[Plugin] !AdditionalPluginFolders - v5.4a - 27 Sep 20

fredo6

Anyway, I do have one question: I noticed that the Artisan toolbar was iconless (other toolbars were ok).
I decided to try copying the artisan folder (not the loader) to the local plugin folder and the icons showed up:
I guess this means artisan insisted in looking for its icons at the absolute local path?
Is there a way to prevent/fix this?

Thanks again!

Some plugins rely on the standard Sketchup Plugin directory to find files and therefore won't work correctly if put in an alternate folder.
Also, plugins usually require that their loader and subfolders are in the same location.

For Artisan (by Whaat), I will post a request in the related thread.

Fredo

Bob James

@gtalarico said:

I can finally keep my plugins in my Dropbox and access/sync them across home PC, laptop & work!!!

Now that's a great idea. More than reason enough to download this plugin.

Thank you Fredo

gtalarico

Thanks Fredo.

My current work around is to keep a separate LOCAL plugin folder on my DB, and I update those manually.

gtalarico

@bob james said:

@gtalarico said:

I can finally keep my plugins in my Dropbox and access/sync them across home PC, laptop & work!!!

Now that's a great idea. More than reason enough to download this plugin.

Although I can still think of many uses for this plugin, I have further improved my SU<>Dropbox integration by using the method suggested by andrea.bianco here:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=40866
(The workflow is even further simplified and improved by Brodie here (Page2):
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=34019&hilit=+dropbox

I have now moved all SU folders (Components,Materials,Styles,Components) to my DB so they are in Sync at home and work by symlink-ing the folders in my DB to the SU folder.

Sorry this not necessarily "AdditionalPluginFolders" related, by it ties in to the conversation above, and I thought it could be helpful for people that end up in this post for the same reason I did. (SU+DB)

sumaster

Its work perfectly ........

Thank you Ferdo ......

I like your all plugins ..... its very useful for my sketchup 3D modeling .......

THANKS again ...... waiting new things or new PLUGIN .... THANKS

driven

Hi Fredo,

is there any chance the startup select directories dialog could have all 'options' in one dialog box, i.e. dir1, dir2, dir3 as opposed to a cascade.

also, is there any way to 're-select' one you need forgot.

It does work well

cheers
john

fredo6

@driven said:

is there any chance the startup select directories dialog could have all 'options' in one dialog box, i.e. dir1, dir2, dir3 as opposed to a cascade.

This is possible. I use the standard SU dialog box because it is faster programming. But I can develop one which is more comfortable

@driven said:

also, is there any way to 're-select' one you need forgot.

Difficult, because you would have to re-execute the whole loading cycle to be sure to catch all plugins.

If you need to start Sketchup frequently with various configurations (i.e. list of plugins), I would suggest other methods, based on list of plugins (a little bit like the Extension Preferences, but in external files that you can edit. Then 000_additionalPluginFolders would simply skip or load plugins depending on the configuration files.

Let me think of it

Fredo

PS: the objective of my script was mainly to avoid the Security issues with C:\program Files on Windows, share plugins between SU6, SU7 and SU8, and trap errors at loading to avoid messing up the toolbars. This is not really a plugin manager!

driven

Hi

I been experimenting using it with my 'on_off.rb' and it's working quite well, the idea is, if I have a bugsplat I can restart with no plugins then load the culprit to see if it's it... if not I can run then this and re-introduce my common sets one at a time[by re-starting at the moment], then any stray rubies until the problem re-appears.
however it's also great for just limiting what I start with and only turning it on when I want an additional set.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=41994#p372262
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=38726&p=372570#p372576

be great if you could have a look at my concept, in the one posted I just use the load single plugin option to load this after a rubies"OFF" startup ...

john

camoncamon2001

It's possible to load plugin directories from an external file (like .txt)?

caronte01

Hi Fredo;

Great plugin, very useful for people working on different machines

thanks!

gabegabe

I've installed this beautiful 000_AdditionalPluginFolders (v3.0a - 23 Aug 11)

I have some compatibility problems with SU Podium Rendering Plugin

Windows 7 64bit:
When I put 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb in Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is NOT loaded;
When I remove 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb into Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is regulary loaded

Windows XP 32bit:
When I put 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb in Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is loaded, EXEPT Pobium Browser;
When I remove 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb into Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is regulary loaded

Mac OSX Lion:
When I put 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb in Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is loaded, EXEPT Pobium Browser and I receive a LOG error message;
When I remove 000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb into Google Sketchup Plugin FOLDER, SU Podium is regulary loaded

Any suggestions?

Thank You

JQL

Thanks Fredo for this very useful plugin.

I've noticed something strange though:

I have created two folders outside the program files directory:

Original Folder - is the standard plugin's folder and had only your plugin.
Folder 1 - has all my plugins
Folder 2 - has the plugins I am testing and may delete

I noticed the projections_v2 plugin was not working although it displayed all the icons on the toolbar. It was the only one. I moved it to the Original Folder with its tassociated folder (wich in this case had the .png icon files and a .rbs). When I did that the plugin started working but all the icons were gone from the toolbar. I copied the icon files from the Original Folder to Folder 1, keeping the same file struture. Everything is correct now.

I noticed the same thing happening to another plugin that I was testing and was in Folder 2, (pointool.rb) but this does not happen to all plugins.

Is it possible that Sketchup is assuming that Folder 1 is the main plugin folder? Is it possible that there are multiple ways of assigning paths inside plugins and some of those ways are causing those errors?

For me the problem no longer exists, but it may interest you. Thanks again and best regards.

26delta

Ever since installing 000_AdditionalPlugiFolders, I have been getting error messages regarding win32api.so and the windows.rb and parameter.rb files. The first indicates that the procedure Init_win32api cannot be found in win32api.so.
As far as I know, that procedure has never existed. The second error message indicates that the windows.rb cannot find the parameters.rb file and the third error message repeats the first. I'm at a loss.

TIG

@26delta said:

Ever since installing 000_AdditionalPlugiFolders, I have been getting error messages regarding win32api.so and the windows.rb and parameter.rb files. The first indicates that the procedure Init_win32api cannot be found in win32api.so.
As far as I know, that procedure has never existed. The second error message indicates that the windows.rb cannot find the parameters.rb file and the third error message repeats the first. I'm at a loss.
If you move scripts [.rb/.rbs files] - and their subfolders of supporting files etc - out of the main Sketchup Plugins folder into another folder that has been added onto the $LOAD_PATH list [as with "000_AdditionalPluginFolders"], then they will still load/work OK, as they will auto-load like they used to from the main Sketchup Plugins folder.
However, if the scripts ' require' some other file[s] to be preloaded [like 'parameters.rb' or 'win32api.so'] then any 'required' files also have to be in a folder included in $LOAD_PATH too. If it's not then you'll get a 'load error'.
The windows.rb has the line at it's start
require 'parametric.rb'
to ensure that the methods available from that code are available to the 'windows' code...
You might also see that it has
require 'sketchup.rb'
but as that must always to be kept in the Sketchup 'Tools' folder, with other 'system' files, and that particular folder is automatically added to the $LOAD_PATH list, then there are no errors about that.

So it expects a 'required' file to be somewhere in the folders listed in $LOAD_PATH.
If the file is missing you get the error messages.

The missing 'parametric' file is available here http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/rubyscripts.html
Some '.so' files are available here... http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=380121#p380121

Also note that some scripts might try to find/use files passing an exact path using say
load(Sketchup.find_support_file("argh.rb", "Plugins"))
where this method will always look for that file in the Sketchup Plugins folder, irrespective of where the script that's looking for it might now be located, so moving any related files over with the script will fail to get the desired files/code loaded if it hasn't been left in Plugins.
This is particularly limiting if the script's supporting files are in a subfolder with a path that's hard-code to be always in Sketchup's Plugins folder using this method - relocating the subfolder will then fail to load then files properly.

If the desired file is always to be kept with the script that's looking for it, then a safer option in the coding is to use
load(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "argh.rb"))
as this is then looking in the actual script's folder [whatever that might be] for that desired support file.

26delta

@tig said:

If you move scripts [.rb/.rbs files] - and their subfolders of supporting files etc - out of the main Sketchup Plugins folder into another folder that has been added onto the $LOAD_PATH list [as with "000_AdditionalPluginFolders"], then they will still load/work OK, as they will auto-load like they used to from the main Sketchup Plugins folder.
However, if the scripts ' require' some other file[s] to be preloaded [like 'parameters.rb' or 'win32api.so'] then any 'required' files also have to be in a folder included in $LOAD_PATH too. If it's not then you'll get a 'load error'.

That's the rub. The .rb files ARE in the default Plugins folder.

The major problem reported in errors 1 and 3 is that there is reference to a procedure 'Init_win32api' which (according to the Win32api.rdoc) does not exist. This may be causing the failure to recognize parameters.rb in error 2. I have reloaded Sketchup and the plugins to no avail.

Jim

Mike, if you are attempting to include the full Ruby language in SketchUp then this is not the way to go. You need to use the same Ruby version as SketchUp for the compiled libraries (.so files) for binary compatibility.

see this thread:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=29412

TIG

If you are not using the '000_AdditionalPluginFolders' folder for your scripts then why not uninstall its .rb ?
Without it do these errors still occur ?
As Jim said, do you have any other Ruby stuff auto-installing ?
If so read the guidance he's linked to ...

26delta

@jim said:

Mike, if you are attempting to include the full Ruby language in SketchUp then this is not the way to go. You need to use the same Ruby version as SketchUp for the compiled libraries (.so files) for binary compatibility.

see this thread:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=29412

I've already responded to the other topic with the exact error message. I had to remove windows.rb due to failure to locate parametric.rb in order to define the Window superclass. It's beginning to look like a load sequence error in which certain required ruby scripts are loaded before they are required and then report as a failure to load because they are already loaded.

TIG

The file windows.rb uses
require 'parametric.rb'
which loads the parametric methods UNLESS it has already loaded earlier.
Considering they load in alphanumeric order, and 'p' comes before 'w'. the ' require' is unlikely to do anything...
However, your error message suggests that parametric.rb cannot be found [the proper full message rather than your précis would help].
If it is indeed in the same folder as windows.rb, this is odd...

You say they are both in Plugins ?
However, newer versions of Windows can have annoying protective tricks - if you don't have FULL security access rights to the Plugins folder it will let you think that you have installed the files correctly, but there might be an extra button on the top bars of the folder's window saying something like 'Compatibility Files...' - this then opens the true home of the files.
So a possibility is that ' parametric.rb' is not actually inside the Plugins folder and therefore the ' require' [and/or 'auto-load'], that would be done using one of the $LOAD_PATH folders, can't find it
Please check this out and report back...

26delta

The problems with this plugin have been resolved. The culprit was the Rayelectron rendering package which contains a renamed Win32API.so file ('Win32API.so' vs 'win32api.so'). Now, onto the next problem...

The windows.rb has problems with defining 'Window' as a superclass. Given that this is one of the original Sketchup ruby scripts, who's responsible for maintaining it?