Thanks to all beta testers - we have just released a new version of our Driving Dimensions plugin for SketchUp.

Version 1.3 supports new platforms and contains several improvements and fixes. Answering numerous requests by the users of Windows 7 and Mac OS X v.10.6 operating systems, LEDAS development team focused on supporting these new platforms for its SketchUp plug-in. The functionality of multi-document interface (MDI) on Mac platform has been improved. Version 1.3 also includes several fixes of internal errors reported by Driving Dimensions users. To see the full list of changes, please visit the release status page.

More than 20,000 of SketchUp users worldwide downloaded our Driving Dimensions plug-in. When we first released it in October 2008, many users did not understand the value it added to SketchUp, but now reviewers estimated it as “an essential plug-in that can really help you speed up your designing”. We really appreciate this recognition.

You are welcome to download the version 1.3 at http://www.DrivingDimensions.com!

For the attention of Mac users!

We are going to release a new version of our Driving Dimensions plugin for SketchUp. It includes:

• correct installation on Snow Leopard 10.6
• improved compatibility with other plugins
• support of PowerPC

If you are interested in testing the new version of our plugin before its official announcement, please contact me.

Hello daviddoria,

What version of SketchUp and Windows do you use? Could you please download the plug-in directly from our website and install it again:
http://drivingdimensions.com/download/

Edson, please try the newest version (1.2) of our Driving Dimensions plugin.
Your problem should be fixed, since we have resolved several compatibility issues.
You can download it here.

Hi there!

We have just released a new version (1.2) of our Driving Dimensions plugin for SketchUp.
What's new in brief:

• Support for national languages
• Japanese translation of GUI
• Less edges and faces are now moved when you edit a driving dimension value
• The time required to solve driving dimensions has been significantly reduced
• Several compatibility issues with other SketchUp plugins solved

Please read the full press release on ouw website.

We invite all users of the free version of Driving Dimensions to help us with translation of the plug-in to different languages. As compensation, LEDAS will provide all collaborators with Pro licenses of the Driving Dimensions plug-in for SketchUp at no charge.

Please enjoy using our plugin and don't forget to share your ideas with us!

Edson, Martin,

Thank you for these explanation. The reason of the bug seems to be clear - our plugin tries to update a model, but fails since the model contains some corrupted piece of data (not surprising, since Edson uses "a huge number of plugins"). We are going to fix this behavior in the forthcoming version of our LDD plugin by checking the correctness of our data before updating a model.

However, I have to ask another question: when exactly the problem happens? When you open a model or when you load 't.rb' in the Ruby console?

Edson,

Thank you for reporting this problem. Could you please say what else plugins do you use in SketchUp and how often this problem happens?

Thank you for using our plugin, Mike!
By default the plugin does nothing when you draw your model.
Didn't you change any DD option or used previous versions of our plugin on your computer before?
If you installed it for the first time, DD should be inactive until you manually create any driving dimension. Could you please confirm? (Probably there is a problem on our side?)

Your question about various types of designs with DD is good, and probably some users will share their experience here. I particularly see that DD should be useful inside components (with version 1.1 it is possible!) For example, you can take the TV pedestal model mentioned in my previous note and insert it into your design as a component. Then you use driving dimensions (already existing inside this component) to adjust it for your particular size.

Hello everybody!

Yesterday we released version 1.1 of our Driving Dimensions plugin for SketchUp that runs on both Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X (10.4+) platforms.

Small functional enhancements include a new help button on the toolbar and improved behavior when selecting dimension arguments. We have also fixed several bugs - thanks to all beta testers! We are very excited to see 10,000 downloads of our plugin since November 2008, thank you for the interest to it!

You can find the full press release here and download the plugin here.

And here is a simple TV pedestal I designed yesterday on Mac to show you how our DD plugin can be applied to control thinkness of shelves when you change the overall dimensions of the predestal (you can download the corresponding model with driving dimensions at 3D warehouse

I have a news for you guys - we are about to release our Driving Dimensions plugin for Google SketchUp running on Mac OS X.

If you are interested in beta testing this software (before the official release), please let me know.

@sepo said:

BTW I can't find uninstaller as my beta version is expired. Is there a such a thing? Any help appreciated.

The following way should always work: go to Control Panel/Remove Program and select "LEDAS Driving Dimensions" in the list.

@gaieus said:

I know that Dimitriy (the author) regularly posts in the extensions forum.

Thank you, Gaieus, for mentioning me, but I am not the author of this plugin - I am in charge of the product management in my company.

Hello dtr,

It is really interesting how the "View/Hidden geometry" option was unchecked after you removed the LEDAS Driving Dimensions plugin. I've just tried to remove the plugin, but the option "View/Hidden geometry" remained checked, as before.

Dear Driving Dimensions users!

Today we launched the version 1.0 of our DD plugin. You can download it at DrivingDimensions.com. Since October 2008, when we released the version 0.1 more than 5000 users from 95 countries (according to Google Analytics) downloaded preliminary versions (from 0.1 to 0.4). We did not expect such a high demand for parametric plugin for SketchUp - it was a pleasant surprise for us. Thank you for that!

With release 1.0 we are going to attract the attention of professional SketchUp users. So now we propose two versions of our plugin: free and Pro. The free version is not intended for commercial usage and has one functional limitation: you cannot add more than 25 driving dimensions to one SketchUp model. No other limitations exist. We consider this limitation as insignificant for non-professional users, since 25 dimensions are generally enough to play with DD and to create simple parametric models.

Pro versions (for only $45 per single user license) is intended for professional users who create complex designs. For them we also propose a new feature called inreffed dimensions that consists in automatic generation of implied driving dimensions when you draw a rectangle or apply a Push/Pull tool. We have prepared a special tutorial that introduces inferred dimensions feature. This feature can also be switched on in the free version, but be aware that the limit of 25 dimensions is reached very fast with inferred dimensions.

Among other improvements of version 1.0 I can mention:

• New look and feel (icons, cursors, message boxes, menus, "About" window)
• New types of driving dimensions (between an edge and a face, between two faces)
• "Update Dimension Values" tool (in addition to "Update geometry")
• Options dialog

Please read the full press release to learn more about Driving Dimensions 1.0. And don't hesitate to criticize
I wish you to enjoy the new parametric possibilities in SketchUp!

@rayochoa said:

excuse me but can you use this on more complex things like maybe Automobiles and things like that?

Why not? The only limitation of our plugin is that it cannot be used to dimension grouped entities (ones placed inside components).

But if one speaks about automotive design, he/she usually means things like class A surfaces or at least the possibility to specify G0/G1/G2 connections between curves and surfaces. Current version of Driving Dimensions does not support them. In the forthcoming versions we plan to support a tangency constraint with arc curves.

Dear ilay7k,

Thank you for the interesting idea of the integration of Driving Dimensions with Dynamic Components! We have no particular plans for that yet, but in the forthcoming versions of our plugin one will be able to use variables and formalas when specifying values of driving dimensions.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for the interest to Driving Dimensions!

We will definitely port our plugin to Mac OS, but first we have to release a Mac version of our geometric solver LGS 3D, which is the base for the plugin. We are already working on that.

MALAISE, xrok1,

Thank you for the interest to our plugin!
Support of engineering equations linking dimension parameters is one of our short term objectives.

Hello everybody!

Driving Dimensions version 0.4 was released today. This plugin for SketchUp 6/7 runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
So what's new in 0.4?

• a new kind of driving dimensions: vertex-face distance,
• non-rigid arc curves,
• improved Undo functionality

Models with arcs (like one recently presented by peweuk in this thread) are now solved correctly: you can change any distance. As an example I give you an animated GIF with a triumphal arch - you can edit everything in this model with parameters.

Find this and other sample models at http://drivingdimensions.com/SketchUp/samples.php.
Download Driving Dimensions 0.4 at http://drivingdimensions.com/SketchUp/download.php.
Read full press release at http://drivingdimensions.com/news.php?num=5.

Enjoy our plugin and feel free to share your comments or suggestions with us!

@peweuk said:

I have tried to set the 'Driving Dimensions' inside a component, but so far have not found a way to do this.

Is this possible and if so how do I do it.

No, it is not possible for the moment. Driving Dimensions are allowed only for ungrouped entities. But again, the support of components is in our 'todo' list. Thank you for this question - we will add it to the FAQ.