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.

SketchUp Maintenenace Release 2

Google SketchUp 8 Maintenance Release 2 (M2) is available - here's an overview of what's new.

Support for Mac OS X Lion


SketchUp now officially and fully supports Mac OS X Lion. If you have experienced any of these issues on Lion, then you are sure to benefit from upgrading to M2.

COLLADA Improvements


SketchUp's COLLADA import/export is compliant with 90% of the official COLLADA test suite, but the good news in this release is that SketchUp now preserves texture names in exported files. This should make for a smoother workflow when exchanging models with other applications.

Plugin Installer


SketchUp 8 M2 includes a new "Install Extension" button. The button is located in the Preferences/Extensions dialog. When you press Install Extension, you will be able to select a SketchUp Plugin file (.rbz) to be installed to the Plugins folder. When installed, the plugin becomes immediately available for use.

License Changes and SketchUp Pro Evaluation (Or why you may not want to upgrade right away)

SketchUp Pro has an evaluation period of 8 working hours. In previous versions after you use the 8 hours, the Pro version would automatically revert to the Free version.

Beginning with SketchUp 8 M2, the Pro version simply expires without reverting to the free version. Once expired, you need to download and install the Free version to keep using SketchUp or purchase a Pro license.

However, this change (or some other license change) has also apparently changed the behavior of SketchUp  Pro on a network. According to the comments on the Official SketchUp Blog:

The problem that arises now that you have made Sketchup not automatically switch from Pro to Free is that all of us using a floating license can't run Sketchup 8 at all when the Pro license is in use on another machine. Sketchup 8 would revert to free features when Pro was being used elsewhere in the office allowing us to still be able to work on our models.

What makes this situation worse is that I can't even use Sketchup 8 Free now because it won't allow me to install unless I uninstall Sketchup 8 Pro first. Come on guys, this has got to be fixed!

and

if I open Sketchup 8 Pro using my shared license server, I cannot open another instance of Sketchup 8 on my computer. Being able to open separate files in two Sketchup windows and compare them on two monitors is a must at my office.

If you think these changes will affect your workflow, you are encouraged to contact Google SketchUp Pro Sales. I might also bring it up on the SketchUp Pro Forum so others may benefit from the discussion.

That about covers the big changes in SketchUp 8 M2. I didn't mention the more than 150 bug fixes and performance tweaks, nor the Ruby API changes (which will be covered in another post.)

Please read the Official Google SketchUp Blog, the Release Notes, the SketchUp API Blog, and this SketchUp Forum topic for more detailed coverage and discussion of what's new in SketchUp 8 M2.

LightUp 2.3c

It has been some time since I posted about LightUp. Since then, LightUp has passed version 2 and is currently at version 2.3c sporting many great features and fixes.

From the LightUp site:

LightUp for SketchUp is a SketchUp plugin that adds realistic, realtime lighting to your sketchup models.
Add lights, add windows, and watch your SketchUp scenes glow with gorgeous reflected light, soft shadows, subtle shading. Gone are the flat, boring surfaces of old. When you're ready, you can export you lit model to a compress file containing your Model, textures and Scenes and share it with others using the free LightUp Player or LightUp Web Player.

The new release of LightUp (v2.3) is now available, in demo and retail form.

If you would like to try LightUp yourself, visit the LightUp site for a free 30-day trial, and also the LightUp forum for announcements and support.

New Version of gModeller from greenspaceLive

Derek from greenspaceLive wanted to announce the latest version of gModeller, an energy analysis plugin for Google SketchUp:

greenspaceLive www.greenspacelive.com) are proud to reveal the latest version of gModeller, the only gbXML plug-in for Google Sketchup.

gModeller is a gbXML plug-in for Google SketchUp, and has been very popular within both the SketchUp and gbXML communities for its gbXML functionality. gModeller produces a gbXML file which is useable in many different energy analysis engines including gEnergy, IES, EDSL TAS and TRANE TRACE.

In this new release, gModeller offers to help you move your modelling into the Cloud as gModeller has now been integrated with gWorkspace, greenspaceLive's cloud storage service. gModeller now gives you to the option to backup, store and sync your SketchUp model and gbXML file automatically to gWorkspace within the cloud.

Once you have chosen to use gWorkspace with gModeller, you also now gain access to versioning of your model. gModeller will sync to gWorkspace every x minutes, and each of the previous versions of your model are available.

By using gModeller with gWorkspace, you now gain great productivity. Never again will you lose a model, and, by using gWorkspace's added functionality, you can now access previous versions of your model or gbXML and access them anywhere (provided you have internet access).

In addition to this, gWorkspaces sharing capabilities also allow you to share models with other greenspaceLive users, who you can connect with and share your models, including the latest versions.

gModeller and Google SketchUp just got more powerful.

Thanks, Derek!

WebDialog#set_html fails under Safari 5.0.6

It seems Safari 5.0.6 has broken SketchUp plugins that use the WebDialog#set_html() method. SketchUcation moderator ThomThom has summarized the issue and posted a work-around:

WebDialog.set_html fails under Safari 5.0.6:

Thom has also released an updated TT_Lib2 which resolves the issue for his many plugins.

Self-Serve Google+ Invitations

Google+ is telling me I have 145 invites, so click this link if you're interested.