[Plugin][$] Profile Builder 2

Whaat

One thing that frustrates me now:

When trying to save a profile or an assembly on the local drive (C:\userXXX\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins\DM_ProfileBuilder2\Libraries)
Windows 7 never allows me to write the file there unless I launch SU as an admin (which is pretty annoying as Win7 keeps me asking "are you sure?" non stop).

Now my workaround is to save the profile/aseembly to the desktop (which is surprisingly "writeable" through SU) and then remove the file to the right place with the help of Explorer.exe ...

Is there a hack to enable direct file-writing in the AppData section without having to be in Admin mode?

Another request:

Is it possible to get a LOD approach in the profiles?
By default in your Profiles Library, a circle is made of 24 edges.
If I use it for a complex assembly, I end up with a very highpoly mesh.

For Close-ups it would be a good thing.
For long-range, it will be a total overkill.

With a LOD option, I'd select a circle preset (instead of crawling through endless dimension-basenamed different circle presets like DIA5090 DIA5100 etc.), enter the diameter, enter the precision (number of edges) and the profile generated would be ideally suited to all types of cases.

The LOD feature would be cool. I'll consider that.

I have to advise you to please not save your profiles and assemblies in the appdata folder, especially in the DM_ProfileBuilder folder. Newer versions of PB2 will not even allow you to save here. If you install an updated version, you will likely lose all of your library files if they are saved here!

optimaforever

OK thanks for the reply.

Is there a way to keep Profile Builder from refreshing the thumbnail when tweaking an assembly?
During very complex assembly building, it can be quite a hassle to wait for it to refresh, even for a mm tweaking...

And I guess the ability to DUPLICATE an assembly's element (copy/paste the properties) would be very handy too... but I suppose a feature like this is in the pipeline already...?

Anyway just like Railclone in Max, nothing beats the witnessing of the automatic generation of a perfectly programmed assembly that would have taken hours of painful manual modeling...

optimaforever

One more thing...

If we could reverse the path for the assemblies like we can do for the profiles, it would be great!
Now I have to weld the lines, and revert the spline with FredoTools... quite time consuming sometimes.

And...
If we could access to fast presets (let's say 3-4 presets that remain loaded in RAM without having to reload them again from the browser), it would be perfect!

Whaat

@optimaforever said:

One more thing...

If we could reverse the path for the assemblies like we can do for the profiles, it would be great!
Now I have to weld the lines, and revert the spline with FredoTools... quite time consuming sometimes.

Look for this feature in the upcoming version 2.1

optimaforever

Great! If you need betatesters...

juju

@whaat said:

Look for this feature in the upcoming version 2.1

take my money already!

Whaat

to be released very soon...

[flash=640,390:3u1ko8je]http://www.youtube.com/v/WTL-ykLdiAU[/flash:3u1ko8je]

pbacot

I need to use this tool more. I am not up to date in all it can do. Though I am not looking for BOM much, this is really impressive!

optimaforever

@rv1974 said:

Will v.2.1 deliver something besides reports (3D as we know it) ?

only thing i'm sure of: reversable path on assemblies

rv1974

Will v.2.1 deliver something besides those reports (3D as we know it) ?

Whaat

@rv1974 said:

Will v.2.1 deliver something besides those reports (3D as we know it) ?
Yes, there are a few other small features added (like re-building multiple profile members with one operation). There will also be a new license system that will support volume licensing.

There are also a ton of bug-fixes

rv1974

@unknownuser said:

re-building multiple profile members with one operation

Could you please post a brief gif to illustrate the feature?

Whaat

@rv1974 said:

@unknownuser said:

re-building multiple profile members with one operation

Could you please post a brief gif to illustrate the feature?

If you have PB2, you know the right-click context menu feature 'Rebuild Member'? Now you can select multiple profile members and then activate this feature instead of just one.

optimaforever

Thanks Dale,

One thing that could be handy is to be able to build assemblies from presets.
I mean, having to reencode the railings for each assemblies is really time consuming, not to mention each tweaking needs an update of the thumbnail, which is sometimes boring...

Whaat

@optimaforever said:

Thanks Dale,

One thing that could be handy is to be able to build assemblies from presets.
I mean, having to reencode the railings for each assemblies is really time consuming, not to mention each tweaking needs an update of the thumbnail, which is sometimes boring...

I hear you - perhaps this could be improved

juju

I see Profile Builder 2.1 has been released! When I select the download link (somehow there are two, refer to the same link) on the Extension Warehouse (from My Extensions), it comes up with an error message that the requested page could not be found?

facer

Following note on the listed website below gives expected availability:

Profile Builder 2.1 Released! Free Upgrade for 2.0 Customers!

Profile Builder 4 (profilebuilder4sketchup.com)

For Extension Warehouse Licensed Users: Upgrading to 2.1 is FREE!
Please upgrade to 2.1 using the Extension Warehouse
once version 2.1 is available (expected by May 13th)

Also note that version 2.1 will be available for SketchUp 2016 only.

Whaat

@juju said:

I see Profile Builder 2.1 has been released! When I select the download link (somehow there are two, refer to the same link) on the Extension Warehouse (from My Extensions), it comes up with an error message that the requested page could not be found?

That is really strange. I'll forward this to the EW team to get their input.

Mistro11

Hi, I'm an owner of Profile Builder and Artisan...great plugins!

I want to purchase Profile Builder 2 but on the web page it says SU 2016 is required. I have SU 2015 Pro. Do I need to upgrade to 2016 in order to use this plugin? I really hope not.

EDIT:
I went back and read again. I see that 2.1 is in fact for 2016 only. Why??? I really want to buy this plugin. But now my workflow would be fragmented if I decided to get the make version of 2016. Is there any plans to make it 2015 compatible?

EDIT2:
Actually I cannot use this and go back to my 2015 pro setup for my projects as we are not allowed to save and load in previous versions. I'm a bit sad about this. The main reason I wanted 2.1 is so I can reverse the orientation of assemblies. It's a must have.

Whaat

@mistro11 said:

Hi, I'm an owner of Profile Builder and Artisan...great plugins!

I want to purchase Profile Builder 2 but on the web page it says SU 2016 is required. I have SU 2015 Pro. Do I need to upgrade to 2016 in order to use this plugin? I really hope not.

EDIT:
I went back and read again. I see that 2.1 is in fact for 2016 only. Why??? I really want to buy this plugin. But now my workflow would be fragmented if I decided to get the make version of 2016. Is there any plans to make it 2015 compatible?

It was a difficult decision but, yes, 2.1 is for 2016 only. The reason is that 2.1 includes a new licensing system that could have been easily hacked with SU2015. SU2016 is more secure.

You can still buy version 2.0.6 on the Extension Warehouse (SU2015 compatible) but not for long. It will likely be replaced by 2.1.0 (2016 only) within days.

I understand that this may cause temporary frustration for some users and I am looking into potential workarounds. Thank you very much for your support of my plugins.