Section Properties Plugin

 Here's a new engineering plugin by engineer and SketchUp user Osvaldo Salas. There is both a limited Free version and a Pro version which is $26. The Pro version includes more functionality, a toolbar, and reporting.

SkpEngineering: Section Properties Calculator is an engineering plug-in designed for SketchUp. The plug-in locates the centroid, plastic neutral axis and calculates mechanical properties of any closed planar face defined in SketchUp. Some common applications of the calculated properties include structural design of aluminum extrusions, steel, wood and light gauge metal steel members.

Loading Portable SketchUp Plugins

At work I do not have admin access to the PC's but still wanted to use a number of SketchUp plugins. Fortunately, SketchUp is able to load plugins from any directory. This, along with a little-known command-line option allowed me to automate starting SketchUp and loading my plugins from a portable location.

I posted a small set of files at github.

I'm no Windows scripting expert, so if there's a better or more portable way then please let me know.

Small Update to STL Importer

I was alerted to a minor "off-by-one" error in my STL Importer plugin. The error has been fixed, and the updated file can be found by following the link.

To update, over-write the current file named jf_stl_importer.rb in SketchUps Plugins folder. Don't forget to restart SketchUp.