(TRICK) To re-enable skp file preview

Bob James

If anyone is using adobe software (I suspect many of you are) it is possible to see previews of .skp files in Adobe BRIDGE.

CS6 Bridge. And you can just drag and drop from Bridge into SU 2013 or 2014.

charly2008

Hi,

On my Mac, only icons in the Bridge are displayed. I am a beginner with the Mac. Do I need to adjust anything?

MarkoAntonije

Havent read through all the posts, but one solution to see previews is to run Sketchup, go to : File -> Import. Change "type of file" to .skp and preview all your files by selecting your file in that window.

baz

Now here is a curious thing... in my mail client- Thunderbird- if I browse to attach an image to an email, voila! all my skps are displayed as thumbs!
How does that work?

BTW Marko, thanks for the inadvertant tip, I hadn't realized that one could import a model that way. I usually open a new instance of SU and copy/paste from there.

Aerilius

Sorry to reveal it, but actually there is no magic about the thumbnails. One does not "need" SketchUp or other special software to generate thumbnails, but every file saved by SketchUp already includes a ready-made thumbnail.

The only obstacle for displaying the thumbnail is that you have to know at which position in the binary skp the thumbnail starts. Windows Explorer and many other programs don't know the position, and doesn't search for the thumbnail.
Software that shows thumbnails either has a compiled list for how to get the thumbnail for specific filetypes (Mystic Thumbs) or maybe seeks through the file to detect if there is somewhere an image that it could display.

For Explorer32bit SketchUp ships already an extension that tells Explorer at what position an skp file contains a thumbnail. I have no idea what holds SketchUp back from doing this for Explorer64bit, I doubt it requires porting the full SketchUp and its 3d engine to 64bit.

thevzitor

CaniViz have just released a new version of their CaniVIZ 3D_Preview which allows mac users to see previews direct in the Finder ! The software is not cheap but... when you have thousands of files it can be worth it.
Otherwise I discovered that Clawmenu can also read the previews on skup files on Mac. It is free on the Mac Appstore.
Best to all

sketch3d.de

@thomthom said:

@borgman said:

I have tried the Seperate command with Windows 7, but alas, it doesn't work. Has anyone come up with a solution for this rather annoying problem already?
Nope. They changed something between the Beta and the RC so explorer.exe always spawn the 64bit version.

%Systemroot%\SysWOW64\explorer.exe /separate /e, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

should do the trick under W7 x64.

Norbert

Aroundthebend

@slbaumgartner said:

@driven said:

~/.QL_SU/*.pv.png would be my first choice, that's probably best, no permision issues if I want to add titles etc... to the image or even add the image as the file icon with applescript.
john

OK, try the attached instead of the previous versions. I used ~/.QL_SketchUp just to be more explicit. Using these, your skp files can be scattered anywhere and the QuickLook should still work. Just remember. per my previous post, to delete the thumbnail if you delete the skp!

Steve

Thanks Steve...it works for me.
I put the .rb in 'Macintoch HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins' and the .qlgenerator file in 'Macintoch HD/Library/QuickLook' folder.

The 'Cover Flow' and 'Icon View' images now look great. Nice and clear. The icon view images have a 'turned down page corner' which distinguishes from other file types. The 'Quick Look' image matches the 'Icon View' image but small in size with its File Name, Size (MB) and Last modified date.

I found I had to re-save my Sketchup files i.e.: 'Save As' and remove the tick for 'Custom Icon' so the new preview image would be shown. If I didn't it would shows the original (duff) SU icon in all views except 'Quick Look'

thanks
Andy

Aroundthebend

@charly2008 said:

Hi,

On my Mac, only icons in the Bridge are displayed. I am a beginner with the Mac. Do I need to adjust anything?

Charly,

to create a file thumbnail in SU you have to 'Save As' and tick the 'Custom Icon' and then save; over writing your original file. This icon is a snap shot of the view you have on screen at the time of 'saving as', so choose your view first! To update the icon you need to 'save as' again! This works on SU 8 on Mac OS 10 and Windows XP & 7.

Aroundthebend

I’ve attached a animated gif showing 4 screen shots to demonstrate slbaumgartner’s MAC thumbnail_saver.rb + QL generator file installed. Both posted on 19-11-12.

All images show Finder viewed in Cover Flow mode with Quick Look opened (B.Right ).

The top 2 files were saved in Sketchup with no .rb installed; the top one with no 'Custom Icon' ticked when ‘Saved As’. The 2nd file had 'Custom Icon' ticked.

3rd file was saved with the .rb + QL generator installed (with 'Custom Icon' ticked when Saved As).

4th file was saved with the .rb + QL generator installed (but withOUT 'Custom Icon' ticked when Saved As).

Aroundthebend

Here is one other screen shot with Finder viewed in Icon mode. The 4th file looks great in this mode. Thanks again slbaumgartner for his Ruby script and QL file for the Mac OS .

P.S. I've just spotted my typo in the file names

slbaumgartner

@aroundthebend said:

Here is one other screen shot with Finder viewed in Icon mode. The 4th file looks great in this mode. Thanks again slbaumgartner for his Ruby script and QL file for the Mac OS .

P.S. I've just spotted my typo in the file names

You are welcome! I notice that the checkbox to save a custom icon disappeared some time after SU version 8. But my stuff still works through SU 2014.

Steve

hh_berlin

Just installed it - you did a great job... thank you so much.

can't believe, that sketchup does not handle that...

scrolling and zooming is disgusting since sketchup 8 on apple...

moghamdi

I have installed it, but it is not working.
I have Sketchup 2014/ OS 10.9.5.

I attached pictures to show you the location that I put the them in.

plugin .png

driven

you probably need to reset qlmanage and Finder...

qlmanage -r && killall Finder

copy paste into Terminal.app

moghamdi

it is working now.

Thank you guys for your support.

Krisidious

2015 Sketchup re-enables thumbnails.

driven

@krisidious said:

2015 Sketchup re-enables thumbnails.

not on a mac, it doesn't...

Krisidious

Sorry, time to get a PC I guess...

pbacot

SU development ignores the Mac interface as a rule.