Thank you Felipe, this looks to be very useful

So far I've used a (long) txt file where I enter each new installed plugin with some details about it like so - I use metapad http://liquidninja.com/metapad/ to do this as it's faster than notepad, but it requires too much discipline:

toolname.rb (core name if not alphabetical eg Zloader_RoundCorner.rb)
loaded: 11:51 Sunday, 26 February 2012
application:
usage: eg if it needs console or where process peculiar
writer: and w3 link if NOT sketchucation
Depends:
store location if not in use:
Status: loaded, uninstalled (why), trialling
notes:
Issues:
location: [if outside SU/plugins]

2dTools
loaded: 13:31 Saturday, 21 January 2012
application:
usage:
writer:
depends: debabelizer.rb
store location if not in use:
status: loaded 16:32 Saturday, 26 May 2012 to see if does materials skm file
notes: still trialling 17:51 Sunday, 15 January 2012r
issues:
location: C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins\0 for load.use.unload only

Hi Mike
Email sent

Seconding beginner's filtering idea but adding:
by state, region, district or county

Also a few extra categories for your list:
Landscape Architecture - it's difference from landscape design is essentially scale, site complexity and formal training.

Town and urban planning (e.g. users of Thomthom's CityGen plugin)

Ecological planning, surveying and GIS (with Trimble coming on board these will likely be growth areas for SU)

Forensics and litigation
e.g. http://fatpencilstudio.com

Nigel

It looks like a recycling station with four bins - the handle? in the centre looks like it may lock all the units together and enable them to be rolled around as a unit, but by withdrawing it each bin could be moved separately

Hi Grizzler

Once you've geolocated your building, it'd be useful to do a massing model of the house (and any other nearby buildings) and check shadowing, which will also help your plant placement. It can make a nice graphics with grey existing buildings and a colourful garden amongst them.

If it's a steep site remember that Google height data is only very approximate, although often better in hilly areas,
so doing some basic 'eyeball' contours may be better than Google's contours.

Hi and thanks for replies, Well I've just done an export from SU and the result was a .dwg with layers as per the .skp with everything as blocks as per the .skp's solids/components, but all the geometry is still held by the 0 layer. Maybe I'm not holding my mouth right?

So, is there a plugin that will send the geometry from SU's Layer0 back to the layers that hold the objects?

The plugin I'm thinking of (if it exists) would move the geometry from the objects
(and or Layer 0) that contain it and move it to named layers in the skp file.

Currently I manage SU using layers (see attached graphic)
as it's just easier to understand especially
when I move the drawing to Vectorworks or BricsCAD where I (usually) complete my jobs.

And currently exporting out as .dwg results in everything exporting on Layer 0, and everything
has to be sent to approprate layers etc, which is a real hassle. So if a better workflow was available
it would be very useful (and worth paying for)

Hi, Is there a plugin to move geometry to layers prior to export so it could be imported into traditional layer-based CAD systems?

I thought I'd seen one here somewhere but can't find it now.

Thank you Paul,
these are great amd will save so much time - I'm often need standard vehicle sizes to work out if a road design will work and these will help in that process.

If I understand you rightly,

first make the surface you want to scale a group

second hit s (for scale), and scale it to fit the object beneath using the object's scale grips.
You'd be best off going to a 3D view to do this and when you do you'll see snap lines pop up, drag the grip out and you should see [endpoint in group] etc.

Hi Olivia

Can you let people know if you have the free or pro version of SU in your info as the Pro version has a page layout package which makes plotting easy.

You can always ask on this forum and someone may offer to export your drawing to scale for you and as a vector pdf.

The only way I know to scale from SU free is to put an object of known length in the drawing and then use that to scale in Photoshop or whatever

to convert images to dxf in the past I've successfully a trial of wintopo http://wintopo.com/pricing.htm (US$340)
and more recently have had better mileage using http://vectormagic.com/home which allows two free conversions and has a monthly US$8.00 fee - I use it mainly when %^&*ing house designers refuse to send me a .dwg file or when councils refuse to release the data from their GIS and I have to get it from a screen shot.

the results usually need cleaning up a bit but is a lot faster than hand tracing - and if i remember rightly wintopo will split out coloured lines into diff layers even with the free version (http://wintopo.com/wintopo-free.htm).

Thanks Paul, these're great - I'm designing a school at the moment and there are doors and windows everywhere, thanks again

Thanks for the fine cars Richard, even a holden in there!, very handy down this way

Thanks Tig, I've tried to save to C:, to Desktop, to a zip drive, plus trying the save as LO 1 and 2. Unfortunately the backup.layout is 20 minutes older than the main file, so while it is 'only' 20 minutes lost, it's still frustrating as, if it happens again, I'll know this'll be the outcome.

In the end I got the sheet as I wanted it and exported it to a nice .pdf (and a .dwg) and now I'm going to unplug it from life support

• we need a smilie with a black armband for such occasions.

cheers, nigel

Hi, Haven't had this before, I have a .layout file that won't save: it won't even save when I save as another name. Every time I get this:

I've closed everything down except LO, and still no dice. SU Filesize is 14Mb, contents is pretty normal and no probs. before with similar content. I've also deleted all other pages from the LO file, and purged and saved,

I'm not on a network, just a standalone PC (laptop), and I didn't get the revert to earlier version error msg http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30524&p=337254&hilit=error+saving#p337254.

Is there no way to recover the file, or do I have to pull the plug?

I have been able to export to dwg, and that looks ok, so that's something, and I can print .pdfs too.

Thanks TIG, that's simply amazing Elegant and simple.

Now thanks to your plugins I've got the basis for a complete plant counter (areas, individual plants and hedges and shelterbelts - Sketchup has just become a LOT more useful), thanks again.

output from TIG-hedge.lengths.rb

Well here's a very typical hedge arrangement, although 100's of metres in many pieces is also quite common.

I've also put the hedge centrelines as a nested component within each component, although if there's a way of avoiding that I'm all ears.
Would it be easier to export the values of dimensions to the .csv?

hedge.lengths.skp

Hi TIG, thanks for the great plugin, now I can count my plants easily and sum plant areas easily.

But would it be possible to add the ability to get length of curves (arcs and splines) and lines from components?

Often I have many hedges in my designs, and if I could get their length, I could send this out with the report to Excel and then divide hedge length by plants per metre. I accept I will probably have to have a curve length for the hedge in a separate component but that's fine, although maybe it could just be as a nested instance.

Hi John, thanks, yes it was part of an installer package (result of promiscuous approach to installing untried plugins!). I uninstalled all plugins and reloaded them one-by-one, but never found the bug, although it might've been product connect. Now I've got just the plugins I need...and no more.
I've also set up a manual entry .txt file in the plugins folder to keep track of installed plugins and their dependency files.

HI, I get the following error msg pop up when I start up. I've unloaded any new plugins except Artisan, and Instant Road and Instant site grader (all of which I've just bought). I did install Igloo's Product Connect and have since uninstalled that, AND i've reinstalled SU, but still error pops up, and SU seems less stable than before the error. Has anyone had this, or a similar problem?