SketchUp sells itself on the ability to be coupled with extensions & is what makes it the incredibly versatile tool that it is… which is why I use & love it. But given that many of the extensions take a while for developers to make them compatible (totally understandable!) with the newest releases, is 24 “actually” usable when incomplete compared to my 2023 version… with all my extensions installed?
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Compatibility can vary a lot between extensions. Smaller simpler ones are typically compatible with no changes needed. Bigger extensions like renderers often need updates, but on the other hand often have more people behind them ensuring they are up to date.
The most reliable way to know for sure if the extensions you rely on work in 2024 is to install it and try it out.
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Yes, it’s the only way to find out, coupled with everything else that needs to be “re-set up” it’s just another long winded process. I look forward to a day when SU can be truly “updated”, whilst retaining all settings, extensions, tools… etc…etc.
I love when a new release is on the way with new features but, I dread the lengthy process of setting the whole thing up again as if it’s the first time I’ve used it… It’s an afternoon off to get it done.
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Really depends on what your extensions are. Everyone uses different extensions for different things.
That said, one new feature that I really liked is the extension error dialog that pops up - https://youtu.be/hX5A7HLNqy4?si=6-lPxiFLm7HSeYyl&t=740
Instead of just crashing, it told me which extensions were having errors and gave me the ability to unload or uninstall.
Can’t 100% guarantee it’ll work with every extension, but I found it to be a good improvement
Hi Justin. Yes I also liked the extension error dialog pop up… much better.
If you use the Sketchucation tool you can install ‘your Bundle’ of choice with a couple of clicks and go make a coffee while it installs them all. You’ll still need to deal with the few that don’t load.
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That Sketchucation Extension Store bundle feature is really useful.
What would be nice is if they added a compatibility check (against the ‘Compatibility’ field in the database) to see if each extension is identified by the author to be explicity compatible with the new version. Then have a settings toggle for ‘Load all’ vs ‘Load comptible only’.
This would avoid most — if not all of — the extension migration issues for new versions. Or at least it would forewarn users explicity of where there might be issues.
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Except probably in most cases it wouldn’t accurately reflect whether or not those would work or not. I have a lot of plugins and extensions that haven’t been updated inmany years, some more than a decade old, some whose authors have died. They all work just fine in recent versions of SketchUp including 2024.
is vray not compatible ?
it is, but you need to update. maybe reinstall, idk.
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You’re right that it wouldn’t identify those older extensions that might very well work, but it would positively identify those known/updated to work.
A way of dealing with the degrading compatibility relative to extension age would be to add an option to ‘Load extensions newer than version 20XX’. This would allow the user to update groups of extensions that are most likely to work.
Given the importance of extensions to SU functionaliy and the larger ecosystem, I would like to see a SU Migration Assistant — similar to Sketchucation bundles and including the compatibility check slider I’ve proposed.
If the process included SU team pre-testing popular older extensions (that are no longer actively developed/updated) for compatibility, they could make version migration a painless and seamless process for the vast majority of users.
They could farm out the testing to their team of beta-testers to reduce the workload on the core dev team. Or use AI to run a code check to identify deprecated/changed Ruby standards/methods.
E.T. A. The other capability that I would include in the Migration Assistant would be that it automatically loads the most current update of each extension (when/if the user had an older one in their previous SU version).
Vray posted the updated installer late yesterday version 62003 is the windows install. I downloaded mine from Chaos I havent checked the Trimble / Sketchup page.