Open the ruby console (Window>Ruby Console) and type
load "organizer.rb"
then press <enter>. If the error message displays, copy and paste it into a message - make sure to copy everything in the console.

Not all files will be edited - only those that have a menu item in the Plugins menu will be edited. They can still be put in subfolders, but will appear in their specified menu locations.

SelectAtStartup (startup.rb) should be located in the Plugins folder, not in a subfolder.

Make sure you don't have sketchup.rb, langhandler.rb, or oImage.rb in your Plugins folder.

Cool! Then you're all set

I can do that. But the best way to stay informed is to "subscribe" - RSS and Atom feeds are available.

There are several readers and subscription managers out there (reader.google.com, http://www.bloglines.com, others), and you can get updates and news about the latest scripts delivered directly.

I've been thinking about an automatic email notifier, but haven't implemented it yet...

Generally, updates are free to previous customers. We haven't really had upgrades yet, but that will be up to the author. I expect upgrades would generally have a nominal upgrade fee.

The tool I mentioned above will be part of an update, so it will be free to existing Organizer license owners.

I've almost finished work on a tool to help make the best use of Organizer. It will traverse your plugins and determine which files need to be located directly in the "Plugins" folder (anything that is "required" by another plugin should be either in the "Plugins" folder or the "Tools" folder).

This will solve about 99% of the problems some users have with Organizer (moving files that shouldn't be moved).

This file will be included with the Organzier download.

There are two parts to Organizer. One part is OrganizerEdit, which will rewrite .rb files with a bit of code so that they can be placed in a subfolder and loaded to submenus corresponding to the subfolder. Once the file is edited, it can be moved to any subfolder and will load appropriately - you don't need to re-edit it to move it around.

The second part is Organizer, which does three things: it reads the immediate subfolders of the Plugins folder, creates a submenu in the Plugins menu for each folder it finds (and that isn't in the "exclude" file), and creates a menu item in that submenu for each .rb file it finds in that subfolder. That's a bit over-simplified, but it gets the idea across.

So, if you decide you want to move a .rb file from Plugins/Draw to Plugins/Modify, just move it. The next time you start SketchUp, that script will be in the Plugins>Modify menu without you having to do anything but move the file.

If you run OrganizerEdit on your scripts, then organize them in subfolders (one level deep only), they will all load whenever you start SketchUp, with submenu items according to their locations. If you rearrange them, then restart SketchUp, they will automatically load with new submenu items, because the submenus are created dynamically at load-time based on the subfolder name.

If a script/plugin comes Organizer-ready, there's nothing to do - it will load when you load Sketchup, however you decide to organize it.

If it's not Organizer-ready, you'd have to run OrganizerEdit to make it Organizer-compatible. That wouldn't affect the other scripts.

You could, I suppose (haven't tried it yet), run Organizer manually when you downloaded a new script to bring it into the menu. It shouldn't duplicate menu items for previously-loaded scripts.

Did I answer your question?

I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to traverse the Tools folder as well, but could provide the "opportunity" for duplicate menu items if there are same-named subfolders in both Plugins and Tools. I have the suspicion, though, that items in the Tools folder will have fixed menus.

.rbs files can't be edited by OrganizerEdit to be made to work with Organizer, so it will be up to the authors to accommodate the possibility prior to encryption.

@gata said:

Azuby has written his rbs scripts for the Tools folder. And RpTools stuff goes there too.

That's right, someone put yamland date stuff in my Tools folder. I think it must have been RPS Space Designer when I tried it some time ago.

For those who just absolutely hate PayPal, I just signed up for Google Checkout. I can invoice you by email if you want to purchase. Just send me an email of your shopping cart, and I'll invoice you.

Download info will be emailed after the completion of the transaction.

What error message(s) do you get?

@unknownuser said:

Rick is there any other way to pay?

Sure - print off your shopping cart and send it with a cashier's check (I'll send you an address), and when the check clears, I will enter your purchase info into our database and send you a download email. We've looked into Google payments, but haven't worked it into our site yet.

@unknownuser said:

I was wondering if the script only works for enhancements to the "plugins" folder or if it can be used for the scripts that goes into the "tools" folder as well?

It was written specifically for the Plugins folder, since that's where most scripts live, and it's the Plugins menu that tends to get the most cluttered. Out of curiosity, what all do you have in your Tools folder? I'd be interested to see a screenshot of that...

Organizer is re-released!

(www.smustard.com)

I also changed the protocol to something MUCH more author-friendly, so everyone can easily be Organizer-friendly

Thanks to all for the input...

Glad to do it. The difficult part is the rewriter script (!) that reads all the scripts and attempts to rewrite their menu entries to work with Organizer. There are just a few scripts that are type formatted in a way it doesn't understand, and it simply ignores those scripts (which won't be organizeable unless manually edited). It creates a log file to indicate which files got edited, so you know which ones can be organized.

Thanks to everyone who answered the poll!

I updated the protocol to something MUCH easier for authors to implement (and for the OrganizerEdit script to modify), so hopefully it will have a nearly comprehensive success rate for modifying scripts to be Organizer-friendly.

Thanks again - and check it out at http://www.smustard.com/script/Organizer

I'm working on re-releasing Organizer.rb

For any authors who want to be Organizer-compatible, here's the REVISED protocol for adding menu items:

# Supports Organizer.rb
	$submenu ? (organizer = $submenu) ; (organizer = UI.menu("Plugins"))
	organizer.add_item("ItemName") { action }

$submenu is the global variable used by Organizer as it traverses the folders located in the Plugins folder. It creates a submenu consisting of the folder name, then adds the scripts in that folder to the submenu. Scripts can have their own submenus as well:

# Supports Organizer.rb
	$submenu ? (organizer = $submenu) ; (organizer = UI.menu("Plugins"))
	submenu=organizer.add_submenu("Name")
		submenu.add_item("ItemName1") { action }
		submenu.add_item("ItemName2") { action }
		submenu.add_item("ItemName3") { action }

Please note, the beginning comment line is important - it prevents the organizerEdit script from trying to automatically edit the script to make it compliant. It can exist at the beginning of the file to speed the process.

hmm... the last two solutions won't play on my machine.

Nice job Jim!

Clark, that was too funny

Too late for deadline, but a shorter (77 characters) solution:

i=0;Dir["C:/WINDOWS/Media/*"].each{|f|UI.play_sound f;puts [i+=1,f];sleep(3)}

If anyone can reduce it from here, please post and enlighten us all