Is anyone else experiencing this? I'm running a relatively uncomplicated model (5mb) but every time I go to "Edit" things freeze, load for a few seconds and then not open at all. SU 2014 doesn't crash but I can't open "Edit"...

Awesome stuff, congratulations

Ok, so the issue is me hanging on to the old system

Can anyone explain why this is hidden? The new plugin system doesn't seem conducive to maintaining my plethora of plugins (hacked up functionality) across different versions of SU....

That is fantastic news!

I updated the feature request - please support it!:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13%26amp;t=56111%26amp;p=509418#p509418

The other useful thing is in relation to angle cuts. If you cut a piece of steel or wood in a workshop cutting machine, a 90 degree cut straight across the material is considered 0 degrees so a slight angle might be 5 degrees. If you try to show this in layout you have to reference it from the edge of the material and so get 85 degrees or 95 degrees.

Some way of referencing a perpendicular cut as 0 would be very helpful when making cut diagrams for the workshop.

I have been working around this by using a modification of Dave R's methodology above in that I put in a perpendicular guide in SU, reference in layout, delete it in SU and "Update Reference" in layout but the ability to do this in some natural manner within Layout would be very powerful.

Am I making sense?

Here is the feature request - http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13%26amp;t=56111

do I need to document it more fully within the request or can I simply reference this thread?

Thanks TIG - changes made

any recommendations on the plugin? Do you use it yourself?

Linear dimensions on a piece of material that has angled ends - this works well in Sketchup provided you create the dimension in line with the axes see this example that is not inline with the axes and a similar problem to layout occurs:

or within the component in line with the component axes (which works in SU):

but it is not so easy within Layout, perhaps because LO doesn't recognize components and their respective axes?

See this example of LO's dimension tool showing the overall length of the material incorrectly:

see this thread for a clear explanation: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12%26amp;t=56101

Yes! That is a great idea! Anyone here with the programming/scripting capacity to implement it?

I'm gonna go the shameless self-promotion route and advocate for this plugin that warns you when you are editing multiple components - Dan Rathburn wrote it for me: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=54082

Explode the groups that make up your rocks, re-group them, then change to convexhull.

I'm not kidding, I have had the same issue you are having and this has fixed it in the past

Every time I try to add the new plugin (V2.4.0) to the plugin store, there seems to be a timeout and nothing changes....

Your explanation was another clever way to do it using guides.

What I mean by components is this:
If you dimension a shape like we are describing in SU outside of the component it will give you a straight line dimension between the two points:

Basically in relation to the axes of the main model.

But if you open the component and add the dimension within the component it references the component axes and you get an accurate dimension:

If you could somehow reference these component axes in LO perhaps LO could give accurate dimensions too....?

Good point, I shouldn't have called it a bug but a feature request.

Would many people support such a feature request? I guess it requires LO understanding the component axes from SU as this appears to be how such dimensioning is able to be interpreted accurately by SU

Glad that you've got a workaround but it is a bit clunky - especially when SU can do this dimension fine....

If I submit it as a bug fix for LO will people support it?

How can I accurately represent the length of a piece of steel in layout if both ends are cut as angles on opposite sides? See image:

I can get it to represent accurately if there is just one angle or if both angles are on the same side....but not two angles on opposite sides - a common requirement in a lot of joinery and steel framework

Thanks Box, going through Tig's instructions for editing the preferences window worked

Great info, thanks Tig