The profile links are broken in the first post. Do you need the files? I have copies.

SU7 added the Contact Us page to the program's Help menu.

Prior to SU7, you needed to go to a Help article and scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the Contact Us link.

A bug report page has always been accessable through the Contact Us page (I've used it), although the phrasing has changed over the years.

I can recommend the Gershwin Hotel in NY http://www.gershwinhotel.com/. It has 4- and 8-bunk rooms on a first-come-first serve basis, catering to international budget travelers and all other cheap people. The private rooms can be reserved. The men's and co-ed rooms are a bit messy, but the price is right (~$20 just over 10 years ago.) Its located centrally, close to the Empire State Building. It also has a 13th floor. I always got a kick out of trying to read the non-English labels of the toiletries others left behind.

There's a hostel in Boulder http://boulderinternationalhostel.com/ with very attractive rates. Anyone can stay. It's located about 7 football fields from the basecamp among the university fraternities. The AB bus from Denver airport stops 2 block away. The bus cost $12 and reportedly runs more often than the super shuttle.

Simplify contours was one of the first sample scripts @Last released when the Ruby API was added to help seed script development.

To expand upon Chris Fullmer's insight, one of the things Google did was release a 'free' version of SU. That free stuff brought in a lot of talented plugin coders from all over the world who applied their coding magic to add extra functionality to this program.

SU developers can and should concentrate their energy on making this the best rendering engine which people can customize to best fit their needs.

Fredo, your coding efforts shouldn't be free. Google can give out a free version as it helps draw in people to make SKP a popular and dominating extension, and for more people to use their other products and services. Like @last and many other software developers, many plugin developers deserve to earn money for their effort too.

There's a nice thread about running a virtual desktop here http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14266. Mojopac has had some good reviews on computer geek sites, mainly because it's a good value for the price.

There's a plugin to manage a portable plugin collection which may be handy http://www.alexschreyer.net/projects/plugin-loader-for-sketchup/.

Dave, you need to add a contruction point at the end of the path. Select all faces, path and point and run script. There are at least 2 scripts which which let you add a construction point - AddVertex+.rb and add_construction_point.rb.

And to model a loop-de-loop, you need to do the loop part separate. Make a helix from one of the helix scripts. Rotate a copy of your rail faces 90° and position it at the end of the helix path. Don't forget to add a construction point. Then rotate the new extrusion to the correct orientation.

hebrides, rar is a zip file used in many parts of the world. The stuff you want is inside. Get 7-zip.

Wikii, a progress bar would be a nice addition. For now I can tell the script is running by how my cursor looks and a slight flicker in a menu bar.

Wikii,

All attempts to extrude a profile - from several locations and profile face orientations - on the figure 8 path worked very well.

The way reversing the profile face only changes the orientation of the extruded faces is very nice. People making tunnels, or are otherwise are more interested in the inside of the extrusion will like this feature. It's a keeper.

FAK did not like quite like extruding unless the face was at the end of the selected path. The shape was fine, but the group moved to a new location.

And when I ran the script on the entire path, at least one face did not close near the path intersection area.

Wikii,

I got mixed results by reversing the face. Sometimes the reversal worked, sometimes not.

People who want FAK to model nice looking roads in a landscape would have some intersecting paths.

I mistakenly selected two faces for the plugin to extrude at the same time. FAK made 2 groups. One good, and one looks strange.

FAK .03 test 2.skp

Good job. There was a big improvement in just a few hours.

Using the same SKP file with the face position in the same locations, some of the face profiles extruded on the wrong side and one relocated.

In all cases the path, construction point, face+edges were selected to run the plugin.

Paths that intersect will most likely need to be done in sections. Plugins have limited mind-reading abilities, but version .03 at least was able to do extrude something along the entire complex path in one step.

(These two paths upset the last plugin attempt to correct the follow me twist.)

I have some paths where both versions of the script failed. On the bright side, they will be good for future testing.

Edit: More fun things to play with (done on the figure 8 path):

1. different results if the path is welded verses non-welded.
2. if the edges of the extruding face are also selected, the extrusion face is reversed and the extrusion location changes.

Follow Me boo-boo.skp

The aspect ratio script http://www.smustard.com/script/FixAspectRatio

Keep an eye on #6 http://morisdov.googlepages.com/

Azuby's FFlipper under software http://www.errorinitus.de/#

Herwiberden, I'm glad to hear about your success. Motherboard problems forced me to get a new computer. I now have a EV GA nVidia Ge Force 8600 GTS 512 MB GPU. A few negative reports made me gun-shy about DirectX 10. So I only allowed DirectX 9 to be installed for now.

XP Pro SP is still available for new set-ups. Vista OS along can cause another set of 'problems'. CAD people have reported problems with saving files among other things... But I digress...

Orei, I have driver version 6.14.11.5827 for the nVidia and it seems to work on my new system. But I also was happy with my Radeon x1950 Pro on my older, sick computer - with a few less visual abnormalities. That worked very well with my use of SU too. Video cards are only one part of a computer. All parts - hardware and software - have to play together nice. In Heriberden's case here, that only involved checking a little box.

The script SelectionMemory2.rb http://www.smustard.com/script/SelectionMemory2 begins to address the rigging issue. But the script is a bit limited.

The script allows you to save only 20 selection sets. And the selection sets are not save between SU sessions.

Improvements:

• Save selection sets between SU sessions
• Be able to name the sets
• Add some editable, nested organization: be able to create Hand category and make separate articulated selection sets for the hand.
• a base, component model should be able to have these selection set attributes, so when the component is made unique, the adjustable selection sets are already set up for a new poseable figure.
• be able to select several sets at one time, a finger has at least 3 sets.
• the selection sets need to be editable. Right now if some geometry changes, ie an edge is flipped, it no longer is included in the selection set. If a joint radically changes position, some geometry will be eliminated, added and smooshed about.

If a poseable model is a collection of groups or components, then a separate plugin is almost superfluous. As it's so easy to select and Rotate Along an Axis. But when a poseable model is composed only of connected geometry, it may be useful to refine SelectionMemory2 some more.

Right now I don't really need to do this much myself. I pose as I go along and extrude a figure. But going back into a model to reuse and re-pose is a bit more work than it should be.

SU Guide Vicki request for specific info they need in several posts here http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupissues/browse_thread/thread/6054408288057eec#

PC user here, but I still read Mac problem threads.

There is a problem with MacBook Pro. It seems to be a combination of the OS, GPU and driver, and hardware (probably specific chipsets in the new machine) that are not playing together well. Search here, GSU Pro Groups and GSU Free groups for more info - using 'macbook pro' as search term.

Apple, GSU, ATI/AMD and NVIDIA are trying to fix things.

Since you are 'blessed' with a problem, and if you want to help fix the problem, SU folks need specific information. Like detailed system information, detailed descriptions of the problems, skippy files and screen shots - in other words, they need the whole nine yards (US WWII slang. Turret machine gunners in big figther airplanes had 9 yards of ammo between reloads.)

In this forum, use the SketchUp Bug Report sub-forum. Or contact SU support directly or use Google Groups.

I used my gmail account for the application. And my invitation was deposited in the Spam folder on the first day invitations were sent out.

My spam filter has now been modified to allow sketchup.com domain communication.

Did people with no email communication check their Junk/Spam mail folder?