Tips about running more than one Sketchup

tfdesign

Hate to start yet another Mac vs PC war, but on a Mac, you're rid of this little curse, as you can have as many windows open at the same time in SU! By pressing the "Command" and "`" keys sequentially, you can scroll through your open windows within the current selected application.

Very useful!

Jim

@tfdesign said:

Hate to start yet another Mac vs PC war,

I think you misspelled "Love"

@dukejazz said:

Tip 5) Can use more plug-ins

Interesting idea of opening 2 SketchUp instances each with a different set of Plugins.

Related: There are couple (one free, one not) of Plugins that open a Component in a new SketchUp window for editing, then reload them in the original model:

Chris Fullmer

I'm still confused who can't open more than one window of SketchUp in Windows? I have 4 open right now. 3 from SU 8 and one from Su 7. I've had more open in the past. Its a non-issue for me. Am I doing something wrong?

Box

To roughly quote Gaieus from when I was confused about that,

Those are multiple instances of SU running. In the Mac, you can open multiple files in the same instance.

tfdesign

@jim said:

@tfdesign said:

Hate to start yet another Mac vs PC war,

I think you misspelled "Love"

Yes, you're quite right Jim! I'll rephrase that....

I don't want to start another blah blah war but.....blah blah blah........!

It is a right pita about not being able to open multiple windows of SketchUp in Windows. Perhaps Google should introduce tabs for Windows users? (I also use, (and love) Windows 7!)

edit; Sorry, yes Chris is right. I swallow humble pie! 'Multiple windows' I meant to say. You can open multiple instances. It's just, from what I remember a little clunky- having all those SU icons in the dock.

tfdesign

Yes, I just corrected myself.

Aerilius

About multiple versions of SketchUp:
As to what I tested, SketchUp sometimes loads the installation from the default directory even when you have double-clicked on the exe in another (copied) directory (the same main version number). I believe it remembers the location from the registry.

When you install another language version (I do that regularly for the help forums), SketchUp checks if its language is the same as the OS language; if not it falls back to English (for example French SU on German WinXP shows up in English). That can be quite annoying since Windows licenses are mostly for one single language.
A personal work-around is that I use Wine (when I'm not on XP), a software that pretends towards Windows programs being run on a real Windows. There I can run different SketchUp versions without knowing of each other and in different language setups.

broomstick

My tip would be: different versions save your life!

Keeping Sketchup 7 free at hand means you can import dwg files, and then open everything in Sketchup 8 free to do all the work!

jeff hammond

@dukejazz said:

Tip 2) Cut and past
a) You can cut and past between between same levels of sketchup programs. 8-8 7-7 6-6

my tip (or is this already obvious? )

use 'paste in place' instead of just 'paste'.. not only do you use the clipboard to easily bring geometry in&out of multiple windows, you use paste in place in order to put geometry in the exact same spot within the drawing area.

it's located in the file menu but should definitely be assigned to a keystroke.. i use ⇧⌘V

Gaieus

@unknownuser said:

i use ⇧⌘V

Is that Greek for Shift+Ctrl+V? (that's what I use actually)

jeff hammond

@gaieus said:

@unknownuser said:

i use ⇧⌘V

Is that Greek for Shift+Ctrl+V? (that's what I use actually)

yes, i do in fact have a greek keyboard! how'd you know?

Gaieus

Well, I did not really mean "Greek" but just the saying when something is "Greek to me". We (in Hungary) actually say "it's Chinese to me" but these proverbs have different variations.

"A hungry horse dreams of oats" would sound like "a hungry pig dreams of acorns" in Hungarian (well, would not really soundlike this as I translated it...)

jeff hammond

@gaieus said:

Well, I did not really mean "Greek" but just the saying when something is "Greek to me". We (in Hungary) actually say "it's Chinese to me" but these proverbs have different variations.

nah.. i know that saying too (and i also use the chinese version more often than the greek)..
i was just making a joke out of it..

Gaieus

Ah, one never knows...

irwanwr

@broomstick said:

My tip would be: different versions save your life!

Keeping Sketchup 7 free at hand means you can import dwg files, and then open everything in Sketchup 8 free to do all the work!

that is interesting. i think i need to search for SketchUp 7 to download.

dukejazz

[plugin] Another_Sketchup 1.0

Works in Sketchup 6,7,or 8

It works in the context menu named " - Another Sketchup ".
Just give a right click on any object for automation of loading a another sketchup.

Its helps to rework any docucments objects.
When done reworking then paste in place back to your docucment.

It have the following submenus: - note

1 Copy selected to another Sketchup. -rework object
2 Move selected to another Sketchup. -rework object
3 Paste in place to another sketchup. -rework object
4 Copy all to another sketchup. -restart unhidden plugins
5 Copy all and Exit your Sketchup. - Please place in place back after it closes to any of the open sketchup or start a skp file to auto paste in place. If it paste in place to your new sketchup and you dont need it just hit undo. Warning the copy is lost if you clip to clipboard before you paste in place.
[plugin] Another_Sketchup_Plus v1.2 is now a toolbar

dukejazz

Lower plugin memory usage, mean bigger skp graph files. Yes?

dukejazz

Your guys are right!
My tips 2 should read

Tip 2) Cut and paste or paste in place
a) You can cut and past between between same levels of sketchup programs. 8-8 7-7 6-6
b) There are some copy programs that can copy many levels of copys with sketchup (25 level+ or more) M8 Free Multi Clipboard: Free Clip, Spartan Trial Upgrade

Spartan can store, name, and save hundreds of small pasteable objects

dukejazz

6 tips for a better sketchup

Load sketchup in 2 sec, with no plugin loaded

Clean up skutchup Reg.
Load SketchUp8.reg to Wordpad.
Delete all ToolbarsUser-Bar informtion and also the ToolbarsUserCustom-Bar too. (may be a 1000) then save as sys clear.reg

Easy to load plug-ins.
Unlimited plug-in loads.
Load plug-in only when you need them.

(This is my best tip all year of 2011)
When sketchup starts it doesn't see any hidden ruby files, you can hide what you don't need to load yet,
and load the require ones that you do.
Later with a ruby toolbar script loader you can load the hidden ones you want. That's because your telling about the name, type and location of ea. plug-ins... thus no double buffering of plug-in folders and also the plug-ins are in the folder that are meant to be in.

Loads all plugins in normal plugin file.

Low ram usage on startup.

Easy to load Ruby toolbar
This perhaps is the only loader you need.

Easy to do.

Making a repeatable script loader ( use cancel to stop).
Easy to edit.
Just add rt_load

Fix most gray outs.
When you need to start an .rbs, unhide it and start a 2rd SU.

dukejazz

tip2 There are some copy programs that can copy many levels of copys with sketchup (25 level+) M8 Free Multi Clipboard: Free Clip
clip on_clip off
This make a good way to caddy tranfer objects to another sketchup.
So if you 5 trees 5 plants and 5 rocks it be eazy to arrage into a scene in another sketchup.