Hello, having trouble with downloads

tlange82 · 22 Nov 2011, 02:41

Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for quite a while, finding all kinds of usefull information. I've been using sketchup for a while now, although I am still quite the amature compared to most people on here. I used to love working with solidworks and inventor when I worked in the steel fabrication industry, but now I am a remodeler and finish carpenter/woodworker so sketchup is right up my alley.

I have downloaded a number of plugins for SU but now I am a bit frustrated with a few I am trying to download, namely libfredo. The download keeps appearing as a php file that I cant seem to do anything with. I guess I am not computer savy enough. I have done a bit of research on how to deal with this to no avail. I was hoping someone on here might be able to offer some assistance.

Thanks in advance

Gaieus · 22 Nov 2011, 08:55

This has happened to some Mac users here before. I do not know why it is happening but I think after you downloaded the file, you can simply rename the extension to zip and it should work. Let me know if it really works, please.

tlange82 · 22 Nov 2011, 20:10

Hey Thanks for the reply. I tried your suggestion but it still doesnt work. All it does is change the name of the file to xxxxx.zip while the actual file still remains a php. The file that I downloaded is only 6kb in size so I dont think it is actually downloading very much at all. By the way I am running win 7 if that helps at all.
Tim

mitcorb · 23 Nov 2011, 02:41

I don't suppose you'd be surprised at how many folks experience this difficulty. It has happened to me. I thought it had to do with forum page loading. I am now on a new system, but I have not changed my profile yet. I theorize that php is some kind of place keeper while the zip file fully loads. Sometimes it apparently doesn't load fully. What I did in the past was refresh the page. If this did not work, I would navigate away from the page and then return. Usually this would "solve" the problem. If it persists, maybe your security settings on your router or your computer/ browser are too tight. Another possible thing to do is log out. Bring up the login page, scroll down to bottom and find the "Delete all board cookies" button[?], then log on after affirming. I routinely do this at log on, as that is the standing order for clean logins here. I'll return right after I test the next suggestion I was going to give you. I am back. Right click on the .zip, or .rb, or .rbs file. Choose Save link as..., select the destination folder, perhaps on your desktop, or some uniquely named repository folder. Unzip into this folder by rightclicking, select extract to here. See the files deployed, select all of these that were unpacked and place them into your Sketchup Plugins subfolder, unless expressly instructed otherwise by the author. Restart Sketchup if it was already open. Otherwise, start Sketchup. Navigate to Window, Preferences, Select Extensions, Check any box related to the script to enable. Then, navigate to View, Toolbars and see if the file has placed a Toolbar in the list. Click on this to activate the icon toolbar. If you have a significant number of scripts loaded, newer ones historically have scrambled the order in which they appear. Easy enough to drag them back into some preferred order. After having said all of this, there are a couple of threads already existing which are meant to be the go to source for this advice. However, I don't think the php issue has nearly enough coverage. Did not mean to be so long winded.

tlange82 · 23 Nov 2011, 13:58

Thanks for all the info, I will have to try when I get home from work.

tlange82 · 5 Dec 2011, 04:02

Hey guys thanks for the help, I finally got it to work. I think some of my problems had something to do with my download manager. Anyway, I got it working, Thanks.