Calling Whaat and Fredo!! new MAC issues (SOLVED)

thomthom

Thom, if a company fails to deliver what it says it delivers, don't you think that you have a right to criticise it? Google need to address this problem, because it is a problem.

Yes, by all means.

@tfdesign said:

I think I am completely within my rights to call a company, or an individual, unprofessional, if they fail to deliver what they say they will deliver

True.
But what is it Google hasn't delivered here in regard to the plugins in User vs HD section?

@tfdesign said:

The reason developers like user directories is because something that is paid for is owned by an individual, and not a group, that's why this confusion happens.

None the less. Nowhere from Google does it say to use the User directory. On PC they are in Program File which is shared by all, and on OSX they should be on HD.

What I was pointing out was that you blamed Google for the User vs HD confusion. Where I see no reason for that, as all the info I from from Google says HD. If a user puts it in the user directory while the documentation says HD, then that is not Google fault. That there is two areas of OSX that look alike is also not Google's fault. If a user or developer install a plugin outside HD, then they are doing that counter to the official instructions.
Is it for that I don't see it just and call them unprofessional on the basis of the folder confusion. And calling them unprofessional is also no "solution" - which is why I mentioned it. But I take it that the statement was a wish for Google to take action and help their users as there is a seemingly widespread issue. And I agree with that. And I also agree that SU would be much better if there was a builting plugin manager, installer/uninstaller so SU would take care of all this itself.

wind-borne

@chrisjk said:

In my case, the Podium stuff turned out to be a red herring.

Immediately upon opening SU after installing Podium, several plugins
broke down.

Immediately after flushing what Podium created, SU plugins worked properly in the proper location.

In between, some valuable learning experiences coupled with rage.

fredo6

Could one Mac users having installed Podium and having scripts in the User folder do us a favor and open the Ruby Console and type $: and then report the result.

For info, the command $: contains the folders where SU is looking for scripts.

Thanks in advance

Fredo

chrisjk

@unknownuser said:

Fwiw, I have a few of the recently mentioned rubys in this thread and the all work fine with su7.1.
Projections, booltools, profile builder, bezier spline, all are installed in the main library plugin folder and I have no plugin folder in the user library.
Again, the user library plugin folder is not there with a fresh SU install and these type of problems begin upon installing podium( which creates a user plugin folder) or by the user creating a plugin folder there.
If you insist on keeping a plugin folder in the user library then you're going to continue having these problems. Google doesn't put it there so why make it?

Jeff,
I have tried installing Profile Builder as you suggest but to no avail - it is not to be seen. The manual makes explicit mention of this "The plugin may NOT work if installed to the following directory: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 6/SketchUp/Plugins" and although I am using SU7.1 (5803) rather than the version 6 mentioned by WHAAT,it makes no difference. The other plugins you mention will work in either place albeit missing some toolbars/icons or actual tools as in the case of Fredo's BZ tools.

Chris

Edson

$:
["/Users/edson/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Tools", "/Users/edson/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/Podium.bundle/Contents/MacOS", "/Users/edson/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/Podium.bundle/Contents/Resources", "/Users/edson"]

fredo6

Thanks Edson,

I forgot to ask about the default Plugin Folder.
You need to type Sketchup.find_support_file "plugins" in the Ruby console.

What I suspect is that the result would be the '/User...' folder (the first one in the $: list.

Unfortunately, some scripts, among which BezierSpline, make the assumptions that the icons folder is located underneath this Default SU Plugin folder, whereas the real folder is in the '/HD...' folder, along with main script. You may have the same problem with JPP.

I tried to fix that with LibFredo6. Could you confirm that FredoScale or TOS works fine with the above configuration.

Fredo

thomthom

I´ll install Podium 1.5 on my MacMini OSX10.4.
Currently everything works. I have ProfileBuilder isntalled under HD. No plugins under User.

Current folder info:


> $;
["/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Tools", "/Users/thomas"]
> Sketchup.find_support_file "plugins"
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins

fredo6

@thomthom said:

I´ll install Podium 1.5 on my MacMini OSX10.4.
Currently everything works. I have ProfileBuilder isntalled under HD. No plugins under User.

Current folder info:


> > $;
> ["/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Tools", "/Users/thomas"]
> > Sketchup.find_support_file "plugins"
> /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins
>

I suspect that on Mac there is a disconnect between the $: and the Sketchup.find_support_file "plugins".
This is why I no longer use the find_support_file method and rely only on the location of the main script to find its subfolders.

Fredo

PS: actually, I have written a small plugin for my own usage where I put scripts in a separate folder (on drive), which are accessed and shared by SU6, SU7.0 and SU7.1, so that I can test all versions, without copying scripts around. The other interest is that you do not have to bother with the Vista and Windows 7 access restriction to the C:\program file folder.

thomthom

After Podium 1.5 installation:


> $;
["/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Tools", "/Users/thomas", "/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/Podium.suplugin/Contents/MacOS"]
> Sketchup.find_support_file "plugins"
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins

And ProfileBuilder still works.

tfdesign

@thomthom said:

I´ll install Podium 1.5 on my MacMini OSX10.4.

It would be interesting to know if having 10.4 as opposed to 10.5 or 10.6 changes anything? I know that there are many more technologies in the later cats. I would test this for you guys, but I need to get this job done this week, with SketchUp. I don't want to have the unjoy of another Podium whip around!

jeff hammond

I'm on my laptop which is a ppc PowerBook running tiger w/ sketchup 5.0.262, 6.4.120, & 7.1.5803. (but I'm typing on a phone so bear with me )

I sync my plugin folder with my main mac (intel quad leopard, su 7.1) and they all work the same so I don't think the different OS or different versions of sketchup have anything to do with it.

I think you (chris and Tom) may be installing whaat's rubys improperly.
For BoolTools, you should place two items in your plugin folder.
-- a file named "booltools.rbs"
-- a folder named "BoolTools" (which contains 3 gif icons)

for profile builder, there are two items that go in the plugin folder.
-- a file named "pb_loader.rb"
-- a folder named "ProfileBuilder" (which contains 17 items of varying types)

(iirc) when you download one of these rubys and unzip them, you will have one folder named the same as the ruby. You have to open that folder to find the two items I mentioned then place those two items in the plugin folder.

jeff hammond

(agAin, I'm on a phone so....)

chris, I guess you are using the correct two profilebuilder files if you can get it to work in the user library.
Have you tried putting the profilebuilder files in the MacHD library AND removing the user library plugin folder altogether?

I dunno, I use three differnt macs with various OS and SU versions + a lot of these so-called trouble rubys and I never experience these problems. none of my computers have a SU plugin folder in the user directory (not even an empty folder-- which will still cause certain rubys to break). I can only base my opinion on my own user experience but seriously, ditch the user library plugin folder. I haven't come across a single ruby that needs to be placed there in order for it to work. The only time a ruby has to be in the user library plugin folder in order for it to work is when that folder is there to begin with. Even podium whose installer causes most of these problems doesn't need the user plugin folder in order to work. It will run perfectly from the standard MacHD location.

chrisjk

@unknownuser said:

(agAin, I'm on a phone so....)

chris, I guess you are using the correct two profilebuilder files if you can get it to work in the user library.
Have you tried putting the profilebuilder files in the MacHD library AND removing the user library plugin folder altogether?

...(not even an empty folder-- which will still cause certain rubys to break).

Jeff,
You are right - thank you. Even an empty plugins folder at the user level is enough to cause things to break. Moving everything over to the top level and deleting the user level folder has worked for me. Now all the tools and icons are there and functioning - great result! I quite thought I had tested this arrangement but I must have become confused by all the shuffling back and forth I have been doing.

Chris

Edson

in fairness i must say that jeff's suggestion has worked for me. i moved all the plugins i had at the user level to the regular plugins folder and removed the extra plugins folder. so far all the plugins are working, even podium which originally installs itself at the user level and booltools.

tfdesign

I've bookmarked this thread, and I'm going to try shifting everything around after I've finished this church visualisation project. But, it all looks very promising, so thanks to everyone for putting all this time in- especially Jeff!

Whaat

@chrisjk said:

Jeff,
I have tried installing Profile Builder as you suggest but to no avail - it is not to be seen. The manual makes explicit mention of this "The plugin may NOT work if installed to the following directory: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 6/SketchUp/Plugins" and although I am using SU7.1 (5803) rather than the version 6 mentioned by WHAAT,it makes no difference. The other plugins you mention will work in either place albeit missing some toolbars/icons or actual tools as in the case of Fredo's BZ tools.

The key word above is 'may'. The plugin will work if put in the standard HD plugin location (as long as there is no User/plugin folder). At the time I wrote the manual, the best workaround I could think of for this problem was to require all users to install Profile Builder to the Users subfolder.

Since then, I have found the solution to this problem which was been discussed at length here. The problem is related to the Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins") method which will not return the HD subfolder if there exists a Users plugins subfolder (I never determined if it was related to the OS version or not...)

The solution I have found is to not use this method unless you also specify the desired subfolder. For example, if you say Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins\/ProfileBuilder"), it will return the ProfileBuilder subfolder regardless of where it is installed (as long as it's in one of the $: locations)

I intend to update ProfileBuilder, SDS, and BoolTools with this fix but I have been dragging my heels a bit (sorry for this...)
So, to summarize, all my plugins should work if you install them in the standard HD plugins subfolder. However, if you run into a conflict with Podium, put the plugin in the Users plugins subfolder.

thomthom

@whaat said:

Since then, I have found the solution to this problem which was been discussed at length here. The problem is related to the Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins") method which will not return the HD subfolder if there exists a Users plugins subfolder (I never determined if it was related to the OS version or not...)

Would be interesting to hear what Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins") returns on Edison's 10.5 system. As on my 10.4 system it still returned the HD path after installing Podium.

Edson

Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins")
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins

note: i have now all my plugins at the hd level.

thomthom

Ah. Then we need someone else with 10.5/10.6 and User plugins folder to test this.

cmeed

Can I say a huge Thank you to all those people who have helped this problem go away. I have no user level plugins folder now and everything seems to work. THANK YOU!