Symbolic Link Plugin Folder

Bob James

I posted this in another Topic, but apparently it got buried so I'm trying again as a separate post.

To assure that all of my computers are automatically using the same plugins, in addition to using a Dropbox folder identified using Fredo's AdditionalPluginsFolder, I used to use a symbolic link to another Dropbox folder as my Users...AppData...Plugins folder.

There are some plugs that must be in Users...AppData...Plugins folder to work, most do not, hence the need for two Dropbox folders.

Now, however, a symbolic link folder in Users...AppData...Plugins is no longer recognized by SU.

Does anyone know why?

Dan Rathbun

I've been having issues trying to create symlinks for SketchUp Components.

SketchUp will not use the ones I create using the Windows Scripting Host's CreateShortcut() method. They function normally within the explorer by double-clicking.

If I instead, manually create a symlink in a system cmd shell, using mklink /D, SketchUp has no problem using them.

But if I tried to use %x{mklink /D "linkname" "C:/path/to/directory"} from within SketchUp's Ruby Console, nothing happened, or I'd get a Errno::.. exception of some kind.

Finally understood the reasons (after wasting 3 days testing and study.)

(1) mklink wants pathstrings with escaped backslashes (not single forward slashes.)

(2) You must be LOGGED on as an Administrator to create symlinks.

Just running SketchUp with elevated privileges is not enough.

So a "Standard User" cannot run a script that creates symlinks from inside SketchUp, unless they're specifically given granted symlink privileges for the directory location where the link will reside. And that cannot be done whilst they are logged on. It must be set up ahead of time.

driven

@dan & @bob

I ran dropbox for a while, I don't anymore and I'm on a mac...

but, I did it the other way around...

the SU folders were real files, with symlink'd folder in dropbox.

I can't remember the exact details, but I only stopped because my laptop blew up...

may be worth some thought...

john

maxhouserocks

there are several threads on this issue now and i just realized i never posted my solution to using dropbox as a source for plugins to enable synchronization between multiple machines.

i have it listed in detail here:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=58948%26amp;p=569678#p569678