Yep. Happened to me, too.
There's a suggestion for Macs in the Google help forum (Gaieus was there, too)
"To anyone else searching for this, go to user->library->preferences and delete all com.google files."

I'm using SU Pro 8.0.4811 + numerous rubies on Win 7 64 bit
A quick search for this string (com.google) gave no direct matches, but some with "com80-kh.google" - which look like some sort of licence or authorisation file so I'm reluctant to kill'em.

If its relevant, I'm using Firefox as browser, but there's a feral IE somewhere there too.

I have upgraded. I believe its well worth the price, but agree that you should keep v7 around for a while. This is not just an incremental upgrade, and some operations work quite differently in v8. You may find that working in v7 is more intiutive until you learn the new ways.

As an example, I had a frustrating time with the Google Earth imports, until I learned the new way of working. That's been the big change for me, but the new way is much more productive for me. Most of the plugins I use (Didier Bur's pointscloud, and others like Pipe along path, Weld, AS's Webconsole, Thom_Thoms Cleanup) either work ok or have ben fixed recently.

Well, I'm happy to test it out, on SU7 & 8 Pro. But programming? Nope.
But with TIG and ThomThom commenting here you've already got some deep SU Ruby knowledge.
If we can ask them to get involved ....

As suggested, there's nice exporters for POVray and Kerkythea, which means we may be able to draw on others in the forums too.
Supporting another good OSF renderer in SU would be helpful to all involved.
What functions do you think needs to be done to move this project along, and then to the next level?

A bit OT, but the right people seem to be here.
Are there any known problems with Settings?
The menu comes up OK and Render exports an LXS file, with a dialogue to start LuxRender, all good
But the Settings doesn't bring up anything at all?
SU8 Win7 64bit Lenovo Laptop ATI video card.

<edit> i do have the SU2KT and SU2POV installed, so it may be some interference.
I don't want to uninstall these just yet as I'm finding both useful, but I will investigate ...

Encore - merci beaucoup.

But not Pro.
I just ante'd up the exorbitant annual re-sign (I use it extensively for "commercial purposes"), and 5.2 is the most current version.

@ecuadorian said:

Thanks, JIm. I had to delete the index.html part to be able to load the site...

Mitsuba 3 - A Retargetable Forward and Inverse Renderer

(www.mitsuba-renderer.org)

The main page shows a lovely image of a "rough dielectric" material (sandblasted glass?).

I remember "mitsu" means "three units" in japanese. So... what does "ba" mean here?

Its a green herb/ vegetable, and the FAQ says that the dev was cooking with it at the time and gives this reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptotaenia). It does have a sort of 3 lobed leaf, so maybe thats it?

I've now got it.

Thanks TIG (and additional gratitude/ kudos for you ruby plugins and contributions). Thanks also J Bacus, Gaieus.
For some reason, it's been a bit af a learning curve - I'm probably still dumb, but less ignorant thanks to you all and the forum!

TIG, the process you describe was pretty much the way I went about my first attempt. The breakthrough came when I read John Bacus' comment aand realised that by zooming in close I could improve the image quality, and that the new "Add more imagery" system allows me to quilt together a terrain. I work mostly with golf holes and imagery needs to be long and thin, so with a single image in SU7, the orientation was important. In SU8 this is no longer true.

BTW Gaieus, thanks for your suggestion for SU7, I had tried it but had more reliable results for the GTS method. But hopefully, its one for the history books.

Thanks Gaieus. I have spent more time working with the "Add Location" function and have a better understanding (I'm not as dumb as before).

You're correct, I still have 7.1 installed, so I can revert to that. I had read all the +ve & -ve SU8 threads and was hesitating over the upgrade but as I've been using the (rather involved) Go-To-School methods for adding colour to the SU6/7 B&W terrain, I hoped that the new import method would help me with this.

Unfortunately, the resolution of the imported terrain colour is not that good. I'm getting rather pixelated surface materials; I understand that the terrain detail is probably better in SU8, but the using colour overlay methods + b&w 7.1 terrain gives much better results.

I could probably adapt my workflow to the SU8 way of getting terrain and gain some time, but the drop in presentation quality is too much. I'll search around the forums and see if I'm missing anything. If not, I'll Go To School (and 7.1) again!

I want to do something similar to "Get current view" from Google Earth in SU8. Am I being dense (and/or blind), because I cant find it?
The "Add Location" process brings up a "Google Earth lite", but my workflow is badly compromised. As I use the GE tools to size and orient the image just how I like it, much of that functionality is not available.

Also, the search tool is very unsophisticated (I end up in random US locations (wrong hemisphere, wrong continent)), so I find I cannot get locations/ get my terrain imported efficiently.

Please tell me I'm dumb and how I can set up a view in GE and then get terrain and image into SU 8.

For simple resizing and editing, Irfanview is pretty effective.
For example, it offers a number of algorithms for resizing.
And it's free. http://www.irfanview.com/

Put on Layer (most used)!
Points cloud v6 (relocatable origin version) - merci, Didier!
Curviloft (most extraordinary, and irreplaceable)

Also, Tools on surface, Pipe along Path, Weld, and Cleanup are wonderful.

I know this off topic (broadly defined), but it may help you to know that some PDF's produced from CAD programs can sometimes be retrieved in vectors / layers. I've used Inkscape for this, in the past. The results usually need some clean-up, but its often a good start point.

Download link for 1.4 does not appear to be working? (for me, at least).

This thread is getting a bit ridiculous. I'm following it to evaluate whether I should upgrade.
But the whingeing is getting to me. Stop whining & opinionating, start providing actual facts about how the new version operates, IF you have actually used it.
I've been using SU since 5 & Pro 6, and earned something of a living courtesy of it. The things I need to do are usually there somewhere, or someone smarter than me has created a ruby script to do it. And these smart people "gifted" code that I've been able to leverage many times over.
Google Earth functionality was the "killer feature" for me. Go-to-school videos showed me how to colour these.
My only complaint was that Google briefly abandoned the user community ... which then provided this wonderful forum which is usually not a nest of whining.

So its not Google OR the community, its Google AND the community. And I'll probably upgrade

Thanks. This is one of my all time most used rubies.
Small note - when I open it in Win 7, this file is dated 12 May 2007.
This means a "copy older over newer?" message. Or have I done something Win Weird(TM)?

Thanks Matt - will probably buy the dead trees version as well.
But now I don't have to wait for sea-going snail mail to reach here!

Thanks for the fix ... it is no longer necessry but result is;

Sketchup.active_model.options[0][2]
nil

for 7.1

The Points Cloud Export function will be a wonderful new tool for me, but I am having trouble with the Export dialog - if I highlight a face with one divide line, then choose Points Cloud >> Export, nothing happens. The Ruby Console shows:

Error: #<TypeError: no implicit conversion from nil to integer>
(eval):655:in []' (eval):655:in initialize'
(eval):1269:in new' (eval):1269:in exportPointsCloud'
(eval):1281
(eval):1281:in `call'

screenshot attached

Also - would it be possible to nominate a new (not World) origin for export, just as for Import? I will understand if you decide that it will make the tool too complicated.

For me, it's an essential tool.
And it just gets better!
Merci Didier!