Could one of your IT people write a program that would adjust the relevant keys in the registry? You would be dependent on your decentralized users running said program.

And here we have yet another opportunity for UI improvement.

I was wondering: with all the dissatisfaction expressed here and elsewhere over SketchUp’s recent past performance and their apparent direction for the future, how many of you are seriously considering transitioning to different software?

As for me, after I took a quick look at several options, I decided to explore FormZ. The free version will do nicely while I am getting the feel of the program. Later? We’ll see. It doesn't necessarily mean that I am dropping SU.

After I made my own decision, an often-reliable source told me that architecture students in the U.S. have mostly abandoned SketchUp in favor of FormZ. If true, that does not bode well for SU’s future.

Someone here wondered why all the kvetching about dashed lines when that feature has long been on users’ wish lists. The problem is not with dashed lines. The problem is that by implementing only dashed lines, Trimble have shown that they are harvesting SketchUp, that they intend to milk it for all it’s worth while investing as little as possible.

Those of us who are doing the kvetching had high hopes for the future of SketchUp. (Surely the late release must mean big improvements, right?) but when this lackluster release is coupled with the new pricing scheme and with Trimble’s ongoing lack of enthusiastic communications with users about SketchUp’s future, the future of the software looks bleak indeed.

I hope my pessimism is not justified.

Could not be more disappointed.

Thank you. That explains why I couldn't figure out how to do it. On to Plan B!

In a Ruby script, I would like to set a variable equal to the user's input from the keyboard with no inputbox or dialog slowing things down. It's easy as can be in Ruby: myVariable = gets. Darned if I can figure out how to do it in SketchUp Ruby.

I'm an absolute newb at this, so I'd appreciate any help you can give.

After playing around with SketchUp for years, I finally bit the financial bullet and bought Pro. Do I need it? Probably not. I'm retired, and I don't expect to do design work professionally again; but:

1. It's fun.
   And, very important to me,
2. I wanted to reward Trimble as I can for buying SketchUp and for continuing to develop it. (Google might have sold it to Autodesk. What a disaster that would have been for the product!)

I organize my hard drive such that each project gets its own folder. Every skp, dwg, rvt, and other drawing/model file that I produce specific to that project (along with their backups) go into that folder. Other relevant documents go into subfolders. This eliminates any confusion about what goes with what project and makes searches for project-related files easy.

However, I usually have more than one project going at once. When I switch projects, I want SketchUp to look for files in, and save files to, the proper folder. Setting the "Start in" line in the shortcut should accomplish this goal. It does not. It can be done directly in SketchUp, though: just start SU, click on the "Window" drop down, click on "Preferences," click on "Files," manually change the "Models" location, click on "OK," shut SU down, and restart SU.

What SketchUp does is save the Models location - along with other things - to the registry. What the batch file does is change the registry before SU starts. By using a different shortcut to the batch file for each project, one need enter the path to the model folder only once.

Does that answer your question?

Not a plugin, a batch file. You will have to change the txt extension to bat.

This batch file changes SketchUp's model folder before SketchUp is run. Here are the instructions:

Call this file with a shortcut.

The shortcut's Target is to be followed by the path to your SketchUp model
folder (in quotes.) So, the shortcut's Target line will look something like:
C:\SetSk2013ProjDir.bat "C:\SKETCHUP PROJECTS\2014-01 - SOME PROJECT NAME"

Use a different shortcut for each project folder.

The path parameter may be shortened to a project identifier only, and the batch
file will find the full folder name. For this feature to work, the folder name
must begin with seven characters that uniquely identify the project. (That
number -7- can easily be changed. Just open the batch file in an editor, and
you'll see where.) In this case, the shortcut's Target line would look
something like:
C:\SetSk2013ProjDir.bat "C:\SKETCHUP PROJECTS\2014-01"

Optionally, you may follow the first parameter with a second one indicating
what program you want to use: "LA" or "SK" or "ST" (for LAyout, SKetchup, and
STylebuilder.) Like this:
C:\SetSk2013ProjDir.bat "C:\SKETCHUP PROJECTS\2014-01" "SK"

This feature is best for people who are using the basic program only. Those
using SketchUp Pro will find it better to use this batch file without the
second parameter and then to call up the module they wish to use.

It works with Windows 7. It should work with XP thru 8, but there is no reason to believe it will work with any Apple operating system.

SetSk2013ProjDir .txt