SU help forum: SketchUp Ruby Plug-Ins

Aerilius

In the Sketchup help, there is currently an interesting discussion about native Sketchup tools vs. plugins.
I wondered how frankly Sketchup Guide Jody spoke out his thoughts about the future of Sketchup .
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=653d917007b943e9

remus

thanks for the link, some interesting ideas there.

sketchup guide jody

Hi Aerilius,

Thanks for the link over to the other thread. I'm not quite sure how to read the eye-rolling emoji regarding my frankness but figured I'd chime in here too. Everything I'm talking about there is opinion with no real basis on an engineer's ear. I know that Ruby scripting is a very important part of SketchUp which we take very seriously, but I don't have the roadmap for what is coming and when or if I did, I certainly didn't reveal my hand. I really just want to see what everyone is thinking about plugins, I've seen too many email/posts from users who express frustration that we (Google) didn't make x tool before a plug-in developer and imply that our engineers aren't working hard enough. Anyway, I know there are plenty of opinions on Plugins at SketchUcation so hopefully they'll be added to the threads. (c:

Thanks again,
Jody

Chris Fullmer

Hey Jody, great to see you around here! I do have thoughts on this. In general, I like the idea of user genereated plugins. I think its a great way to constantly add new features to a solid software. I also like the idea of Google possibly buying certain plugins or plugin packs and distributing them with SU. I don't know what ones I really think are sufficiently developed to be considered for that, but I think its an interesting idea to entertain.

I REALLY like the idea of a plugin repository. If SketchUp is going to continue to develop in a way that favors developers making the plugin content, then SketchUp needs to do its part and give the developers some visibility. SU has over 1,000,000 users on a weekly basis. But we've only got 30,000 users here. How many of those 1,000,000 never even know about the possibilities of plugins because there is no link within SketchUp to a plugin repository? Please consider this seriously. Even just a link in the "Plugins" menu when SU is installed that points to a community or Google patrolled app store. We can make it work!

That would make me extremely Happy. I would also love to see some stronger UI management for ruby scripts. Prefereably an overhaul of the entire SU UI and plugin integration, giving ruby tighter integration with SU's UI. A lot of work? Yes! I know it is. But it would go along way towards helping making it possible to make plugins that feel even more well integrated with SketchUp. That's all I got for now

Chris

chrisglasier

You know someone could easily adapt the "cheat sheet plug in" to organise and load plugins. After all that was our point in making it - to demonstrate how to handle large lists and devices in a small interface.

chrisglasier

Then of course there is a version for Chrome that Jim was working up:

In Chrome

chrisglasier

And here's an adaptation for managing scenes

sketchup guide jody

Oh look at this over here, people are responding on the topic as well.

I've seen a couple of references now to making the Menu more obvious to new members. That definitely makes sense. Gmail has a funny thing it does where when you get to 0 emails in your Inbox you get an apology that there doesn't appear to be anything to read, then refers you to Google Reader. I could see the SketchUp > Plugins menu have a link that does something similar.

I'm not sure if it was strategic, but I can also see where not having plugins visible at the beginning is a good thing as it adds another layer of complexity to learning SketchUp. I guess the hard part is how to talk to a user after they've been using SketchUp for a while. Maybe we count down the amount of time you've been using SketchUp (just like we do for the Free Trial) and after you've used SketchUp for 20 hours we encourage using x feature. I guess there are lots of things that could watch what you're doing and encourage you to branch out if you haven't used the feature. (Sorry, I wander off on tangents sometime.)

I like the work put into the menu system Chris, I presume you're using that in a plugin you've created? (Or is SketchUp not capable of doing that?)

thomthom

Yes - I like the idea of making the Plugin menu permanently visible, and/or making it more apparent the various resources for plugins.
I can't stand using SketchUp without plugins - feels naked.

And as for if Google should be making the plugins: I'd much rather see Google develop platform to build plugins. Fix current bugs and issue, add missing methods so we get full access to the model. Then improve on that. I believe SU will benefit more on that, than Google doing plugins. Never quite understood why people wish a plugin had been made by Google. Like it's automatically better? Sounds very similar to the notion that people think that 64bit is instantly better.

chrisglasier

@unknownuser said:

I like the work put into the menu system Chris, I presume you're using that in a plugin you've created? (Or is SketchUp not capable of doing that?)

Thanks. Both cgScenes and nsetSketchupAPI work as plugins and have been downloaded 130+ times. Here are copies of the download links.

cgScenes R 1.051.zip
nsetSketchupAPI 1.00 Nov15 1350.zip

Here is how I introduced the API one:

@chrisglasier said:

I hope some people find the nset version of Alex's cheat sheet useful but really the main purpose was to demonstrate an alternative method of working that energerises names with computer code. Linked together in sets they provide machine-like support. Specific data is simply clicked into focus rather than the reader having to look through pages.
.

We thought that others might join in by adapting devices like Jim's web console

and creating new ones using the same "name-based OS" that links everything together (the main menu is the model). But it seems web dialogs are not considered a serious solution, which is a great shame. I believe ignoring the real potential of the Net is very short-sighted.

So I decided to concentrate on expanding cgScenes as I know there are SU people who would like to use hierarchies of scenes (views of their models) to facilitate design, present to clients/customers, submit to authorities, support purchasing, direct site work, explain timing and methods with diagrams and model animation, and handover useful and reusable automated information for ongoing activities.