I am looking to hire someone to develop a Plugin for me to integrate and Excel document with Sketchup Pro. If this is something that you or someone else can help with please let me know:
“Excel quoting tool integration with Google Sketchup Pro”
I use Google Sketchup Pro to draw roof diagrams and measurements. I use an Excel quoting tool (that I developed) to generate quotes. Currently I manually input the Sketchup measurements (Starter, Eave, Ridge, Valley, Roof
Area) into the first page of my Excel quoting tool from which all of the other pages of the Excel document calculate and flow. What I want to be able to do is have Sketchup automatically input the measurements into the first page of my Excel Quoting tool. For example, when I measure a roof “valley”, Sketchup will automatically input that measurement into the first page of my Excel Quoting tool under the “Valley” column. So a Sketchup Plugin needs to be developed using Ruby I think. That is pretty much it. I know that there is a way to have Sketchup export into a generic CSV file but that is no good because I want it to communicate directly with my Excel quoting tool so that I don’t have to cut and paste the CSV file into my Excel quoting tool.
If this is something you can do please let me know and estimated cost.
You could still export data to CSV and ‘embed’ that file into an XLS.
Linking it as a connected ole, so as it changes the XLS changes.
This allows your CSV to contain raw data and the XLS to be formated and using it…
That way you’d always have xxx.xls with xxx.csv inserted for each project.
Then save the exported CSV as xxx.csv and the connected XLS would auto-update ?
There are ways of reading/writing/formating binary XLS files using Ruby - these are somewhat convoluted compared to a simple CSV text file.
I tried e-mailing you back but would not work. it kicked back.
Hi TIG,
Thanks for your response. I am new to this forum. I have no problem admitting that I don’t understand much of what you said below as this is not my area of expertise. However it sounds like to whole CSV process is complicated and many steps. What we are trying to accomplish here is save time from having to manually input the measurements into our excel tool and to reduce input errors but converting this file to that file as you have described below sound as or more time consuming than just manually inputting the data as we currently do. The other issue is that the measurements have to end up in the same cells of our excel quoting tool each time we do a new measurement because the inputs into our first page determine how the rest of the excel pages calculate. See Screen shot below of our first page. This is why I think a custom plug in needs to be developed. Thanks.
I tried to copy and paste the screen shot here but it would not work either. Maybe send me an e-mail from your personal e-mail so we can continue this conversation but I do have to head out right now to deal with some snow removal LOL.
Another possible route is to use the newer Open Spreadsheet file format which is XML based (rather than binary XLS.) That way the plugin could be cross-platform rather than Ruby Win32OLE class (which is MS Windows only.)
I really appreciate your response but unfortunately you might as well be speaking Chinese to me (I don’t speak Chinese) because none of this makes any sense to me. I don’t know what a PM is unless it is Prime Minister or a PMing (sounds like a brand of golf club). I am not a Sketchup expert or programmer or anything of the sort. I don’t even know what a Ruby is or a binary XLS or a Win320LE. I am a business owner and have an employees that use Sketchup for me to devlope drawings so I can produce quotes and sell my products. I am simply looking for someone to say "I understand what you are looking for and I can develop that for you and it will cost you $" I contacted Sketchup to see if they could recommend some developers to develop this plug in for me and the best that they could do is direct me to this Forum which I knew I would regret joining. At the risk of sounding blunt…I hate forums especially ones that I have no idea what anybody is talking about. It’s astonishing to me that Sketchup does not have some way (other than this forum) for people like me to post jobs and have Sketchup developers offer their services for a fee, plain and simple. I just want someone to design a solution for my problem if possible. I hate forums, blogs, tweets, face time, and all that other bullshit that is out there. I know other people really like communicating that way but I detest it. I want to explain my needs (if they are not already clear) either by good old fashioned e-mail or phone and have someone say they can do it of not. So thanks to you and the other guy Dan for responding I really appreciate it but unless you or Dan or anyone else out there is Sketchup land can say "I can do this for you and it will cost $ " then I guess this will be the end of my Sketchup Forum chat. Regards, Trevor.
Click on the bold username “TIG” in one of his replies above, and a dark gray box will popup. There will be a bright blue button that is labeled “Private Message”.
No one can currently say I’ll do this and it’ll cost $x.
Unless they are charlatans !
I might be able to help you, either with more advice or even writing you a plugin…
BUT we need a dialog, more info etc…
A ‘PM’ is a Private Message - as Dan said.
I sent you a PM the other day and explained how to respond.
I sent one so you’d see the ‘speech-bubble’ top-right of this page lit-up.
Then you could reply and we could start a conversation away from the public gaze…
I think I know what you need [might not be what you want!] but info is needed…
I have developed a plugin linking Excel and SketchUp. The first purpose is creating a bill of materials. It’s currently a free plugin in beta phase. Maybe this can help you.
It’s available here:
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any question or suggestion.
Hi guys, i developed Plusspec, it now exports to Excel. I will be talking about it tomorrow on a webinar. You can register at www.plusspec.com I’m sure you’ll be impressed.