Problems using a custom thumbnail in a DC component options box

I’ve created the thumbnail, uploaded it to a Google Drive location and made the sharing “anyone with the link”, took the url and put it into the “Image URL field” in the attributes of the top level of the component. Test. Fail.

Here’s a video with more details: Component Options Box Thumbnail Problem

Help!

And thanks in advance!

Image_url.skp (72.5 KB)

You need to use the image url (ends in ,jpg or .png or any graphic extension)

You can see in the image example the URL the website page, but if you copy the Image Address you will get:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Idj70qB1FGo/UD0EjuazUYI/AAAAAAAAaF4/lDoT9jS0kzc/s525/Color-Alone_525px.jpg

@quantj
Duh! <slaps self twice lightly on the head> It seems like it was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away that I ran into this problem in a different context, but it was more likely in the last 3 years and I’d just forgotten that tidbit!

Moral of the story:

When you need the url of an actual image, do NOT try to use the url that Google Drive, Google+, or Google Photos gives you when you ask for a “link to share”! It’s not really a link to a photo! Rather, it’s a link to Google, feeding their cryptic image identifier to their viewer program

NOT suitable for the “ImageUrl” field in a component!

So, after exploring the discussion threads on a few Google user forums, I managed to track down an ACTUAL url for my photo. It was through picassaweb.google.com. I saw my photo instantly, clicked on it, it appeared in the Picassa viewer, right clicked the image again and opened a new tab, looked at the url, it was REALLY long, but it ended in .jpg. Copy THAT url and try in my component …

At first, it looked like it wasn’t working, but then it popped up. Success!! Take a closer look …

Yep, it’s the photo, but it’s WAY too small to show the detail I want. And the photo doesn’t resize even if I force the Component Options box to be very wide and very tall. So, while this solved the issue I was experiencing, it didn’t succeed fulfilling my goal: including a good diagram in the Component Options box to help the user select which size of angle iron they want to use.

Late last night, I was going through the one of the SketchUp sites - might be the blog - and I ran across a YouTube Playist: Making a Great 3D Warehouse Model … wait … quickly review the included videos … no, that wasn’t it, but it IS a great guide to creating clean, friendly and compact NON dynamic components, so it’s still worth watching.

So now I can’t remember (and correctly attribute) the next thing I think I’ll try: Putting a snippet of html in the Description field in the wrapper component attributes … I’ll probably report my success (knock on wood) through creating a NEW topic by replying “as a linked topic”

So Thank you @quantj, your correct answer to my stated problem has started me down a new path that holds promise!