Made a mess

joewood

I was trying to install the Comments plugin thru Sketchucation for Sketchup 8 but it showed up nowhere. messed around with 7zip and now Sketchup 8 gives me bug splats; and can not load. Sketchup 14 seems to work fine.
Where can I down load a fresh copy of Sketchup 8

...joe

Mike Lucey

Here you go Joe.
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/60107

joewood

HI Mike;
Thanks for your quick reply yesterday. I was so frustaded that I left the shop until today. I am back with Sketchup to pre-disaster mode.
Question: Why am I having problems with the auto-install of the Comments plugin ? I see others have been successful?

...thanks again; this is the best site of the few I visit - joe

joewood

I need sketchup 8 free/make version.
Ant thoughts on the Comments plugin question?

...joe

joewood

Two days and no replies. I guess I am on my own. o.k.

Dave R

Trimble doesn't offer SketchUp 8 anymore. They only have versions 2013 through 2015. Perhaps you still have it in the Downloads folder or wherever you save downloaded files?

Box

Have you looked on Oldversion.com ?

joewood

Well Box; that is a good resource, but did not solve the problem, still getting bugsplats when loading. This all started when I tried to installed Comments plugin.

deactivated it from plugin manager and extension - same result
deleted it from plugins folder - same
ran with empty plugin folder - same
downloaded a fresh copy of sketchup 8 - same
run as administrator - everything works fine - why?
cannot find any remnants of this "comments" plugin anywhere. but something changed
sketchup 2014 works fine
would prefer to stay with sketchup 8

any ideas?????????

thanks ....... joe

joewood

again no replies, so let me try a different vein.
Evidently something got contaminated somewhere. What is displayed in the bugsplat that can be a hint as to what is the complaint?
Also is there a document, tutorial, video etc that explains contents of bugsplats

..... joe

TIG

So... looks like you should not try to use the comments.rb in that SketchUp version.
There might be a compatibility issue ?

As for running any SketchUp version as 'admin'...

You can set that to be the permanent state of affairs by finding the appropriate SketchUp.exe in its 'Program Files' folder.
Select its icon, right-click > context-menu > Properties > Compatibility > Privilege Level [pane] > 'Run this program as an administrator' ensure that it is ticked > Apply/OK
Now that version of SketchUp is always run by 'admin'

slbaumgartner

As pointed out, Trimble no longer supports V8, so you are not likely to get a response from them unless some old hand is feeling bored. Many plugin authors also no longer check compatibility with v8.

Your main clues are your observations #5 and #7. If it works when you run as administrator but not otherwise, there is clearly a permissions issue with something it is trying to do during installation (often lack of write permission but could be some other permission). The plugins installation location changed between v8 and 2014 to not involve locations that are often admin only. I don't know anything specific about the comments plugin, but many old plugins tried to save files and/or data in locations that require admin. Also, 2014 uses a newer version of Ruby. If the plugin author updated it for Ruby 2.0 and didn't bother to test on older versions that could cause issues.

Have you tried opening the Ruby Console window before loading the plugin? You may (no guarantees) see some messages flash there before SU crashes.

joewood

thanks for the replies.
This is my setup.
1.at home using windows7 - home edition, with sketchup 8
2.in the shop using windows7 - pro edition , with sketchup 8
3. with the home edition, and Comments plugin is installed, errors come up thru Ruby console but sketchup loads successfully.
4. at the shop with the pro edition, just bugsplits

so I think the only difference is the flavor of windows7

I load sketchup drawings thru Google Drive so the work is available anywhere.
to me the Comments plugin is meaningful - gives a short brief of the drawing and should be part of the basic package - maybe in styles or layers.
anyhow I am moving on, but will research this as time permits. to this end I am going to learn ruby coding - see you in two years.

thanks for the help ..... joe

TIG

@Joe
Before you go...
Have you got the latest:
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=BGSketchup_Library
which is needed by the Comments plugin ?
Also the latest version of that plugin ?
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=Comments-icon

I have just installed it and tested it and with v8.
I too get an instant BugSplat at startup, as the 'BGSketchup_Library' is loaded.
After a bit more fiddling around I find that the 'Library_Main.rb' file includes, at line #211
data[7]=Sketchup.platform.to_s #platform
This fails <v2014, so in v8 it creates a error in the Ruby Console.
Its line can be adjusted to work the same in all versions, as:
data[7]=(RUBY_PLATFORM=~/darwin/) ? 'platform_osx' : 'platform_win' #platform
Although I can't immediately see what data[7] is then used for ??

The 'Library_Activation.rbs' is in some way[s] 'faulty'.
When it is loaded in v8 it will BugSplat !
Because it's a compiled rbs file it's hard to see exactly what's wrong with it.

But after a lot of messing on I've gotten a few errors out...

Warning that at line #95 it has a space before some parenthesized arguments, but that's not fatal [yet] !

I'm unclear why it does this... but it can also get your computer's 'SerialNumber' [although I can't see how it calls it exactly - perhaps using the .ini files it makes in the Plugins folder !?] - I assume it's using ' Win32ole' or similar to do this - this functionality is accessible through Ruby2 >=v2014, BUT in older SketchUp versions you must include a suitable 'Win32ole.so' file in the plugin's subfolder and path directly to that when 'requiring' it [i.e. needs a SUp version checker].

Also there seems to be a reference to FILE in the rbs file's code ! e.g. html_path = File.join(File.dirname(%(#4000BF)[__FILE__]), "Activation.html"), which will fail in older SketchUps.
That could be fixed by using the Constant ' DIR', which is already setup inside the main module in 'Library_Main.rb':
html_path = File.join(**self::DIR**, "Activation.html")

So, the compiled .rbs has at least these [if not more] issues, but the author must address them and recompile it... At least if he wants compatibility <=v2013...

joewood

TIg;
Wow, that is quite the analysis; I am really impressed. That is why I need to get Ruby coding and concepts under my belt, but I doubt I will ever get to your level of expertise.
I will try your suggestions over the weekend, but I need to get some shop work done.

....thanks ..... joe

slbaumgartner

Based on TIG's amazing analysis, your best answer is to try to contact the Comments plugin author, Inteloide (BGSketchup). The last revision was less than a month ago, so it is clear the author is still active. He is probably unaware of your situation because the title of this topic does not mention his plugin!

TIG

I've already PM'd the author...
And pointed him here...

inteloide

Hello Gents !

Thank you for contacting me on this topic.
To be honest I was warned by users that errors can appear on older version of Sketchup but it's quite difficult to program on multiple version of a software...
But thanks to TIG analysis I'll correct the BGSketchup Library.

Inteloide

joewood

Well, still no positive results.
Downloaded BGSketchup_Library and get a bugsplat(with compatibility mode). Is this suppose to work with Sketchup 8/free? Could only find some one with sK-8 pro that is successful. Besides going to a newer release, what are my options?

....joe

TIG

I know the author is working on a compatibility update.
Currently it's incompatible with v8 & v2013
Watch for announcements...