for good: the window can’t draw anything more. SolidCraft then closes, keeps your unsaved changes for recovery as it does after a crash, and starts again; the new window says what happened and offers the changes back. If the device is reset again within ten minutes of that restart, the next start uses software rendering, which doesn’t depend on the graphics driver. Updating the graphics driver from the GPU maker usually stops the resets.

A design saved by 0.10 won’t open in an older version

Designs saved by a newer SolidCraft use a newer file format. Older versions refuse them with “this design was saved by a newer SolidCraft” and don’t change the file. Open them with the current version.

Save As says the file can’t be found (Windows)

If saving into Documents (or Pictures, Desktop and other protected folders) fails with a “File not found” message from the Windows save dialog and nothing is saved, Windows Security’s Controlled folder access is probably blocking SolidCraft. Windows usually also shows an “Unauthorized changes blocked” notification. Either save to a folder that isn’t protected, or allow SolidCraft: Windows Security › Virus & threat protection › Ransomware protection › Controlled folder access › Allow an app through Controlled folder access, then add solidcraft.exe.