Question,
How do I get my plugin menu folder back…? Just upgraded to 2017 is it gone because of beefed up the extension warhorse/manager…? Ive been able to keep this old simple rendering engine that I love up to this point and I’d like to keep using it. Before I’ve been able to just go place the plugins folder in the background folder under application support and drop it in there and all would be well but now I can’t do that.
Just curious if Im going to have find something else.
Wow! That’s an amazing leap.
Go to the Extension Warehouse and install the extensions you need. You can batch install them by going to My Extensions under your name where you log in. If you have extensions that came from Sketchucation, download and install the Extension store from there and use it to install the plugins/extensions available from there.
You should never copy plugins/extensions from an old version to a newer version. Always install fresh copies so you have the most up to date versions. The Ruby language that SketchUp uses is often updated with the new version of SketchUp. Old versions of plugins may not be up to the standards of the new Ruby version.
Nothing about the Plugins folder has changed in SU 2017. All that’s been done is to create a new Extension Manager Window to replace the old panel that was under Preferences. And each installed version of SU has always had its own Plugins folder; ones that you installed in one version are not automatically accessed by another version.
As to your “old simple rendering engine”, @DaveR is right: it may or may not be compatible with SU 2017 depending on how it is coded and whether the author has bothered to keep it current. It is always safest to reinstall extensions/plugins from the EW, sketchUcation, or other reliable source rather than to copy them from one version’s Plugins folder to another. Sometimes the copy will work, but there is no guarantee and if it fails you are on your own!
it helps if you say which one, often other people update plugins when the original author disappears and has given approval in the copyright notice…
once upon a time Plugins where in the HD/Library/…/, but moved to the ‘hidden’ Users/<your_name>/Library/…/ many versions ago…
john
its the old vizulizer that they stopped supporting, with 2014 or 2015. I still got it to work with 2016 and its been fine because its a one button click.
You can get the visualizer installer free from their site and try installing it again. As you say, they stopped development as of SU 2015, so you are on your own as to whether it will work in 2017. It’s not a Trimble product, so there is nothing the SU team can do about it.
that one won’t work because it specifically references the older ruby version…
I was thinking of creating a button for v17 that saves the model as v16, opens it, and runs Visualizer automatically…
if v16 is stripped of all other plugins it can run more efficiently while you carry on working in v17…
edit: not sure it would work on a PC, but can on a mac…
john
For several versions now the Plugins menu has be renamed Extensions - although non-extension plugins can still be run from it…
Visualizer is simply not compatible with newer versions of SketchUp - at least without not some manual adjustment - but it’s been covered by several posts elsewhere…