I have posted a FAQ for licensing questions on my website with the most common questions that I am asked, hopefully this is helpful:
The FAQ for licensing post is very helpful. Thank you.
Getting back in the saddle with the development (bug fixes) for the Wall plugin with the start of a fresh new year. Little hiccup on Christmas day, my C:\ drive went down and I have spent the better part of a week putting my test rig back together. Fortunately no data loss, just major inconvenience and time spent on doing things I would rather not be doing.
The upside is I’ve upgraded my SU 2017 - SU 2020 test machine to Windows 10 (from Windows 7), that was long overdue. I was worried that I would not be able to run older versions of SU on Windows 10 but apparently that is not the case. I have a separate Windows 11 machine I also use for testing the latest versions of SU on but I’m not fond of Windows 11, it feels very foreign to me. I guess I am a creature of habit.
I have a number of minor bug fixes that users have found over the holidays so I will be spending a few days addressing those as well as adding in a couple small feature requests. I appreciate everyone’s patience, due to my recent downtime rebuilding my system.
You should have jumped to Windows 11 while you are at it. Windows 10 is officially out of support since October. I’m able to run SketchUp 17 on Windows 11 here just fine.
I haven’t had much if any feedback on the most recent update which attempts to fix the macOS issue with toolbar tooltips. Probably due to the holidays. If anyone gets around to testing this for me please send me an email with your results. If possible also send me a screenshot or two.
I just received a very long and detailed email from one of my power users and I was thoroughly impressed with many of the suggestions and usability notes provided to me.
A long standing issue has been wall cladding as it relates to exterior trim of windows and doors. Up until now if you place your trim on the sheathing (not on cladding) then the trim interferes with the cladding. This usually isn’t too big of a problem (visually) provided your cladding is not thicker than your trim. However, in the real world you generally install your trim first and then butt your cladding up to it, so there is no interference. When your cladding is thicker than your trim or you are using one of the 3D cladding options (ie. board and batten) this does become a bit of an issue and for me personally has been an annoying lack of realism now for a few years.
To fix this I needed to enable an option where one can toggle the trimming of the cladding by the exterior trim and then add some logic and geometry into the current algorithms so that the end result is as follows:
I won’t bore you with the details of the rather complicated logic under the hood that accomplishes this but suffice it to say it is not trivial. It will take about 4-5 days to complete this update.
The window algorithms are now updated but I will need to update the door and garage door methods as well now.
In the global settings one will be able to independently toggle this on and off for windows, doors and garage doors. I will also probably put out another tutorial video on this feature specifically so that everyone is clear on how it works.
Tutorial 80 - Removing Cladding (5:43 min.)
That was a short 4-5 days. Most programmers are off in the other direction on time estimates. Just saying… 
I was already three days into it, so technically 3.5 days to work it out. The last bit with the doors and garage doors turned out to be quite a bit simpler only because I was able to borrow code from the window portion.
You are right though, usually I under estimate how much time it will take me to do something.
With the various panel doors (ie. two, four and six panel) the stile and rails are essentially hard coded in, based on typical industry standard doors (manufacturer’s literature).
For a six panel door this is essentially seven parameters:
1.) Top Rail
2.) Frieze Rail
3.) Middle Rail
4.) Bottom Rail
5.) Lock Stile
6.) Mullion
7.) Stile (assuming that the hinge side stile may not be symmetric with the lock stile)
My current six panel algorithm assigns the rails based on hard coded dimensions whereas the stiles and mullions are calculated as a percentage of the door width up to a certain point.
My question is should I expose all these parameters so the user can set them on a global or even per door basis?
My opinion would be no. Those type of doors are usually on the low end (hollow core) and are about the same. We wouldnt be making shop drawings from the model. A common upgraded door for me is a 2 panel knotty alder door. It would be nice to be able to have a pocket door with that or other styles. A half open option on a pocket door would be nice. Barn doors arent a big deal as I have components already made and just do an opening with out an installed door. If you added it I would use it.
Hi Nathaniel
I would agree the option for pocket doors of different styles would be great.
Barn door would help to complete the selection.
Because users all ready have the ability to create custom doors, I’m not sure adding the extra functionality to modify each element of the door would be of any benefit
Thanks for all your hard-work.
Version 4.2.6 - 01.24.2026
- Added a one and two panel option for rectangular half glass and 3/4 glass doors.
- Added a one and two panel option for rectangular double half glass and double 3/4 glass doors.
- Added a one and two panel option for arched half glass and 3/4 glass doors.
- Added a one and two panel option for arched double half glass and double 3/4 glass doors.
This update per customer request.
There are many other door configurations I could add but these were obvious low hanging fruit so I jumped on it and knocked it out fairly quickly. I will take another look at pocket doors and bypass doors and see if I can add some panel options to those as well.
P.S.
I keep thinking I’m almost done with the Wall plugin and then something or someone comes along and suggests a feature or option that is missing. Some of these are fairly minor updates but over time the number of features has exploded and without all the tutorial videos I don’t think any user of this plugin can fully realize or understand all the capabilities that are built into this thing. I even have to periodically watch some of my own videos to refresh myself on some of the options and hotkeys. Hopefully the complexity is not driving people away but without it the plugin would probably not be flexible enough for many users.
Hi Nathaniel,
Thank you so much for all your hard work. Just an opinion: I would imagine that the professionals who work with commercial buildings will appreciate it. I only do residential in California, so it is not necessary for me.