Thanks TIG - you were right - it had installed in User/roaming etc.

solved.

Thanks for that INFO.

So they want me to pay $145 to upgrade from 2014 to 2015 when all they've done is fix bugs! pretty uncool IMO.

Well I downloaded the new version - changed the .zip to .rbz - pointed to it in sketchup/preferences/pluggins and it loaded - great!

Only one problem. The metric dimensions used don't in fact reflect Australian timber sizes. In the past I have opened the Housebuilder_sections.txt file and altered the dimensions - e.g. a 4" x 2" is a 100 x 50mm which I have changed to a 90mm x 45mm which is what we use here in Aussieland.

Now the text file is incorporated into the .rbz file so I can't access it. I tried reloading it but it won't do it.

So I uninstalled v.2015 - I deleted the C:/Programs/Sketchup folder that was left (as it had retained the plugins folder) and reinstalled 2015 only to find that Housebuilder is now a permanent pluggin which I can't un-install and which has the 100 x 50mm as standard. I was hoping to reinstall it with the altered sections.text file but I can't do it as housebuilder is now permanently installed despite completely uninstalling 2015.

After having their 11th child, an Irish couple decided that that was enough, as they couldn't afford a larger bed. So the husband went to his doctor and told him that he and his wife didn't want to have any more children ...
The doctor told him there was a procedure called a vasectomy that would fix the problem but it was expensive. A less costly alternative was to go home, get a large firecracker, light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to 10.
The husband said to the doctor, "B'Jayzus, I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I don't see how putting a firework in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me with my problem."
"Trust me, it will do the job", said the doctor.
So the man went home, lit a cracker and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5," at which point he paused, and placed the beer can between his legs so he could continue counting on his other hand.

Thanks for that info Andrew - I was really taken aback when I saw it.

On the other hand perhaps Sketchup can now get back to what it was originally intend to do, be a cheap, easy to use 3D modeling program for architects and designers.

cheers
john

I was looking at a building I'll be working on in Denver in Google Earth and I realised the whole city was in 3D and it wasn't the normal inserts by individuals - looks like someone has written a program that turns the 2D images into 3D. The building facades seem accurate so it must be accessing Street View.

Very Clever, Check it out.

Me too Mike. Tried loading into Appdata folder - made no difference.

It won't accept housebuilder.rb or Layermanager.rb Tried them in Shipped Extensions folder and Tools folder.

Hi TIG - thankyou for acknowledging my problem. Yes - I've had problems with geometry - I have built a simple door for one of my projects only to export it to CAD, either section slice or 2D Dwg graphic to find in CAD the lines are slightly out yet in sketchup they appear to be aligned to red or green axes.
I go back to sketchup and re-align to axes and find they are now 1 degree out.

I really can't track it down. It's either an error in the protractor, or the rotate command - I'm not sure which. It's a new fault as I've never experienced before.
I'm currently re-aligning my block walls on a project and have found one of them to be out by 0.1 degree, trivial maybe but when you are dealing with 30m walls it's becomes substantial.

Thanks TIG - I admire your work but it's not working for me. I loaded another file into 2013 and again - involuntary zoom out to nowhere.
I'll just stick with Google Sketchup cos it works for me. It's my livelihood, day in day out. I've got 6 projects hanging on it and I can't afford the time to sort out the vagaries of the new Trimbale versions.

Check out my work here: There's my sketchup design fronting every page. I build everything, I'm not making grand streetscapes, just accurate, precise modelling, beam for beam.

John Sayers Productions

Home Page of Australian Producer/Engineer/Studio Designer John Sayers. This site shows pictures and plans of Recording Studios.

(johnlsayers.com)

I use parallel projection everytime I export .dwg files for autoCad

Rich - I've been using sketchup since version 4 and I've never come across this problem before.

Thanks Rich O'Brien - so simple.

Here - I've fixed it.

Solution - went back to Sketchup Pro 8 Trimble - same error!

went back to Google Sketchup Pro 8 version 8.0.3117 from 2010.

Error fixed.

Here's a door I have been working on. The grey in the background in not a background, it's a square I created because I kept getting zoomed out so far that I lost sight of my model. So I added a large square so I could see it when I was instantly zoomed out for no apparent reason.

If I zoom in one more click on the scroll wheel I get this. This is as far as I can zoom in on this object, it's a formfont door handle.

I'm sorry - I can't work with this. If I'm doing something wrong well fine, please point it out to me, otherwise I'm going back to Pro8 and I want my money back.

I also had problems aligning a door this morning because it kept giving different construction line alignments along red and green axes!

Wow - thanks Thomas - I've never noticed that before

Thankyou Trimbale for fixing the construction lines colour problem when axes were switched on and off and thankyou for the engine changes I assume you've made.

Here's my list

1. Return the two column option for the large toolset - it fits on laptops left column. Not everyone is using large screens.
2. Get rid of scrolling on Layer select drop down.
3. Return all dropdowns (Scenes, Layers etc) to original size so they tuck up to top of screen - why someone would want to make them bigger has me baffled.
4. Windows version to have ability to have multiple projects open at once as the Mac version does.
5. cancelled.
6. Somewhere down the line Google screwed the zoom in. Now construction lines also disappear if you zoom in too far. This never happened in earlier versions.
7. Someone at Google changed it so you had to click a surface to push/pull it! it's stupid, worked perfectly well before where you just moused over the surface you wanted and it highlighted.
8. Similarly they changed the ability to mouse over surfaces behind other surfaces and the mouse changed to pushpull tool when you were over the active surface behind another surface that you can't see.
9. Have a box to check if you want the rotate factor when using the move option. If you want to move it, then move it - if you want to rotate it then rotate it. The rotate option switching on when you are trying to move something is annoying.

Thanks Dave - all is fine - I upgraded for $95 - well worth it.

Thanks guys for your concern and your help.

I've reinstalled 2013 and I copied the zip files of housebuilder and layer manager to the plugins folder of 2013 and unzipped them there. I then restarted 2013 and it recognized them and I now have them in 2013.
Despite de-clicking "make 2013 your default .skp program" it still wanted to open .skp files in 2013 but I managed to over-ride it and now I can operate both programs.

I'm not exactly sure what 2013 is offering - clearly the video export is superior but it's not exactly worth the $500+ dollars the want for the new program. Why should I outlay that amount for a program I already have. Surely a sketchup pro video upgrade for %39.95 may have been more appropriate.