Thanks for the replies.

Yesterday I just copied the toolbars .rb and Dir from SU-8 to SU-15. Worked no problem.

I just reinstalled via Extension Mgr the (perhaps) updated version and noticed my toolbars were exactly the same. Yes, I changed the file type from ZIP to RBZ.

In the web page (noted above) one of the standard toolbars (Scenes) has an extra icon that my installed version does not. Did I do something wrong?

Oh, and what are these other plugins to be added to it are you referring too?

I am almost converted to SU-15 from SU-8.
I just realized that many of my SU-8 toolbars (especially "toggle/hidden") are not native SU but within Toolbars.rb.

How can I import the toolbars.rb set to SU-15?

I can't find the current file here.

Dave
I really appreciate the time you are taking to help me on this.

I am using Win 7 Home Premium. I do not recall having any issue installing SU-8 when I had my XP HD crash, then upgraded my drive to an SSD and loaded Win 7. I reinstalled everything on it from scratch, using my old recovered HD as only a data repository. For SU-8 after a reinstall on the SSD, I mainly just copied the contents of directories to get back up. I know I cannot do this with SU-15. Well, my fav template got copied over no problem.

I do remember still having a bitch of a time configuring my SU-8 to what I was used too.

There really should be a tool to automate upgrade conversions, especially if SU is now on an annual update path. I have never encountered an app that needed this much work to effect an upgrade, or even a reinstall.

Anyway, this time, in anticipation, I wrote down on paper every aspect of SU-8, file locations, toolbars, preferences, etc. Some were screen shots, others were printouts, ie: shortcuts. I exxed off the rarely used and never used plugins, but still had a lot of needs and used often plugins to load. I am about 1/2 way there.

It wasn't 2 full days, but to date about 10+ hours and counting trying to get SU-15 to feel like my old SU-8. There are plugins that have changed names, there are plugins and tools that I always thought were native SU, there are plugin names that bear no resemblance to the menus and tools they provide, there are RBZ plugins in Sketchucation, and more not in the store that I need or use often. And to top it all off there are new native tools that used to be plugins, and all of the tool icons look different, as well as menu location changes. Plus there are toolbars I had in SU-8 I cannot find in SU-13; perhaps they are a custom TB. Confusing for my 70 year old head.

I'll admit I am not one to play with SU and understand its inner workings...
To me SU is a tool to draw stuff, and even then I use maybe 50% of its capabilities.
Yet on average, I spend about 6 to 10 hours a day in SU. It is hands down my most used app on my PC. But most of the configuration setup on SU-8 was done years ago in SU-3, 5 and 7 so a lot of stuff I have forgotten how to do. Hence my opening line in this thread.

Right now, I have pretty well loaded the store of what I need and use into the extensions library. Two of them I just loaded, Pipe along path and CofG were the first I tested. I drew a wavy line and PaP'd it. Noted extra parameters to explore later, but that went well.
Then I tried CoG and SU-15 froze. I had to crash it. No bugsplat.

Then I came here.

Next thing is to tryout all the extensions, then search for the list of RB's I need and install them.

TTFN

I never had a permissions problem installing SU8. I am the admin for my PC.

Thanks for the tip on placing .rb files. I would never have figured that out.
If that is the case, what is the 2015 "ifcplugin" folder used for?

And, why does SU not give the ability to import old version settings and plugins when updating SU?
Do we have to go through the hours of manually resetting everything every time,; toolbars, plugins, preferences, file locations, materials, etc??
2 days and I am not yet setup as I am used to with SU-8.

3 things to look for...

1 - change the mouse batteries

2 - check if there is any metallic object between the mouse and the RF receiver connected to the computer. Range between the 2 is a factor as well.

3 - If the wheel works in other apps, the problem is not the mouse.

Me again.

So I installed a few plugins using SketchUcation with no apparent problems.
It reported they were installed in the C:/Users/jgb/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2015/sketchup/plugins dir.

Why there and NOT in my main SU15 directory???

Why bury it so deep???

And where do I put normal .rb plugins?

Thanks, that worked.
What threw me initially was the change in the name of the SU plugin dir.
(Why Why Why would they do that???)
I put the .rbz into that and it worked as you said.

I'm going to sound like a newbie, but....

I've d/l'd Sketchucation.

How do I install it?

Haven't done something like this in years.....

Thank you all. That helped.

I'm getting to the point I need to upgrade my SU-V8-Free to 15 Make, and all my plugins as well.
I'm sure I am not alone in this.

Could somebody please list the best steps to do this?

I need to make 2 identical upgrades, my main PC (Win 7) and the ASUS note pad (Win 8).

I read that some plug-ins should be loaded before others, and some older plug-ins have been updated significantly. I have not kept up with the changes, as my setup works OK for me.

There are a lot of my plug-ins that I simply do not use (sounded like I needed them way back) and some I use rarely, but need, and a few I cannot live without. In fact there are some plug-ins I use so much they seem like an integral part of SU.

I tried to help a new user on his PC, but my fingers just did not make it work as I was used to because he had a different set of plug-ins and default keyboard shortcuts. I looked like a newbie trying to show him how.

I also suspect a few old plug-ins may not work with V-15 or are now incorporated in V-15 or newer plug-ins.

I will post a list of my plug-ins folder if that helps.

I have always needed animation of some sort in SU.
I was an early adopter of Sketchy Physics but had a hard time climbing the learning curve. I dropped it after the author lost interest and was never heard from again.
I tried a few Key Frame trials; none worked as advertised, at least to what I needed.
I tried Simfonia but the user interface made it extraordinarily difficult to use. Dropped it as well.
Long ago I tried this Key Frame plugin (ver 1.2 I think) but it had a too short limited free trial to get used to it and animating SU models was not that important to me then.

Now I am ready to try it again, but I have concerns.
I am not questioning the high quality and functionality of the authors work, but......

The price is now more than doubled to US$39 ($52 Canadian), which is a significant chunk of change for me, especially considering the following.....

The author (RP) is showing tendencies to abandon this plug-in as has happened with Sketchy Physics, i.e:

• No communication for months on end,
• ignoring this forum (in a snit!), and
• the latest "update" was simply a policy change to registration that borders on paranoia rather than service.
  If he abandons this plug-in, what happens when I need to transfer a registration if the registrar is AWOL?

If RP is generating quality SU plug-ins as a business (he IS charging for some of them) then he should understand that SketchUcation is his best available marketing tool and especially his FREE SUPPORT tool. A dedicated web page is nowhere as effective to both those advantages. On SketchUcation I can get multiple answers in hours, rather than wait for 1 answer from RP a few days later. And everybody learns; not just me alone.

I would also suggest that his pricing be more in line with other paid plug-ins. Right now it is one of the most expensive out there. He will earn more with higher volume sales. S/W costs nothing more to distribute in volume than in onesies and twosies.

Free trials should be on the order of a month. It takes time to learn the product and then create something useful before parting with cash. 7 days does not cut it.

Registration is a bit onerous as well.

• If not connected to the web, you are limited to 7 days offline use.
• Only a single computer? I have 2, my main dual screen PC that I do 100% of all my design work, and an ASUS note-book I occasionally use to show my work. The note-books screen is way too small to be really useful for design work, but sometimes I need to tweak a model for a better showing, away from my main PC and then reflect those changes in its Key Frame animation.
  Why would I want to spend an additional Cdn$52 to use it maybe once a year?
  ALL non-commercial work BTW.

Hopefully RP will read this and offer a reply. In the meantime, my purchase is pending.

I like that idea!!!!!

This is not a Curviloft (CL) problem.

Only when a 4 sided face is defined by opposite parallel lines will it form a face without triangles. A triangles face is, by definition, always flat.

If a 4 sided (or more) face has any 1 vertex not in exactly the same plane, SU and CL will define the face with triangles.

In your model, the lines defining the curves are not quite parallel in the lower 7 segments, and therefore cannot be defined by a 4 sided flat surface. You can prove this to yourself by drawing lines and seeing that they will not face. Other than adjusting one side or the other, there is nothing CL can do to fix that.

Re: 2nd question.

SU already does "touching" indications when moving a comp towards another comp.
You need only grab the moving comp and when you move it into contact with the stationary comp, SU will flag it touching face or edge. You can move past that of course, but the move will hesitate a bit when the contact happens.

If you are contacting faces, then you can make one face a "Glue anything" and it will contact and stay put.

The same thing happens with intersect, when some of the intersections cause very short lines. Gaps happen. Perhaps ToS uses the same/similar methodology to form the line on the surface.

Try adjusting the number of segments forming the curve and see if that helps.

Deleting an edge of a face deletes the face. Highlighting the face would be redundant.

From the picture it looks like a moonscape and you are trying to put a smooth flat floor in a crater. If so, then the floor perimeter does not seem to have to be very accurate.
Given that, then this is a modified solution I use to fix the jaggies on fairings after an intersect of curved surfaces. BUT it is a fair bit of work.

Also I think you encountered an operational problem with Curviloft I get when trying to skin a flat(ish) surface on a complex perimeter. My usual solution follows as well (3).

But wait..... There's more, a quick and dirty way to give those craters a flat floor.

1-Create a face (rect or circle) just below the hole and group it. Move it up to just meet the lowest point of the hole perimeter. SU will tell when that occurs with a constrained flag.
Then move it up to just past the highest endpoint of the perimeter.
Explode the flat face, select all the touching faces of the crater and floor and intersect.
You can delete the outside of the crater base and any bits hanging down if you want.
If the crater base disappears then undo till it reappears and leave it as so.

2-As above, create a grouped face below and bring it up to the lowest point.
With the move tool grab an endpoint of the hole perimeter, hit the alt key then the down arrow and move the endpoint down to the grouped face. When SU says it is constrained, let go.
Do this for each endpoint around the hole perimeter.
Explode the flat face. If you got all the points, a crater floor will result. As above, delete the extra bits or not.

3-When CL stubbornly refuses to create a face, select the perimeter lines, as best you can. If some other lines and faces are selected as well, just ignore them for now.
Make the selection a group temporarily. Copy it and move it on any one axis away. It is just easier to work with, out of position.
Edit the group and start deleting all unwanted lines and faces that are not specificly the crater floor perimeter.
CL the perimeter.
If it fails, that means you have tiny gaps and/or line fragments in the perimeter. Clean those up and try again.
If it works, delete the original floor perimeter group, then move the fixed floor perimeter group back on axis to its original position and explode it.
Then cleanup the opened faces by redoing the triangles, endpoint to endpoint.
Do not accept a constrained endpoint, you need a real endpoint.

And if that doesn't work you need to post your model here and someone will help fix it.

But that will not be me as I am in Singapore and without my Sketchup computer, unless you can wait till mid Nov when I get home. And all my replies are time lagged 12 hours to Eastern time.

@zacchia said:

Hi
If you set camera to parallel view then it does not cut off I guess...

Not sure if Parallel View will prevent "cutting" (clipping), but as mentioned before, if you get "near field" clipping when zooming in, then zoom out a bit, and turn OFF perspective.
Then zoom back in as close as you want.

You may want to select an entity at/near what you are zooming into to guide you back in after perspective is turned off, because the whole object will jump back in view.

Note that when perspective is off, you will get "far field" clipping when you zoom out on a large object.

@davidbierman2003 said:

Hi,

I have the plug in working in Sketchup. Is there anyway to not include certain portions of what the surface will form? For example, I am working on creating a surface for roads. The roads cover a large surface, and the program creates a large surface covering everything. I just want a surface to cover the roads.

Thanks,

David

Pre-select only the perimeter lines of what you want surfaced. You can include any lines within the perimeter, if you want. Then click the skinning icon.

I finally found a texture solution (95% ok) to depicting gear teeth visually, but not in tooth detail. Which is all I need for this model. It is not perfect, especially for bevel gears, but can be made to look reasonable.

This does not mean I don't want to know why the crashes happened, but I'm posting a trial ring with the texture applied, in case anyone needs to depict gears.

This way I can show gears with a bare minimum of lines drawn, and maintain solidity.

As an added bonus, I can make them straight gears or (in this case) helical bevel gears by simply rotating the texture in situ. TIG's "TextureRotate.rb"

Select the material "Gear Teeth" and edit it. By adjusting the aspect ratio you can adjust the gear tooth pitch. Best to break the aspect ratio link to do that.

Visual (Non 3D) depiction of gears by texture.