Sketchucation Plugin vs. Extension manager

davidmreinbold

Hi Folks
To get my SU speed under control I have finally started using the both the plugins manager as well as the extension manager simultaneously saving various Plugin sets.

However I have a feeling that I don't really know what I am doing and I find working with both very confusing as they show the same tools... to be honest I have never really understood the difference between plugins and extensions...

Are they essentially not the same and is there really a need to create these categories? Should I use just either the plugin manager of the extension manager....or both?!

How do you guys use them....?

Screen Shot 06-10-16 at 11.37 AM.JPG

slbaumgartner

It's a technical distinction that maybe could be handled better.

Initially, Ruby-based additions to SketchUp functionality were called "plugins". They usually consisted of a single code file or perhaps a code file and a folder of supporting images. SketchUp itself provided no means for managing them. The user had to do so on his own, either by moving files in and out of the plugins folder or renaming them to something SketchUp wouldn't recognize as a plugin.

Then the SketchUp team decided to provide an official mechanism for managing the plugins. This mechanism requires some specific code statements in the base Ruby file to register this particular plugin with SketchUp's management system. A plugin that contains these statements is called an "extension". SketchUp itself provides internal mechanisms to activate and deactivate extensions.

So, every extension is also a plugin, but not every plugin is an extension. The current sketchUcation managers follow this ordering, even though it causes extensions to appear in both managers.

TIG

Just to reiterate...

The Extensions Manager is just an improved version of the native manger in Preferences.
Any plugin which is written as an Extension will be listed.
You can activate/deactivate the Extensions as desired.
You can activate a selected extension or extensions permanently, or activate them just for that session only, you cannot dynamically deactivate, you must restart SketchUp to do that.
Note that the name of the Extension might not be the same as the Ruby file that creates it...
With the native tool you cannot do anything about a plain non-extension plugin.

All Extensions load some code but until they are activated not all of the tool's functions are loaded.
Without a Plugins Manager their files always load.

That is why the Plugins Manager was made, it expands you ability to manage all plugins, even when they are not extensions.
These are all listed by their Ruby file-name.
If they have a PluginStore entry their details are also displayed...
Again the Plugins can be enabled+loaded. or disabled or just loaded for just that session.
If a Plugin is also an Extension AND that Extension is currently deactivated it is shown in the Plugins Manager dialog with a gray background - to remind you that if you enable it will also need activating in the Extensions Manager.

You might have several Plugins you only use occasionally, so having these disabled until you need them and then loading them for just that session is a more effective way of managing your set up.
Every loading Plugin takes up some memory and prolongs SketchUp's startup time, so having only those that are essential to your needs makes sense...

The use of Sets in the two Managers allows you to swap your loading tools to suit what you are doing.

davidmreinbold

Thanks so much guys for explaining this. I hope that eventually plugins and extensions can be consolidated into one to make them more user friendly. In the meantime I know now that It is more effective to carry on using both managers to keep sketch up starting smoothly. Also good to know that the greyed out background in plugins manager means you have to enable the same plugin/extension in the extension manager.

Thanks again

deaneau

Hello, is it possible to use sets like in this video?
Please start at 0:40

In Cinema4d you can combine any icon (not only Sketchup's own functions) into pallets and save them as layouts.

The handling of Plugin-Sets and Extension-Sets is not quite clear to me yet.

Thanks a lot and stay healthy.