SU8 and 2015 - which to install first?

hellnbak

Well, I just gave up on SSD's, reverted back to the tried and true (if not quite so fast) regular mechanical hard drives. I've had a couple of those go bad on me over the years, but they always gave me some sort of warning, and I was always able to easily recover my data. Not so with my so-called 'top of the line' Samsung SSD. It died without any warning, and all my data became gone. Tried a number of different programs to see what I could recover, finally found one that worked really well ($79 bucks ), but I did manage to get my stuff back. Seems recovering stuff from SSD's is a different process.
Anyhow, I've set up my new HD and am now at the point of reinstalling SU8 and 2015, but I seem to remember something here in the forums about it being important which SU version you install first. Can't remember why, and can't find it.
Can anybody help me out?

TIG

I don't think it matters too much...
The installations should be quite separate.
Remember to reinstall your Plugins separately for each version.
You could install the SketchUcation Toolset plugin from its RBZ, into each version, then use the SketchUcation PluginStore's 'Bundles' feature to get them auto-installed into the second setup, and they'd then be matching across versions ?

hellnbak

Thanks TIG, but I definitely remember reading a post here concerning some sort of problem that was caused/cured by changing the order in which the two versions were installed. Dang, my kingdom for a memory!

Garry K

I like to install most plugins - including the ones I write - into a single folder.

Then I drop a 2 liner file that I call 'loader.rb' into the plugins folder for each version of sketchup. I currently test with SU7, SU8, SU2013, SU2014 and SU2015.

loader.rb contains
require 'sketchup.rb'
require_all('c:/users/public/documents/sketchup')

Any plugin that doesn't support all these versions I install separately for each Sketchup version.

I run Windows 7 Pro that was installed on a 128 gig SSD. All my data is on a Western Digital Black 1 TB drive. I set up Symbolic folders for "My Documents", "DownLoads" etc.

Any work that is on the SSD is backed up to the HD.
Once a week I plug in an external drive and back up data.

Garry K

Installing older versions first does help with file associations. Double click on a sketchup model and it opens in the version of sketchup that you installed last.

hellnbak

Everything is working nicely now, thanks for the help and suggestions.

I installed 8 first, then 2015. I can just double click on a model if I want to open it in 8 (I still save all my work as 8, for various reasons), or just right click on it and select Open with Sketchup 2015 when I want that.

I use my C drive only for the OS and programs, so I wasn't worried about all my Sketchup stuff (actually that's what it's called, Sketchup Stuff, my largest folder, 265GB, 347,927 files, 9,769 folders) or anything else, just some of the stuff on my Desktop. I had some folders there that would have been almost impossible to rebuild from scratch, plus there was my Thunderbird Local Folders file (144 local folders). I was really lucky to find a program that let me recover all that stuff.

I guess I was getting complacent, I never had a hard drive crash so completely like this one, I was always able to pretty easily save the files I needed when a drive started going South. Now I include such files in my backup plan.

I tried a number of backup programs before I found Syncback Pro, been using it for years now and it works really great. I can setup a new profile in a minute or two. I too use a 1TB WD black for my backups, only connected to the computer when I do my backups. I also regularly backup to my backup computer, which also has a 1TB WD Black which is connected when I do backups. Plus, everything is backed up to my laptop.

So I think I'm pretty much covered there. Backups of my backups everywhere. Yeah, I are a bit paranoid. I never have more that one computer connected to the internet at a time, and only when necessary (I only use hard-wired modems and routers, and I have them connected to the AC through remote controlled outlets, so I just click a button to connect to the internet and click again to disconnect, no sense giving the bad guys any more of a target than I have to )

I might give an SSD another try eventually. I've been eying the Samsung 850 Pro 512GB (MZ-7KE512BW), not cheap but looks promising. Maybe I'll just let the technology cook for a couple more years.

Anyhow, thanks again for the help. Much appreciated