SketchUp [Plugins] Blog

Plugin: Colr Explorer

2009-12-05T05:43:00.011-05:00

Colr Explorer is a SketchUp plug-in for exploring colors through searches and tags.

It's simple, intuitive windows allows you to search for tagged colors, select the tags, and find similar colors to add to your model.

Selecting the color swatch will add that color to the SketchUp model, and start the Paint tool so you may begin coloring with the selected color immediately.

You will need to be online to use this plug-in.

Download Page

Installation:

Download and unzip the files to your disk drive. Then move the contents into your Plugins folder, and restart SketchUp. The folder should look very similar to the image if installed correctly.

Colr Explorer uses data (with permission) from the www.colr.org website - a free site where you can create color schemes, and tag both individual colors and schemes.

Colr Explorer uses the microajax.js - a tiny and easy AJAX library.

Plugin: Goldilocks

2009-12-02T11:54:00.003-05:00

Adam Billyard, developer of LightUp for SketchUp posted this texturing helper plugin:

Goldilocks analyzes your materials and model with respect to the current viewpoint and produces a bar chart showing which textures are about the right resolution (green bars), and which are too high resolution resulting in wasted space/larger filesize, or too low resolution resulting in a blurry look - both shown as red bars.

[ goldilocks.rb is host on SCF ]

SketchUp Annoyances: The Magic Glue to: Option

2009-11-29T18:56:00.003-05:00

Just curious if anyone has experienced this annoying behavior. Watch the Glue to: option closely...

What apparently happens is that the Glue to: option is still active even though the I have switched to the Select tab of the dialog. Eother rolling the mouse wheel, or pressing the up/down cursor keys will then change the option!

Do other dialogs behave in the same way?

LEDAS Updates Driving Dimensions Plugin for SketchUp

2009-11-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

Version 1.2 contains significant improvements in quality, stability, and performance. This was made possible because it is based on the next generation of LGS 3D geometric constraint solving software component recently released by LEDAS. The new version generates solutions that users would expect to see as outcomes. When users now modify the parameters of driving dimensions, most edges and faces remain unchanged; the only ones to change are those needed to satisfy the new parameter values. In addition, the time to solve constraints has been significantly reduced, with the Driving Dimensions plug-in now up to ten times faster than the previous version on large models.

Pirenesi Releases Free Exporter for SketchUp

2009-11-27T13:53:00.000-05:00

23rd October 2009, Cambridge, UK – Informatix Software International, a global provider of CAD software solutions, today announces the availability of the free Prianesi Google SketchUp ruby script along with a new concurrent pricing structure for the Piranesi product to ease the cost of software ownership.

The free ruby script for SketchUp enables users to export their models created in either the free or Pro versions into Piranesi, the leading artist impression tool on the market, and create artist impressions of the model.

The script itself allows the user to export the model from SketchUp to the EPix file format, where they can quickly convert rigid, hard-edged models into a softer, expressive artist’s impression. Piranesi v5.1 is more than just a painting tool – it is a graphical persuader that excels at turning conceptual 2D and 3D models into wonderfully atmospheric, stylised and persuasive visualisations.

ecoScorecard Advances BIM Capabilities With Google SketchUp™ Integration

2009-11-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

ecoScorecard Advances BIM Capabilities With Google SketchUp™ Integration

Phoenix, November 11, 2009 – ecoScorecard, the technology platform that helps building product specifiers evaluate environmental attributes of products, today revealed the new ecoScorecard plug-in that works with Google SketchUp and provides a critical link between popular BIM (Building Information Modeling) tools and important environmental rating systems such as LEED. The announcement was made today in conjunction with the opening of the US Green Building Council’s annual Greenbuild Expo.

14 Wood Textures @ cadyou.com

2009-11-21T13:21:00.002-05:00

14 nice wood textures via Cadyou: User: madhav

SketchUp Version Numbers Correction

2009-11-20T14:54:00.003-05:00

It turns out the Mac version number for the latest release is not the same as the Windows version. I correctly reported the latest Windows version as:

Windows: 7.1.6087

However the correct Mac version for the latest maintenance release is:

Mac: 7.1.5803

Enjoy your weekend.

LightUp for SketchUp 1.7 Updates

2009-11-20T10:59:00.000-05:00

Adam posted a couple of updates for LightUp this week:

A new version of LightUp is available that addresses a number of small issues.
Almost there with an Educational programme for LightUp that will offer the full version of LightUp at a reduced price for students.
Updated French Language additions for LightUp are available.

[ LightUp for SketchUp ]

SketchUp 7.1.6087 Maintenance Release Today

2009-11-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

A new maintenenace relase for Google Sketchup 7.1 is making its appearance today.

Although, no official word has been made, there are reports of the new version starting to appear on the download page and update servers. (Help menu --> Check for Update)

The version for this release is: 7.1.6087

The release notes have been published here already .

SketchUp:
Crashes:

* (Mac only) Under certain conditions, painting with the current material or clicking on a previously used material in a new model could cause SketchUp to crash. This crash should no longer occur.
* (Mac only) SketchUp can crash when zooming in large models if the "Use Hardware Acceleration" option (SketchUp > Preferences > OpenGL) is turned OFF. This bug actually appears to be caused by the software renderer, and we're working with Apple to provide a fix. To workaround the issue, on first launch of this maintenance release, hardware acceleration is turned ON for all Mac users. If you turn hardware acceleration OFF again, the crash currently could return.

Selection/inferencing:

* In the previous version selecting and inferencing seemed less precise. It was sometimes necessary to zoom in more in 7.1 than in previous versions of SketchUp and SketchUp could feel less snappy. Selection and inferencing now feel accurate and snappy again.
* In SketchUp 7.1 the intersection inference of two faces was not always found unless x-ray mode was turned on. Intersection inferences should be available again in this case.
* Text and section planes were sometimes not selected. When opening some models with text on different layers, it occasionally happened that text and section planes could no longer be selected until SketchUp was reopened. This issue has been fixed and text and section planes should always be able to be selected.
* When drawing a line from edge to edge in one of the axis directions, you could see an "intersection" inference when you should see an "on edge" inference. This issue has been fixed.
* Finite guides could be incorrectly selected. Finite guides created via Ruby were previously selected as if they were infinite guides - i.e. if you picked a point parallel to the guide or did a crossing select in that same area, the guide was incorrectly selected. These guides should now be selected only if they are directly picked.

Display:

* When editing a component and selecting a component within it, instances of that component were incorrectly highlighted if the "hide similar components" setting was checked. Instances are no longer highlighted in this case.
* Text or dimensions added to an intersection were drawn incorrectly. Text or dimensions added to intersections would previously be drawn at the origin, they should now draw where they are placed.
* Section planes appeared triangulated. When a section plane was placed directly on certain slanted surfaces, it displayed triangular faces. Section planes should no longer appear triangulated.

Collada

* Hidden geometry within groups was incorrectly exported to Google Earth. Previously, hidden geometry within a group or component was visible in Google Earth when the model was exported to Google Earth. This issue has been fixed.
* Component or group names were not exported. The Collada exporter previously did not preserve component or group names. This DAE exporter now remembers these names.
* KMZs created by earlier versions of SketchUp were not always imported correctly. In SketchUp 7.1, simple opaque colors in KMZs created in older versions of SketchUp would import as transparent. This issue has been fixed.
* (Mac only) Canceling KMZ or DAE export caused issues with subsequent exports. After canceling a KMZ or DAE export, subsequent exports would no longer work. This issue has been fixed.
* (Mac only) The "Export Components Hierarchy" option for the DA exporter couldn't be set. The "Export Components Hierarchy" option was always exporting as if it were unchecked. SketchUp should now respect whatever setting is chosen for this option.
* Placing a model twice resulted in multiple temporary places in Google Earth. When placing a model in Google Earth multiple times, the temporary place in Google Earth was not overwritten and a new temporary place was created. The temporary place should now be overwritten.

Other:

* (Mac only) Measurements box was not always responding to input. When a user brought focus to the Measurements box on the Mac by clicking in it or tabbing to it, the Measurements box no longer accepted input. This issue has been fixed.
* (Mac only)Styles browser didn't work with UTF-16 languages. When running an English version of SketchUp with a UTF-16 language setting (i.e., Korean, Chinese, Japanese), the Styles browser didn't work and was labeled "Generic browser." This issue has been fixed.
* Not always prompted to save model after uploading a component. When opening a model and uploading a component to the 3D Warehouse, SketchUp didn't always prompt the user to save the model. Saving the model is necessary after an upload in order to uniquely identify the component to the 3D Warehouse. This issue has been fixed.
* Links in Photo Texture failed to start a new browser instance. When clicking on the links in the License agreement for the Photo Texture feature, SketchUp didn't start a new browser instance making it confusing to return to the agreement. This issue has been fixed.
* Needed a way to test the origin of polygons. A Ruby method (Sketchup::Curve.is_polygon?) for testing if polygons were made with the Circle or Polygon tool has now been added.

LayOut

Crashes

* Crashing when moving models or lines. In certain scenarios, a file could become corrupt, and LayOut would crash when attempting to move or rotate a specific entity in that file. LayOut should be able to handle those files without crashing now.
* Crashing when adding or sharing a layer. It was occasionally possible for a file's layer list to become corrupt. This could cause a crash when attempting to add or share a layer. New files should no longer get corrupted in this way, and older files that showed this problem should now work as expected.
* Crashing when copy/pasting an invalid text box. It was possible to create an invalid, empty text box using the Label tool. LayOut would then crash if that invalid text box was copied and pasted. LayOut no longer creates an invalid text box, and no longer crashes when the text is pasted.
* (Mac only) Crashing when closing a document. LayOut could crash when closing a document if the Document Setup dialog was open to the Grid panel. This crash has been fixed.
* (Mac only) Crashing when rendering Hybrid or Vector SketchUp models. When rendering the far edge of a model's extents in Hybrid or Vector mode, LayOut could crash. This crash has been fixed.
* (Mac only) Crashing when exporting very large PDF files. When exporting PDFs of very large files, LayOut could hang or crash. LayOut now handles the export more efficiently and should export without crashing.
* (Windows only) Crashing when opening certain files with Auto-Render on. It was possible to see a crash when opening certain files when the SketchUp Auto-Render setting was turned on. This crash should be fixed.

Dimensions

* When creating a dimension that used Auto-Scale, the Dimension Style panel could show the wrong scale and Auto Scale setting. This has been fixed.
* When disconnecting a model-space dimension from its model, the Dimension Style panel didn't update to show that the dimension had been converted to paper-space. It now updates to show that Auto-Scale can be toggled on or off and that the scale is 1:1.
* It was possible to toggle the Auto-Scale button and chose a new scale while creating a model-space dimension, but neither of these settings actually affected that dimension. The Auto-Scale button is now disabled, and the scale will show "No Scale."

Text

* (Windows only) When switching between open documents, the Text Style > List > Start At value of one document could be mistakenly used in another document. This has been fixed; the "Start At" value is no longer carried from one file to another.
* (Mac only) When pasting new text into an unbounded text box, the existing text could lose its formatting. This bug has been fixed.

Other

* Unchecking the Document Setup > Major Grid checkbox did not toggle the visibility of the major grid when points were used. This checkbox works with the point grid now.
* The "Save As Version 1" setting could create files that LayOut 1 could not read. This would occur if the file contained dimensions or bulleted lists. This issue has been fixed. When saving a document as Version 1, dimensions are now removed from the file, and the bulleted lists are saved in a format that can be read by LayOut 1.
* (Mac only) When exporting a PDF, the options dialog listed a "Create PDF Layers from LayOut Layers" setting, which was always disabled. It's not possible to export layers to PDF, so it was impossible for the user to enable this option. We removed this setting to avoid confusion.
* If a SketchUp model used a clipping mask, it was possible to see snapping inferences to parts of the model that were clipped - and not visible. This has been fixed; LayOut should no longer snap to the geometry that is hidden by a clipping mask.
* On Machines that use international number formatting (where commas indicate the equivalent of US decimal points), it wasn't possible to create a line that was less than 1 pt wide. For instance, it wasn't possible to create a 0,35 pt line. This is fixed.
* Minor changes have been made to the default templates. There were a number of text boxes that contained kerning, which would cause a template to look different on Mac (which has kerning built into the native OS text system) and PC (which does not). The kerning has been removed from the text boxes.

squarepolygon.com: Community Edited Q & A for 3D Professionals

2009-11-19T10:10:00.000-05:00

squarepolygon.com is a new, 3D-related site where you can find answers fast by searching questions and (soon) searching tags. You can post your own questions, or provide answers to other questions.

The site is user-driven - members can vote up or down both the questions and the answers leading to better content. As more people provide feedback, the best content will naturally rise out of the mix.

Members can earn reputation points as they ask and answer questions. Users with higher reputations gain the ability to edit contents of questions similar to a wiki. (All user content is licensed under a Creative Commons License)

If you're stuck on a specific problem, or need a answer quickly, squarepolygon will likely be the quickest way to find an answer. Even if you just want to learn something new, the site's design and features will make your time well spent.

In order for the site to reach its potential, your participation is key. Visit squarepolygon.com and get in early on what will be a great community resource.

squarepolygon.com was created by Tom Moor, who in just over the past year has created not just squarepolygon.com, but 3dfilter.com and cadyou.com!

Plugin: Flatten and Extrude by Thomas Thomassen

2009-11-19T08:17:00.000-05:00

Overview
I often get tasks to model terrain and context buildings for project we do. It's dog boring work!
Today when I got a new such project with a large plan I thought there had to be a better way to do most of this repetitive work. So I wrote a crude script to lessen some of my burden.

The purpose of this script was just to get the bulk work done. Don't expect any magic from it.

[ this sketchup plugins is hosted on scf | see more of Thom's plugins ]

Plugin: Extrude Edges By Rails

2009-11-18T08:07:00.002-05:00

Another cool script from TIG:

Extrude by Rails is a tool where you select a curve to extrude, then select the side "rails" which the initial curve will follow - one for each side.

[available via scf ]

Twilight Render v1.1 Released

2009-11-17T07:36:00.000-05:00

As of Monday, Twilight Render v1.1 is out with some new features fixes:

Additional language support:

Spanish

French

Chinese (simplified and traditional)

Japanese

German

New View and Framing Tool:

Frames exactly what will be rendered and adds guide lines to aid composition

Condenses pan, orbit and look around functions into one handy tool

Allows you to accurately set the focus distance without reorienting the camera

Can be linked to a SketchUp keyboard shortcut for quick access

Grey bars are no longer needed

And More!

Video: SketchUp for Illustration

2009-11-06T12:38:00.005-05:00

Here is a great time-lapse video showing how a SketchUp user called elfpainter from Korea uses SketchUp and Paint.net to create comic illustrations.

Plugin: Smart PushPull

2009-11-06T08:29:00.006-05:00

sketchucation forum member a4chitect has released a new plugin called SmartPushPull.

It is still in rapid development, so all the planned features are not implemented yet; but it's already a great addition to your modeling toolset.

[ SmartPushPull is available on Sketchucation Forums ]

Plugins Support via Google Wave

2009-11-05T13:16:00.002-05:00

I will be experimenting with using Google Wave to provide support for my plugins, or any related issue for that matter. Just add username plugins.blog to your Wave contacts. Of course, you can also use the Contacts from or email shown under the titlebar of this blog.

Make Ortho Views Plugin

2009-11-04T17:50:00.000-05:00

A recent plugin of mine, Make Ortho Views, was mentioned on Fine Woodworking's Design. Click. Build. blog. Author and SketchUp Woodworking expert Dave Richards did a nice write-up on how the plugin can be used. Thank you Dave!

In addition to the Design. Click. Build blog, you can see more of Dave's SketchUp work in Fine Woodworking's Tools and Shops 2010. Dave produced the fantastic illustrations and accompanying plans in SketchUp for the article "A Workbench 30 years in the Making" (also available through fww.) Dave Richards can be reached at Design. Click. Build.

Also, I would like to thank this person for purchasing my make ortho views plugin:

I am running Sketchup Pro 7 on a Mac and recently (today) downloaded the make ortho views ruby. Put it/them in the appropriate folder and on run receive the following error message...Error Loading File MakeOrthoViews.rb undefined method `find_image' for JF:Module.

Can you help?

I want to help, but... how do I contact you?

Finally, I added a "Your Contact Information" field to my contact form. ;)

Plugin: Align Camera Light

2009-11-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

Al Hart (renderplus.com) posted a nifty render-helper called Align Camera Light. This plugin aligns a lighting component to the current SketchUp camera. Move the camera, and re-run the plugin to update the lighting component position as needed.

To us, create a lighting component for your renderer of choice.Here I have added 2 point lights, and made a Component of them.

Rename the Component to "camera_light".

Then simply select the Align Camera Light item from the Plugins menu, and the lighting component will be positioned and aligned to the current camera position.

That's it. An quick and easy way to set up lighting for a render.

Download PDF Manuals and Reference Cards for Google SketchUp

2009-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of quick links to download the PDF version of the Google SketchUp manual and Quick Reference Card.

Light-Up 1.7 Released

2009-10-30T08:24:00.000-04:00

Really focussed on handling of large models for v1.7 - we're seeing huge performance increases on large models.

- Significantly better at handling large models. Both in terms of lighting times which is improved but also Tourtool which is 5x faster.
- 1-click light source placement (Alt/Apple + Left mouse click with Query Tool)
- Interactive aiming of multiple light sources (Ctrl/Alt + Left mouse button with Query Tool)
- Canceling in progress lighting
- Stability improvements and bug fixes
- IES lights look in a "Lights" folder relative to your .skp file making moving files to other computers easier.
- Honoring "Hide" for individual faces
- Stop/start animation controls
- Option to use or ignore current Selection in lighting
- Fix for FBX exporter not handling some hierarchies correctly
- Fix for weird magnifying reflections
- Many fixes to IBL calculations
- Light bleeding problems fixed in many cases.
- IES Type B light support (stadium/sports lighting)
- Saves last Capture dialog state so as to not keeping popping it up each time Tourtool is used
- Compressed texture support on graphics cards that support it

Light-Up: 30 day free trial - $149 to buy

SketchUp Models Feed

2009-10-29T09:11:00.001-04:00

Just a note that I provide a shared page/RSS feed for the latest SketchUp models from FormFonts and Cadyou.com - it's a great way to keep updated when new models are posted.

Plugin :Cleanup - Select & Erase Co-planar edges

2009-10-22T08:24:00.005-04:00

Cleanup is a sketchup plugin to select and erase co-polanar and lonely edges.

It is written to take advantage of features in the latest SketchUp 7.1, and does a superb job of cleaning up uneeded edges. It will work with previous versions of Sketchup, but the results may not be as good.

Cleanup is written by Thomas Thomassen - a freelance modelmaker, designer, and webdesigner/programmer located in Trondheim, Norway .

[ Cleanup is hosted at SCF | See more TT's plugins | Thomas Thomassen ]

Question of the Day

2009-10-20T20:30:00.003-04:00

I got this request in my contacts form - I don't have an answer, so hopefully one of our fine audience members knows the answer:

Hello: I'm trying to import 3D drawings developed in Solidworks. I have the drawing in(*.eprt) format. Can you help me?

3 days left to tell Google your ideas for SketchUp.

2009-10-19T18:47:00.002-04:00

Tell Google what you would like to see for SketchUp, and vote for the best ideas.

Product Ideas for SketchUp