I have uploaded a few videos that demonstrate some of the plugins.
(Apologies if these load a little slow.)

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Video 7
Video 8
Video 9
Video 10

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There is a .PDF quickstart guide available here [Online Help]:
http://www.cadmango.com/shapes/support
I recommend the Shapes_GUI tutoral. (The generator tutorial is intended for developers who wish to use the XML interface to create template files for external manipulation.)

This release offers one way geometry generation only, but the parameter definitions can automatically be saved as XML for retrieval and re-use or re-editing. An API is under development that will allow integration into other modelling applications that supports .NET / COM or Ruby and evetually allow bi-directional editing. Any developers who are interested to write integrators using the API for AutoCAD, Rhino etc. should contact me.

The system supports a range of common unit formats.

I may add that the trial installs in it's own folder system so it won't affect your existing Sketchup plugins.

cadmango.com SHAPES 1.0
I am happy to announce the first release of a new 3D parametric component generator that can be used in conjunction with Sketchup or any other modelling application.

The stand-alone system hosts 140+ plugins for generating an infinite variety of design components and starter shapes. No modelling skills are required and the learning curve is minimal.
The system fills the gap in the market between static licensed components and the expensive parametric objects integrated into mainstream design applications.

As a limited time introductory offer SCF members will qualify for a free second PC license on purchase of a 24 month subscription.

Product announcement info is provided here:
http://www.visualarchitecture.com/Landingpages/Product_Release2.html
More information, product videos and a free trial can be downloaded here:
http://www.cadmango.com/shapes

Users are actively encouraged to suggest additional shape plugins for inclusion in the next release.

[url=http://www.cadmango.com/shapes/_productFiles/Sample_Components_1.zip:2xu9n651]Sample Geometry[/url:2xu9n651]
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Having developed some parametric geometry over the last few months I can confidently say that they can be quite tricky to code and debug when the parametric logic goes beyond the most basic conditional complexity. It is hard enough to do it with a mainstream programming language in an IDE that provides you with tools to make development easier, but it would take a long time to code the same using the equivalent of spreadsheet formulas provided by DC. I also think developers may be reluctant to spend time on coding elements which do not offer strong code protection.

The problem is that the small consumer would not generally be in a position to challenge the lower court decision, and ignoring it would not be a good idea.

I have huge questions in my mind about backing up on-line. You are placing your confidential data in the hands of people you do not know and who may disappear without warning - as many new internet idea start-up ventures do. What happens to the data on the servers which will invariably be sold if they go bust?
Not sure if government and even private clients would be that impressed knowing that their information is being 'secured' in this way. Imagine backing up your designs for the new bank or prison on-line. I doubt whether you would have much chance of you professional indemnity insurers coming to your aid if any liability arises if this information is accessed unlawfully. Another question in my mind relates to one's responsibility and liability in terms of data protection if you are backing up personal data on-line.

Apart from a conventional backup system/strategy I also like to keep an secondary external disk that exactly mirrors my working disk in case the primary disk fails. That way I do not have to wait on restoring a backup but can resume working immediately by simply mapping the working drive letter to the secondary disk. A useful free utility from Microsoft that synchronises the secondary disk with the working drive can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en
It makes it relatively quick to keep the secondary disk up to date once or twice a day, as it will only copy files that have changed.

@anssi said:

I understand that Autodesk just lost an important lawsuit that was just about the licensing versus ownership issue.

Anssi

They did lose , but then they appealed and won - which is what this article is about.
The case you refer to has therefore now been overturned.

The Empire strikes back;
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/first-sale-doctrine/

I'm looking for a small number of additional BETA testers (5 or 6) for a new parametric component application in the final testing stage of development. The stand-alone application features approximately 140 parametric object generators for a wide range of simple and complex starter shapes and other design objects. (- Windows only, sorry)

I'm specifically also looking for one or two persons who work in non-metric units and some using 64bit Operating systems. You may be required to complete some survey questions at some stage but you will be provided with a free subscription license in return. If there are any takers please contact me via PM.

Sorry Tig, still not sure how that follows on from my comment.

Anyway it's a shame that you shut the bloke down before he had even started, and I think some of the comments in the explanation reveals a little bit of intellectual pompousness on your part. Give the bloke some space, at an age of twenty seven he is still working out the process for himself. If he is starting from a different place than you would, then let him follow that path and make his own adjustments when he reviews the results at the end of the process.
(Show some soul.)

It would be great to have more 'process' oriented threads instead of just final presentations, so lets not discourage it in this way.

What I would suggest before you log into the forum in the morning (and this applies to most of the moderators),
is say "Sketchucation, the friendly place for all your Sketchup needs." three times before reading any threads.

@unknownuser said:

You can't sell your soul if you haven't got it on the first place...

Care to explain?

@unknownuser said:

Have the big idea and then water it down later - that's easy

That's a process without soul.

An interesting competition and some pretty spectacular graphics:
http://www.krobarch.com/winners.asp?winner_year=2009
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How can there be any problems if it was written in C?!

@unknownuser said:

if you want to do simple things go with "simple" languages but after running the simple examples you will have problems that need knowledge of the things that run under the hood.

@unknownuser said:

:lol: no...not really. It is ok for you and I to skip a few steps, we are not holding a huge amount of assets on our computers. But there are no administrators that I know that would introduce a 200 meg bomb in there environment with out full scrutiny that includes knowing that native file types are recognizable. So you are just limiting your customer base to small unsecured, stand-alone. If you are not convinced then check with someone responsible for keeping a network secure.

Do a little homework before you make yourself look silly.

@thomthom said:

Are we moving onto a different discussion here now?

Read it again - you're sure to get the context if you concentrate.

@dedmin said:

Yes - it proofs to be the fastest and the cheapest way And I prefer to move on with the industry and my customers not with the software. I'm working with flat panels and SketchUP has it enough. As I said - it depends.

As someone who spends a lot of my time automating my design work flow through software development, I speak from experience when I say that 'scripts' eventually make it very very difficult to move on to a better technology platform when it arrives, because the automation functionality cannot easily be replicated on the new system. (Even more-so if you do not do any coding yourself.) While they may make your life easier at the moment they can become so integral to your work that they trap you into a 'legacy' work flow which will be difficult to move away from. This is one of the reasons why I keep my automation code-base development as application- and API-neutral as possible so that I can move easily to another platform if it offers benefits.

@remus said:

I beg to differ. In my opinion the developers of SU are a very hard working bunch who want to produce a good product that helps people get their jobs done.
When you have the pioneering lead in the industry, you have to be pretty stupid to lose it.
What we are beginning to see is the Autodesk syndrome of adding fringe functionality with every release while the core remains the same. Ironically Sketchup is what gave Autodesk their wake-up call. I suspect however that Google is in a far deeper slumber.

The fact that other contenders now offer the functionality asked by SU users 3-4 releases ago while there is no sign of it yet in the development roadmap, speaks for itself.

@unknownuser said:

It depends at what You are doing. For me the community is very important. For instance, I needed a way to incremental rename a lot of components and asked for a script and I had it in an hour thanks to TIG! For small woodworking, melamine and MDF furniture SketchUp is perfect - there are FredoScale,CutList,Dovetails and bunch of other plugins to do the job!

If you are reliant on community scripts for staying competitive while the world moves on, then good luck mate.

Sketchup will not remain the ground breaking technology it once was.
It's owners have another agenda, - designers are now a secondary consideration.
I resisted moving to Sketchup when it showed the way forward, - don't want to make that same mistake again.

Unless the blokes over at SU HQ wake up and smell the coffee they will lose their professional design user core.
(But then do they even care? With the new Bing Augmented Reality looming even more focus may be concentrated on GE support rather than design functionality in Sketchup.)