Thanks Fredo. For now I will continue as I am.

I'm sure you, Dave and other plugin developers have significant influence with SketchUp. On behalf of the many (millions?) of us who taught ourselves on and still love to use SketchUp Make, please try to persuade the Trimble decision makers to reactivate it in a new annual subscription model with a reasonable cost. There is definitely a gap between Pro and Free for a version without some of the high-end functions of Pro but which still enables plugins & extensions to be used.

It would make a lot of long-term users happy, be a PR coup for Trimble - and bring in more income for the likes of yourselves from a much wider user base who can use, and pay for, your latest plugins. Win, win, win!

Dave: I think your argument that I should pay the high cost for the Pro version because I use Sketchup to make some things to sell doesn't hold water. I use a LOT of other software as part of my business too: MS Word, Excel and other aspects of MS Office, Outlook, Video making software, music recording software etc etc etc. All of these are just as important as my CAD design software, but they don't charge an arm and a leg - and they don't try and police what I can use them for, as you seem to be wanting to do on behalf of Trimble. The other software makers I use charge a reasonable annual fee, which feels fair. As noted, I'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount to continue using an updated version of Sketchup Make, and I believe many other Make users would too. But the Pro version fees don't feel reasonable by comparison with these other softwares.

Sure, you can point to several other professional CAD programs that cost a lot more than Sketchup Pro. But Sketchup is different, because of how it developed and the many years that Sketchup Make was free to use. It made Sketchup much loved, hugely successful, and generated the enthusiastic body of keen expert users (like Fredo) who devised wonderful plugins and extensions. After many years of that positivity, for Trimble to make a unilateral decision to ditch Make without consulting their community feels to many like a kind of betrayal. Because long-time users love Skethup, they feel hurt as well as angry. In my opinion Trimble should take note of the huge amount of negative feedback they've received over abruptly stopping Make, and do something about it in the way I suggested. That will ensure long-term users remain loyal and don't ditch the program altogether as Make 2017 gets further and further behind the times.

What I'm experiencing is a case in point. I want to use Fredo Portait's extra functionality and make a thankful donation to Fredo for it , but I can't because it's only available in Pro. For now that's a deal breaker, unfortunately.

Thanks for your suggestion Fredo. Actually I am already using an image editor to crop the images in the 10 tedious steps I listed at the top of the other thread: MS Paint. I just had a quick look to see if there is an image editor that does cropping which is any better than MS Paint, but they all seem to involve the same process: make a manual selection box around the image, then crop.

If you know of one where you just click on a discrete area of colour (black in the case of my images) and it does automatic cropping, I'd love to hear of it. That would be a decent half-way solution - not as good as the extra features of Portrait, but better than what I'm doing.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time and trouble to answer my posts, and those of the many other Sketchup users on Sketchucation. Though we might differ on some things, one thing we have in common is that we all love this quirky old software!

Thanks for your replies Dave and Fredo. Hmm, I'd just discovered that from an internet search for "Download Sketchup Make 2019"...

I hadn't realised - that's a big change in Trimble's business model! I read that lots of people are unhappy with the new online version Sketchup Free, because it's obviously not as good as Make without the extensions. I'm not impressed either, for that reason. I guess I'll just stick with 2017 Make for now, because the jump to Pro is pretty costly!

I'm surprised the powers that be didn't continue Sketchup Make as a lower priced in-between option between Pro and Free, as I'm sure many Make users would be willing to pay a reasonable amount (maybe $50PA?) for continuing to use it with new versions. Do you think they might consider this option in future?

Anyway... Getting back to the topic in hand.

I use Sketchup in a different way to most. I use each Model file as a design bed for an ever increasing number of iterations of related novel harmonica parts, which I either 3d print or lasercut. Many models have thousands of parts created over the years, each one discrete and lying over a plane. There is no point in sending you the whole file, but I attach a snapshot of one. You can see a mix of related parts, mostly ones for 3D printing, but also the black 2d ones which are for lasercutting. These are the ones I'd love to export cropped to a rectangle which fits them exactly - just as they appear when highlighted in blue as grouped objects.

Exporting them with ANY extra width (white or transparent) means I can't resize them with correct domensions in the lasercutter sofware. That makes me doubt the PNG option will work because, even if I can't see the extra background, it will be there.

Over to you, thanks for your help.

Sample Model.skp

Thanks for your reply Fredo. It turns out that my Sketchup Make version is 2017: 17.2.2555. I tried to update to a newer version (2019?) by clicking the Help tab and 'Check for Update'. It says "You currently have the latest version of Sketchup".

I'm confused. Sorry to ask what I assume is such a basic question, but how do I get the 2019 version so I can use the extra features of your plugin?

Thanks Charlie, I just posted on the Fredo Portrait thread, I think my message is being currently reviewed.

I posted a question about close-cropped black 2d image export for laser cutting on another forum, and people recommended Fredo Portrait. To avoid repetition, here is the thread:

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=71692&p=653479#p653479

Is it possible to get what I need in SketchUp 2016, or do I have to update?

BTW Fredo, thanks for your brilliant plugins and patient, detailed, helpful explanations in text and video! It must take so much time and care; really impressive, and an example to all other plugin creators. I've donated in the past and will do again if you can give me what I'm after in this instance for my laser cutting. It will save so much hassle!

BeePee

PNG,BMP,JPEG,TIFF,PDF are all fine.

I looked through the manual but it wasn't clear to me that I can get what I'm after from the plugin as-is in SketchUp 2016: close-cropped black image.

It seems it might be possible in the extra functions of Fredo Portrait in the 2018 and newer version. From past experience I find updating SketchUp fraught with issues so try and avoid it as long as possible, but maybe now is time to take the plunge. See you on the other side, hopefully.

What I'm after for graphical export is exactly what you see when you select a grouped 2d file in Sketchup, as in this image.

I can export just the highlighted file as a DXF, but not as a discrete image without extra white surround, as far as I can see.

Unfortunately the close-cropped image comes out here with extra white real estate at top and bottom. That's not how it appears on my laser cutter software: it is cut right to the edges.

Here's a screen shot of the image and a copy selected on the lasercut softwarre bed. You can see it is selected right to the edges of the black image.

This is what I would like to export directly from Sketchup, if possible.

Close-cropped image. This one might be harder to get the point across with, because the background of the email message is white. After this I'll show it on the laser cutter bed.