I'm curious as well. I feel like the included IFC classification is a little overkill for people not using IFC import/export feature. I'd like to see a really simple classification schema that will let you tag components with really basic info like Manufacturer, Model number, finish, etc. (idk, I'm just thinking off the top of my head)

Yes! I think this is the exact post I was thinking of. Thanks for the link.

So now that 2015 is installed, I'm curious what the recommended course of action would be to get my plugins moved over.

I seem to remember a feature in the Sketchucation plugin store that would let me sync my plugins? So I could just install the pluginstore on my 2015, and click sync, and it would search for all the plugins I had installed and re-download them? Or am I just making this all up? lol

How likely is it that a plugin would be incompatible with 2015? Should I just manually move them over? I feel like I should "reinstall" them, instead of copying and pasting them over, any thoughts?

@solo said:

See the added RAM in SU.

I can barely fit your screenshot across my screens. I had to scroll over, and over, and over. I'm jealous of your screen size

I'm really excited about the LayOut label tool AutoText features too. It can now read things like dynamic component attributes from your models. I'm trying to get it to be able to read dimension info from windows, so the label tool automatically shows the correct dimensions on windows from inside the layout document. A lot of hidden potential here...

@pcmoor said:

use two variables

length =current("LenY")
wide =current("LenX")

Summary =length & " x " & wide

this should force the redraw

So you're saying that by referencing the LenX and LenY values indirectly using custom variables, it forces a redraw? I'll have to try that. I noticed that's what the SketchUp team did in their dynamic windows, but I just assumed it was overly organized or something.

@quantj said:

I couldn't get the "x" in, so I made mine refer to another value which I then put in x. I also used INT to force round the numbers. If want fractions, maybe there's another formula for that...

I think you just need to put quotes around the x when using Concatenate so it treats it as a string. Yeah, I could use INT to clean it up too. The whole redraw thing is what I find really frustrating. Why doesn't it read the LenX property when typing in an absolute value? Why do you have to redraw?

I mean, it seems like this was done on purpose *(why else would there be an option in the context menu to redraw?)*but I don't understand WHY?? When would you ever NOT want a dynamic component to redraw? Shouldn't it do it automatically every time?

I'm trying to create a dynamic component that displays the length and width in the summary attribute of the component options window. I'm talking really simple here, like a rectangle.

I've added the size attributes to the component, untouched, so they read the current size of the component. Then, in the summary attribute, I have the following formula:

So, I would think that the Summary attribute would read as follows: 60x40

But, instead it looks like this:

I don't get why or where the ...00036 is coming from, as the rectangle is exactly 40". If I continue to scale the rectangle, additional decimal places appear, and they won't go away. Even if I scale to an exact whole number dimension by referencing other points or guides in my model, there are always additional random numbers, indicating that I'm not exactly on a whole number dimension.

I know I can use the ROUND() function to make it look nicer, but that's not the problem. The dimension is wrong. If I snap to 40", the dimension should read 40.000000000000", not 40.000000000036", or whatever.

Scaling to precise dimensions

The other thing that completely baffles me is why dynamic components don't redraw automatically when scaling to an exact dimension using the VCB. Isn't that the whole purpose of dynamic components? You create restraints within the component so the end user can scale it to whatever they want and the dynamic component will redraw according to the constraints defined by the author?

In what situation would you not want a dynamic component to redraw? And why DOES it redraw when scaling arbitrarily when using the handles, but it DOESN'T redraw when typing in a precise factor or dimension in the VCB?

The other thing I don't get, is let's say I scale my component from 3' to 2' using the VCB. I use the scale tool to start, then type in 24" ENTER. If I look at the Component Attributes right after doing this, LenX shows 24", But my Summary formula still shows the old dimension of ~36", even though the formula is referencing LenX!!

I have to right click on the component, go to dynamic component -> Redraw, before the Summary formula reads "correctly". That's in quotes because it still displays an incorrect dimension as 24.000000000000000004 instead of 24.0

Any insight on what's going on here, and if it's something I'm doing wrong?

@krisidious said:

Disavow Tool will not hurt their rank... It only attempts to save your rank from being affected by bad sites or your own spammy link campaign. Matt Cutts was very clear that the Disavow tool could not be used by others to hurt website ranking on a website. Although, he is a known liar...

I don't think it hurts their rank directly. It's more of a byproduct. I'm pretty sure Google takes outbound links into account when figuring out how relative your content is. So, when they link to all of our great content, they're telling Google, "Hey, my site is similar to all these other sites". By disavowing, you're taking that advantage away from them, therefore, hurting their rankings.

Also, I'd find it hard to believe that if a website is being disavowed from MULTIPLE sites, Google doesn't pick up on this pattern and hit them in the rankings. It seems like a great way for Google to crowd-source spam control. Of course, I could be wrong, but it seems logical to me.

Probably the most effective thing you can do if your content has been stolen is to use the Google Disavow toolhttps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main.

This will tell Google that you do not condone or trust the domain that is linking to your website, and it will hurt their SEO rankings. The tool was created for situations like this and for people who link to your site with "negative SEO" tactics to try to bring your site down in rankings.

I'm really loving PlusSpec so far. Can't wait to see what the next update looks like.

I guess I'm just missing the point of the pattern/hatching tool in Layout, if you can only use it on shapes created in Layout. If you wanted to hatch a model that you brought in, you'd have to explode it which would eliminate the ability to update the model.

I guess I just don't use Layout shapes too much, so I've never had a need to apply hatching to them. Most of what I put in Layout are Sketchup models and annotations, so I'd just apply hatching as a material in Sketchup.

Confused...

Has anyone played around with the new pattern fill feature in Layout? I'm trying to find the documentation on how it's intended to be used. I've got a couple questions and I'm wondering if anyone has figured this out yet.

• Seems like patterns can only be applied to shaped created in Layout, Unless you convert a Sketchup model to Vector and explode it(So Layout recognizes it as a shape). But then you lose the ability to update the model.

• How do you delete a pattern? I can change it to a new pattern but can't figure out how to delete it all together. EDIT - I think I figured it out. You click on "Shape Style" and toggle the "Pattern" button off.

I guess that's it. Any other tricks I should know about?

Hey Fredo,

Thanks for the recommendation on my article, I appreciate it.