New Feature: Pin Docks in Curic Piemenu (SketchUp 2023+)

Extensions
,
1

Just released in Curic Piemenu 1.4.0 — a new feature called Pin Docks, allowing toolbars to stay always visible on the screen.

This feature is made possible thanks to Overlays, a new API introduced in SketchUp 2023, and brings a refreshing way to manage tools directly on the viewport. Unlike traditional toolbars that are either floating or fixed in the limited top area, these pinned docks blend more naturally into your modeling space.

Especially on macOS, where SketchUp limits users to just one horizontal row of toolbar commands, it has always been challenging to manage multiple tools — leaving most toolbars floating around the screen.

On Windows, while you can dock toolbars vertically or horizontally, each docked group still takes up the full height or width of the screen, which can reduce usable modeling space.

With Curic Piemenu, pinned docks give you a cleaner and more flexible way to access your favorite tools — right where you need them, without taking over your interface.

:link: Learn more: Curic Pie Menu

Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions!

Hai Vo

5 Likes
2

Excellent work.

1 Like
3

wow amazing update, thank you, excited to get these set up more

4

This might be a silly question, but does this concept of overlays allow it to be possible to pin other SketchUp extension windows?

I think just seeing you resize the window and the docks staying centered, I want that for many other extensions.

1 Like
5

That’s actually a great question, not silly at all!

I believe it’s possible to pin the position and size of extension dialogs based on the SketchUp viewport. Are you thinking about keeping certain extension windows always aligned with the model view? I’d love to hear more about how you’d like this to work.

6

Oh interesting, just dreaming of the more traditional design app, so not floating extension panels all-over the place lifestyle on the Mac. I’ve seen couple user research posts from Trimble in the past that hints at them maybe work on this.

But perhaps it works really well for the the Pin Docks, since they’re so minimally intrusive, just at the borders and so the viewport in the middle stays very open without covering much, even when the window itself gets small.

Thanks again for making this, I feel like SketchUp doesn’t make sense without some of your extensions, they’re so core to the user experience.

1 Like
7

Thanks a lot for your kind words!

I’ve just been testing a small experiment to pin dialogs to the viewport, similar to how Pin Docks work. It’s still early, but I hope it can help make things cleaner, especially on macOS.

I appreciate your feedback!

2 Likes
8

wow super cool experiment!

9

Hello,
Is there a way to make this message disappear, please?
It always shows, even with docks already added.
Thank you.

Dock01
Dock01622×138 3.5 KB

10

Hello,
How do you manage to customize the pin docks, please?
Righ clicking does nothing and there is no dedicated menus in Curic Pie Manager.
Thank you in advance.