[Question / Suggestion] Were plugins should be (in menus) ?

[derei]

Hy to all plugin developers which spend their time and nerves to make beautiful and useful plugins for SketchUp, so our work becomes much easier. I really appreciate this. I tried to join their "squad", but maybe I don't have what it takes... i'm not a very good programmer.

I noticed a (uncanny) trend for plugins to be placed under Tools or Extensions (former Plugins) menus, while letting all other menus almost unpopulated and crowding this two. Many "Drawing" plugins that are NOT under DRAW menu, many "Import/Export" plugins that are not under FILE menu, for camera is the same...

I was wondering if something could be done about this... maybe some of the plugin developers would be willing to rethink their plugin menus locations. I think would be better for everybody to have them more equally distributed, based on their main purpose/functionality.

Thanks a lot for taking this into consideration.

[tt_su]

Yea - this is a good topic. I've been thinking that it's be beneficial to have an official UI/UX guide for extensions. I aired the idea internally recently as something that would be a good project to do. Personally I'd prefer to host it on GitHub such that it's possible to use the issue tracker. Maybe make use of GitHub pages. (but that's details)

We certainly see a lot of different approaches when we moderate the extensions on Extension Warehouse and some times makes suggestions in order to encourage extension developers to follow the existing SU conventions. But there is a need for a descriptive guide.

[derei]

First step has been made, by saying this out loud and drawing developer's attention about this issue.
Maybe the second step would be to have a guideline that will describe how a plugin or extension should behave in order to fit in each category.
This way, anyone wants to make a plugin can decide (and then the forum will evaluate that decision) where to put that plugin, in which menu.

[derei]

I worked on a quick mock-up to how plugins could be structured. Is not perfect, nor ideal, is just an idea. Feel free to change it, disregard it, read it, appreciate it.
Also, many plugins will fit in several categories, maybe there should be voted by forum members when a new plugin gets launched,where it fits best, or to let it to author's discretion.

Main idea was to stick on SU way of distributing native commands. That's not perfect either, but is good to preserve a consistency, so the user get's accustomed with a certain workflow, things preserve their logic, somehow.

FILE
Generally, things that interact or manipulate the file itself

• importer/exporter

• print
  EDIT
  Anything used to edit geometry as a whole

• copy/paste, move, array, mirror geometry

• boolean
  VIEW
  Tools that alter what user sees, but NOT camera-related.

• section plane tools

• hide/show tools (by material, by layer, etc)

• toolbar and menu editors (just because SU already has Toolbar menu here).
  CAMERA
  Anything that can change or alter the camera (viewpoint)

• camera tools

• animation tools

• scene tools
  DRAW
  Anything that DRAWS geometry or is altering the existing one
  Here we have a caveat: some tools (like artisan) draw geometry based on existing one, but I don't consider it fitted here. Also JPP does similar but still not suitable here. Maybe this needs further studying.

• lines, shapes, 3d (spheres, cubes, x-hedrons)

• draw construction lines

• draw construction points

• convert lines to walls, tubes, frames, surfaces, other shapes

• convert cloud points to surfaces (triangulation, etc)
  TOOLS
  Any tool used to directly interact with geometry

• Scale tools

• sculpt tools, etc

• geometry shape alteration tools - THAT DON'T DRAW new geometry, but only alter the existing one !! If your tool is drawing new geometry (eg. Lines to Tubes) should be under DRAW menu.

• booleanAlso, JPP could get in here, even if under certain condition it will draw new geometry, but that's not its primary function (when thickening option is used, for example)

WINDOW
Any plugin or command whose primary function is to open a window or interacts with a window.

• layer tools?
  EXTENSION
  Complex plugins and extensions that don't offer only one primary function. (eg. Fredo Tools if installed as collection).

• Renderers

• all texture interactions, including UV

• all material interaction (replace, edit,etc)

• purgeOther suggestions please

HELP
All help stuff.
Despite the fact that having multiple menu entries for the same plugin shouldn't be a good idea (should be kept as submenus under the main plugin menu), maybe it would be useful to add the help links here.
Open for suggestions.

Thank you very much. Hope it helps.

[fredo6]

@derei,

Interesting, but I remember a discussion where it was advised to organize plugins based on a main entry menu labelled with the author name, usually in the Plugins menu, and then put all author's plugins under this main menu entry.

Fredo

[derei]

@fredo6 said:

@derei,

Interesting, but I remember a discussion where it was advised to organize plugins based on a main entry menu labelled with the author name, usually in the Plugins menu, and then put all author's plugins under this main menu entry.

Fredo

And you offer this option, which is great. But you also offer the option to organize the plugins different, if I remember the settings interface correctly. But think on perspective: if ALL plugins would be organized by author, but someone develops some totally unrelated plugins (camera tools and extruding tool, let'say), they would be in the same place. Completely not intuitive.

Second, there are several plugins available which do similar things more or less. And more will appear. If users start to bind a tool to an author and tool gets replaced with a better plugin, a confusion will appear. Not helpful to maintain workflow.

Best would be as you do: offer option to install plugins as collection (by author, in Extensions), or to place them in menus by their functionality. (This was covered under EXTENSIONS menu suggestion in my list).

[thomthom]

Due to the different ways people prefer to organize their workspace it would perhaps be good to have a code library that can easily be dropped into existing plugins which would allow users to set their preference and the library would then make adjustments to the menu placements based on that.

That way users can group menus by extension if they want. I can see the desire for that. Looking over in all the various menus can be confusing.

[derei]