Hi DAN , thanks for your sage advice, but I do have two more questions,so far;)-I have installed curviloft successfully, but can’t locate in the toolbar, when I try to "customize it. Also, I downloaded some cool plugins from Pinterest, and again, I open the plugin manager to try to install, but no dice. Theses plugins came in a folder, called, “plugins”. Any wisdom is much appreciated. Also, as a newbie in Sketchup, although have used and continue to do so, C4D for over 20 years, still finding my way here, so thanks to all for your unlimited patience, Best, Craig
Thank you Dan, Craig
Step by step…
I assume you downloaded the up to date CurviLoft’s RBZ from here:
Then installed it using the native RBZ installer:
Extension Manager > Install Extension… button
Did you also downloaded and installed the necessary [and latest] LibFredo from here…
Most of Fredo’s tools will not work without the Lib being installed…
With the Lib working, then the menu item and toolbar should become available.
Please read this tool’s usage notes…
You also probably need to restart SketchUp after the installations…
Don’t get ‘plugins’ from obscure or uncertain ‘Pinterest’ sources…
Always download extensions [aka plugins] from reputable sources - they come as RBZ archives that the native installer can use…
Such sources include SketchUcation.com, the Extension-Warehouse, Authors’ own web-sites and Smustard.com [although some of their downloads might arrive as .zip files which simply need renaming with a .rbz file-type suffix so they can be installed…]
Hey Dan, you just answered two questions in one fell swoop-I did delete what I downloaded from Pinterest; initially, I went against my good instincts, and downloaded, but you are spot on, to avoid any potentially nefarious downloads. Also, thanks for clarifying in my brain, was not sure , but now know, plugins, extensions same thing- this community is fortunate to have pros like you here!
…and I did download LibFredo6
BTW, although I do have curviloft installed, I can not seem to find it, when I try to customize my toolbar, but will continue to try, thank you
Is it seen in the Extension Manager dialog ?
Is it active ?
If so, then it has will have a menu item…
“Tools > Fredo6 Collection > CurviLoft” … various submenu-items
And a 3-button toolbar…
“CurviLoft”
Its usage is covered here…
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=248195#p248195
thank you,!-yes, my extensions all have a “red” check mark next to them, when I click the “grey icon” upper left, when I click on the hollow icon, then I see each extension Icon, so do I keep the red check marks, correect,? thank for your help, Craig
i do see n have it thx for continued help, best, CZ
For most practical purposes, yes. But technically, as I understand it, not quite. And the SketchUcation plugin, which can manage both, still makes a distinction.
Plugins were the original form of adding extra functionality to SU, from early on. They could (and still may) consist of only one or more Ruby code file(s) with a .rb file type, and optional sub folder(s) and file(s). Plugins were installed by copying or moving them to a Plugins folder, whose location has varied with successive versions of SU.
As more plugins were written, by different authors, naming conflicts became more common. And many people found it hard to install them.
Around SU8 maintenance release 2 (SU8 M2 for short) a new and (for the user) simpler method of installing them was developed, and the name was changed from Plugin to Extension, although they were and are still installed in a Plugins folder.
Instead of one or more arbitrarily named .rb files and optional folders being manually copied to the Plugins folder, a single zipped file was downloaded and automatically unzipped into the Plugins folder via Preferences/Extensions [Install Extension] (Window/Extension Manager [Install Extension] from SU 2017). And in more recent versions of SU even the download can be managed from within SU by direct access to the Extension Warehouse, or via the SketchUcation plugin, from the SketchUcation Plugin Store.
And the SU menu item Plugins was changed to Extensions. Though plugins and extensions don’t have to appear or be run from there - they can be accessed from any menu, including a Context menu, depending on the author.
The zip file was renamed to .rbz (Ruby zipped). And conventions were introduced to prevent name conflicts. A ‘loader file’ whose name starts with the developer’s initials ‘registers’ the extension, and loads the main program file from a sub folder with by convention the same name as the loader file (without the .rb suffix). And within the main program, developers (should) now declare a Ruby module and class(es) to define their own name space, preventing name conflicts with other extensions.
I think this is the gist of the evolution from Plugin to Extension, but I may have some of the details wrong or incomplete. In which case, some Sage will doubtless correct me.
Thanks John, u r a wealth of wisdom, Best <CZ
To continue…
SketchUp allows Plugins to be created and auto-load as SketchUp starts - these are Ruby .RB files.
These are usually kept in the user’s Plugins folder [these days they come packaged in RBZ archives which SketchUp’s Extension Manager auto-installs in the correct location for you].
These Plugins can be one simple file of code, or can include additional files that are loaded from within a subfolder by that initial RB file [the subfolder is named after the RB file].
Extensions are a sub-set of Plugins.
The ‘loader’ RB file creates an Extension which can then be activated/deactivated in the Extension Manager.
After restarting deactivated Extensions are not added to the available menu lists, although their loader RB has made them available in the Extension Manager’s list if you want to reactivate any of them.
Because you are unlikely to want all of your Extensions available for use all of the time the ability to disable them means faster start up for SketchUp and less cluttered menus/toolbar lists etc…
Because a ‘vanilla’ Plugin [i.e. one that is NOT made as an Extension] cannot be deactivated in the same way then the SketchUcation Toolset ‘Plugins Manager’ was developed to allow the disabling/enabling of Plugins [including ones that are Extensions], so they do not load at start up [it renames the disabled RB files as a RB! files], later you can re-enable selected Plugins.
The Toolset also includes an ‘Extensions Manager’ which had a somewhat friendlier interface that the Preferences based native equivalent, with v2017 the new native Extension-Manager has an improved interface…
The conventions of ‘namespaces’ etc are good coding practice and apply to all Plugins.
File naming conventions etc are stricter for Extension-Warehouse based Extensions, other repositories and in-house Plugins can have less strict requirements…
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