How to: Sync your plugins folder between computers

brodie · 1 Dec 2009, 16:57

The other day I posted a question about syncing up my plugins folder between computers. If anyone's interested I've found at least one solution and have thought of another that I haven't tried yet.
Solution #1: Untested but intuitive.

A) Download the following applications

Dropbox( https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTM4NDI4MTk - yeah, I get some credit if you use my referral link ). This gives you 2GB of extra storage and installs a small app on your computer. Basically the idea is you drop a file into a folder on your computer and it will sync that file up with any other computer you've installed dropbox on. I've found it extremely useful having come from the age of emailing files to myself I forgot to put on a flash drive or didn't know I needed.

Puresync(http://www.jumpingbytes.com/en/puresync.html ) - This is a great free syncing & backup program. Other programs w/ similar functions will work too.

B) Somewhere in your DropBox folder on your computer Place a folder called Plugins and fill it with all of the plugins you want to have on all of your computers.

C) Open Puresync, go to File -> New and then follow the wizard following the directions to "Synchronize Folders." Sync your Sketchup Plugins folder to the new folder you created in DropBox. The idea is to have a 2-way sync where your SU plugins folder will match exactly with your DropBox plugins folder. Any changes you make to either folder will affect the other.

D) Install these programs and repeat for other computers.

In theory you should then be done. If I, say, add a plugin to my home computer it will automagically sync it up and add it to my DropBox Plugins folder which will then automagically add that plugin to the SU Plugins folder on my other computers. I haven't played much with this function of Puresync though (I usually use it's Mirror function) so if it doesn't work as I expect let me know.

Solution #2: So far so good.

A) http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html#contact

Follow instructions to download the appropriate files for your OS. For each OS there are two files. This will add a new function to your right-click menu within Windows Explorer (or whatever the corresponding language is for Mac users).

You'll also still need to download DropBox as in Solution #1 (see above).

B) Somewhere in your DropBox folder on your computer Place a folder called Plugins and fill it with all of the plugins you want to have on all of your computers.

C) Delete the Plugins folder from your default hard drive location (or if you're paranoid like me you can just copy and paste it in the same folder so it's named Plugins - Copy or whatever. That way you've still got it if all goes crazy you can just rename it Plugins and you're back to square 1).

D) Right-click the Plugins folder in DropBox and go to Pick Link Source. Now Right-Click an empty space in your Google SketchUp 7 folder and choose Drop As -> Junction.

That's it, just do the same for all of your computers. Basically what the Junction does is adds a sophisticated sort of Shortcut which will point SketchUp towards your DropBox location. I believe with this method you should be able to, in the future, add or remove plugins from wherever you want, and it will affect all of your folders.

BTW, this should work with any application of course. For example, you could use these methods to sync up your firefox profile.

-Brodie

nuclearmoose · 1 Dec 2009, 21:23

There is a free application called Toucan which may serve such a purpose as well. In addition to synchronization, it can also encrypt your files. Even better, it's available as a PortableApp .

Chris Fullmer · 1 Dec 2009, 23:08

I thought someone wrote a ruby to do this also? I've forgotten what ruby I am thinking of though. rubyloader?

Chris

brodie · 2 Dec 2009, 05:15

Chris, I'm not familiar with that one. What does it do exactly?

-Brodie

Chris Fullmer · 2 Dec 2009, 05:53

I found it, by Alex Schreyer. I think it loads all scripts inside a folder - like a folder on a usb. It also lets you load scripts from an online site.

Ao maybe it fits into your workflow. I'm not sure if it will really save any steps though. But check it out,

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=17355

Chris

TIG · 2 Dec 2009, 09:36

Microsoft's SyncToy [free http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en ] will 'backup' files from a selected folder into a folder on another drive etc.
There are various options to update, overwrite, add, delete files etc...
You can make various 'sets' of Syncs in any direction...
You would have a MyPlugins folder on a Memory-Stick: you would then Sync files into that from your Plugins folder, either at Home or Work.
Later you could then use it to Sync from the Memory-Stick's MyPlugins folder back into the Plugins folder at either Home or Work to suit.
You'd just need SyncToy on both PCs and two 'Sync-sets' on each PC...

This would probably be your simplest way ?

brodie · 2 Dec 2009, 14:16

Thanks Chris, I'll take a look at that.

TIG, yeah, I'd say that would probably be the most intuitive way, but long term I'm not sure if I'd say the easiest. What dropbox does is basically eliminate the step of having to plug in your flash drive at each location each time in order to sync up. Dropbox works quite like the flash drive except it's always 'pluged into' allof your computers at once. When you put a file in your dropbox folder it gets synced up with an online system and then automatically gets synced to all of your computers from there. So for a bit of up-front work (downloading dropbox if you don't have it already), but in the end you never need to worry about your flash drive.

I don't know much about SyncToy. I'm sure it's fine, but I tried experimenting with Vista's sync thing awhile back and hated it. I'm sure there are plenty of free syncing tools out there that could do the job.

If there's an advantage to using the Junctions, it's probably that there's one less software involved so there's one less area for complication. I still don't quite understand Junctions fully, but I also think that the information is only truly in 1 location rather than having it on your hard drive and then duplicating that info somewhere else.

-Brodie

jeff hammond · 2 Dec 2009, 19:22

does windows have a 'make alias' option or similar for folders/files?
if so, that might be your best bet.. put an alias of your plugin folder in the dropbox and you'll be set (at least on mac -- no duplicate files will be created either.. alias' are basically just shortcut paths to the actual files)

brodie · 2 Dec 2009, 20:34

Jeff, it sounds like this is basically what this Junction option is. Apparently there's something inherent within Vista (and presumably Windows 7) which does the same thing but I'm not sure it's something you can do through the GUI. I got the impression you have to go through the command prompt but I may be mistaken. In my Solution #2 I have a link to an app that basically lets you do this through the GUI and works for earlier versions of Windows as well (one of my pc's is on XP).

It seems to work like a simple "Shortcut" which is easily done in windows, however Shortcuts aren't typically recognized by programs other than explorer. The Junction is basically just a more sophisticated sort of pointer that works more universally.

-Brodie

caronte01 · 3 Dec 2009, 14:17

Hi all,

i was trying to do something similar. I have both windows and osx. For windows, the options shown above work, for osx, please see:

http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders

http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html

cheers

santiago