Hi folks,
I’m just getting into developing extensions for SketchUp. I’ve played around a bit in the Ruby console and Ruby Console +, but I’m interested in getting a more robust setup going for writing, editing, testing and debugging my own extensions.
I have explored a couple different paths and run into problems, mostly with setting up a debugger. I’ve tried to set up the SketchUp Ruby Debugger in both RubyMine and VS Code, with different problems in each. In RubyMine, there appears to be a protocol incompatibility between recent RubyMine builds and the debugger DLL. In VS Code, the Ruby extension which is relied upon for debugging is deprecated and I haven’t found a working alternative (this string discusses the issue but there’s no clear conclusion).
Before I move forward, I wanted to ask: what environments and workflows are extension developers using in 2026? VS Code? RubyMine? Something else entirely? How are you managing your extensions as you develop them (in SketchUp’s plugins folder directly or elsewhere)? Is there a good solution for robust debugging, or is this just not a thing currently?
Generally, I’d like to know how developers are working right now, and how I should get myself set up to have the cleanest workflow possible.
Sorry if this is a naive question - like I said, I’m quite new to this. Any advice or information is appreciated!