[Plugin] SUClock - v3.1a - 02 Apr 24 - Tracking time in SU

derei · 10 Jul 2015, 19:06

If this forum is still read, especially by Fredo, I would like to thank him for this plugin at first, then to ask if a small addition to it would be possible to be made.

I was thinking to a kind of "time splitting" like in lap stopwatch. This feature should be used for sequential billing, but without the need to reset the total time of work on a project.
The idea would be to have a button (inside settings menu is fine, to be less accessible) and when that button is pressed, then "lap timer" would be reset and the user would have the total time spent to the project until that moment. The work that will follow will be counted from zero, but still the main counter will work undisturbed.

So, let's say every week or when enough working hours have built together for a payment, the "lap" is reset, the client has the invoice for those hours and then the work can continnue, then reset again after a while, invoice sent and so on. And after each reset, the "lap timer" should reset to zero, but the general timer should continue.

What I had in mind is simple, but I am afraid I over complicated it with explanations. I hope it makes sense anyway.

Would be really nice to have this. Thank you very much.

thevzitor · 22 May 2016, 10:12

Hello Fredo,

Thank you so much for all the Extensions you bring to us. They make our work so much more efficient.
I came across a tiny glitch with SU Clock recently and don't know why it happens. It counts certain days with much more than 24 hours giving tremendous amount of hours in the total.
Here a screenshot to show an example of 60:43:18 worked in a single day...
Could it be because of shared access of the temp file (stored on dropbox) from 2 different computers ?

thanks for the insight !

thevzitor

fredo6 · 24 May 2016, 08:09

@thevzitor,

There must be a bug somewhere, because even with 2 users, this represents a quite long day of 30 hours!!

Can you check the other statitics (by model, by tool) to see if you find similar anomalies.

Fredo

derei · 4 Jul 2016, 18:55

By default, when choosing to save a new suclock file (start a new project), the save path opens in the same directory as the skp file. Would it be possible to set a default directory, where all suclock files are stored? Is a bit annoying to have to navigate every time on that location, for each newly started project. Having a "default path" declared would make it more convenient.

Thanks

thevzitor · 13 Jul 2016, 09:26

@fredo6 said:

@thevzitor,

There must be a bug somewhere, because even with 2 users, this represents a quite long day of 30 hours!!

Can you check the other statitics (by model, by tool) to see if you find similar anomalies.

Fredo

Hello Fredo,

Sorry for the long silence, I forgot to check the answers on the forum.
30 hours is a long day indeed but It's getting even better with days of 282 hours or 397 hours !
but I swear I stayed in this galaxy
To give more precisions, I should tell you that I am the only user of these files.
The fact is I put all my work and affiliates suclock files on my Google Drive, which I access indifferently from two different computers.
When I started to see incoherences I tried to change the Directory for temporary tracker files on the SUClock startup parameters dialog, but without success. Could this come from there?
But since this bug is occurring on many of my files (even by tools) and seems worsening quite recently, I wonder
if this could be related to SUpro 2016 ?
Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea.
Thanks again. Cheers !

PS: I forgot to mention I keep all suclock files (including the temp files folder) in a folder on the Google Drive

fredo6 · 14 Jul 2016, 16:06

Thanks. I'll have a look to see what can break the clock.

Fredo

Sait Moore · 1 Aug 2016, 17:31

@thomthom said:

Remember people to use the donation button. Fredo deserves it!

I'd like to, but I can't read French, so I don't know what the donate requirement are. Is it available in English for the Fredo6 donations?

fredo6 · 16 Jan 2017, 22:16

NEW RELEASE: SUClock v1.9a - 16 Jan 17

SUClock 1.9a is a cosmetic refresh of the plugin, with SU2017 certification.

See main post of this thread for Download.

Fredo

fredo6 · 30 Jan 2017, 19:01

NEW RELEASE: SUClock v1.9b - 30 Jan 17

SUClock 1.9b fixes a major bug for Mac OSX platforms (it prevented the clock window to appear).

See main post of this thread for Download.

Fredo

seamoo · 3 Mar 2017, 17:37

Thanks, I'm looking forward to using this. the interface I find is a little tricky but with use....

is there anyway to get this to work with .layout files?

juju · 6 Mar 2017, 06:58

@seamoo said:

Thanks, I'm looking forward to using this. the interface I find is a little tricky but with use....

is there anyway to get this to work with .layout files?

SKetchUp and Layout have different API's AFAIK, so it will mean a (C++) re-write of the plugin.

SK_Man_2020 · 29 Sept 2017, 17:23

It doesn't work for me: produces a string of error messages each time I start up SketchUp. According to the Extension Manager it is installed, but it does not appear on the "Extensions" menu. The errors are:

Error Loading File Fredo6_SUClock.rb
Error: #<LoadError: cannot load such file -- Fredo6_!LibFredo6.rb>
D:/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/RubyStdLib/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in require' D:/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/RubyStdLib/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in require'
C:/Users/Stuart/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/Fredo6_SUClock.rb:25:in `<top (required)>'

Based on that message, I assume that it must be missing the "LibFredo" library, which mentioned at the top of this page with a helpful message and link that says: "IMPORTANT: Requires to download LibFredo6 7.4c or higher if not already installed": I clicked on that link, but I get a message saying: "The requested topic does not exist.".

Bummer! This sounded like a great tool, and exactly what I need, but not much use if it doesn't work!

So please could you fix that link, or is there another way I can get that library that seems to be missing?

TIG · 29 Sept 2017, 17:38

Have you also installed the latest LibFredo ?
https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=LibFredo6
Most of Fredo's tools need the helper files provided by his Lib.
it is clearly explained in each of his tool's installation and usage instructions.
Install it and restart SketchUp.
Any improvement ?

SK_Man_2020 · 29 Sept 2017, 18:24

Thanks! That fixed it. I figured it was the missing library, but since the link at the head of this page is broken, I didn't know where to find it.

Much appreciated!

fredo6 · 29 Sept 2017, 19:09

@sk_man_2020 said:

Thanks! That fixed it. I figured it was the missing library, but since the link at the head of this page is broken, I didn't know where to find it.

Which link is broken exactly?

Fredo

TIG · 29 Sept 2017, 20:01

I just fixed it !
The LibFredo link in post-1 was foobar !!

fredo6 · 29 Sept 2017, 20:44

@tig said:

I just fixed it !
The LibFredo link in post-1 was foobar !!

TIG,

Thank you very much.
I don't know what happened, because this seems to be the case in other main posts where I refer to LibFredo6.

EDIT: It was the case: for whatever reason, the links to LibFredo6 page were no longer valid. I updated all posts with the correct URL.

Fredo

SK_Man_2020 · 29 Sept 2017, 22:14

Thanks everyone. It's working great now, and very useful.

Just one more question: If I have several projects open at the same time in different instances of SketchUp, each with it's own clock, will that accumulate time correctly in each one, as I switch between projects and work on each one separately? No conflicts?

fredo6 · 30 Sept 2017, 09:53

@sk_man_2020 said:

Thanks everyone. It's working great now, and very useful.

Just one more question: If I have several projects open at the same time in different instances of SketchUp, each with it's own clock, will that accumulate time correctly in each one, as I switch between projects and work on each one separately? No conflicts?

It depends if all models belong to the same project or to different projects.

If same project, then, in principle the times should accumulate. I am interested to know, by the way.

Fredo

SK_Man_2020 · 30 Sept 2017, 15:23

Cool! I'll do some tests over the next few days, and let you know.

The reason I ask is because I do consulting work (recording studio design), and I often have several projects from different customers all open at the same time, and during the day I spend time on each of them, which I'd obviously like to account for separately. So I'd be billing each customer only for work I did on his project, not for work that I did on someone else's project but that got added to his by mistake.

And on the other hand, I sometimes do have two projects for the SAME customer open at once (such as two versions of the same studio design, with different layouts, that he's going to choose from later) and I'd like the work done on both of those to accumulate on one single clock.

From what I see in your documentation, I should be able to do this by having a separate suclock file for each customer, and pointing all of the SKP models related to that customer to the clock that has his name on it. That should work in theory, right?

Anyway, I'll try it out like that, and like you know what happens.

This is a great tool, by the way: Thanks for making it!