Mac OSX and plugin problems

bowesy · 2 Nov 2009, 22:39

Despite downloading .rb plugins into the plugin folder they will not show up in Sketchup. Does anyone have any ideas why? Is it a Mac problem?

thomthom · 2 Nov 2009, 22:42

Exactly where are you putting the plugins on your system?

There seem to be some confusion to mupliple places to put them...

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 09:50

Hi ThomThom,

I go into applications>Google Sketchup>Contents>Plugins folder and drop .rb files in there. I make sure Sketchup is turned off when I do this. Then when I fire up Sketchup I cannot find them in either the menu bar or in any context menu!? What do you think?

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 10:08

Should be
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-download-and-install-plugins.html

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 10:34

Yep - thats what I do. I'm on SUPro6 but there shouldn't be a difference. I've just tried downloading your link hello.rb but still the same result. Right clicking on mac doesn't say save but download which goes to the download folder. I've even then dragged it onto the desktop and then into the plugins folder but I cannot find it in SU anywhere. One thing though, since erasing all previous plug-ins which didn't work, I've lost Plug-ins from the drop down menu so maybe I should back up an older version. Pretty frustrating though because for all the joys of a Mac, I never had this problem on a PC!

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 10:36

@bowesy said:

Yep - thats what I do.

@bowesy said:

applications>Google Sketchup>Contents>Plugins
is not the same as Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 10:47

Ah ok! I'll drag the plugins folder out of contents and see how I go. Cheers.

TIG · 3 Nov 2009, 12:44

To find where your OS looks for Plugins paste this into the Ruby Console:

Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins")

The string returned is the path to the Plugins folder - so put your plugins & sub-folders into there ???

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 13:29

Thanks TIG. SU looks in plugins according to that string. I've time machined back to an earlier version of my SU and got all the plugins back but I have noticed that it never had sketchup.rb in there. Neither is there a tools folder available. Do you have the plug-in sketchup.rb at all?

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 13:40

@bowesy said:

Thanks TIG. SU looks in plugins according to that string. I've time machined back to an earlier version of my SU and got all the plugins back but I have noticed that it never had sketchup.rb in there. Neither is there a tools folder available. Do you have the plug-in sketchup.rb at all?

Where abouts in the system are you now? Where did you get the sketchup.rb file?
sketchup.rb is a file all plugins require and should be left where Sketchup installs it.

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 13:47

From what I can gather it cant ever have been there. I've read that this has been a bit of a problem with SU6 - some copies just didn't ship with it and some sketchup.rb files were old versions and didn't work with SU6. I downloaded a copy from somewhere - may well have been an archived page from the Google site but it didn't work

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 13:50

Some plugins might have shipped a copy, and if that's an old copy it will cause problems. You should not need to download an extra copy.

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 13:56

I checked my Windows installation - sketchup.rb is located in the Tools folder where Sketchup was installed. Not sure where it belongs in Mac, but you should never have to deal with that file at all. You might want to reinstall Sketchup again to get a clean installation.

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 14:04

I've just had a eureka moment!! Thanks Jeff and thanks ThomThom - it's obvious that I'm not that computer literate isn't it?! If only I had followed ThomThom's directions to the letter earlier we wouldn't still be here!!?

jeff hammond · 3 Nov 2009, 14:06

@bowesy said:

Ah ok! I'll drag the plugins folder out of contents and see how I go. Cheers.

no, don't do that..

thom pointed this out earlier but i'll try again..

this:

applications>Google Sketchup>Contents>Plugins

is not the same thing as this:

Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/

(which is where the plugins should be placed)

you're right clicking on the SU app icon and that's not where you need to be.. follow the path highlighted in red above

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 14:17

I'm still wondering where you got that sketchup.rb file from... might you have moved it away from somewhere you should not?

dale · 3 Nov 2009, 15:06

On my mac the SketchUp.rb is located in the HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/tools
If you use spotlight you can trace it. My get info window looks as follows:

bowesy · 3 Nov 2009, 20:17

Cant remember where I found the sketchup.rb file. I'll check thru my history files - think I probably googled "sketchup.rb download" and then just searched through!

thomthom · 3 Nov 2009, 21:58

@honoluludesktop said:

In a windows box, don't you need to install sketchup.rb in the plugin folder? Or will the system find it in the Tools folder?

No, you never need to bother about the sketchup.rb file. It's installed by Sketchup. And the Tools folder acts just like the Plugins folder with the exception that it contains the bundled Sketchup ruby extensions.

honoluludesktop · 3 Nov 2009, 22:00

In a windows box, don't you need to install sketchup.rb in the plugin folder? Or will the system find it in the Tools folder? Hmm....The file in the plugin folder is different from the one in Tools, which has something for the ruby console.