Solid Inspector 2 cannot install

Hi Everyone. My extension Solid Inspector² v2.5.1 has disappear from my SketchUp. When I tried reinstall it from Extension Warehouse, I have this error: SketchUp was unable to install the extension for an unknown reason. Consider downloading the extension using your web browser and manually install it.
Then I tried manually and I got this error: Failed to install… then SU crash!!!
Then I tried install it from Sketchucation ExtensionStore, then I got this error: UnZIP Error: Could not unzip archive.

Anybody have this problem?

I fixed my problem. When I saw nobody answered my post after 2 days, I presumed the problem was on my end. I think the plugin was installed in 2 different locations. That is probably when I tried to installed it from different sources. I then delete the .rb file and the folder in all different plugin folders and reinstalled it. It crashed for the 2 first launches but eventually worked. It still a mystery why the plugin disappears in the first place!

What method did you use to install it?

the last one that worked: Extension Warehouse

Does that mean you just went to the Extension Warehouse in SketchUp, searched for the extension and installed? Or you went to the Extension Warehouse in your internet browser, downloaded the file and then installed if from the download?

Yes. (Sorry for my unclear answer)

Then I checked in my 2 different locations and the plugin was installed in only the User location. When using this install method, SU doesn’t ask me where to put the plugin. It would be less complicated if all plugins would be save in one place, but it’s hard to achieve when SU decide for you.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2022\SketchUp\Plugins\

C:\ProgramData\SketchUp\SketchUp 2022\SketchUp\Plugins\

ok, that’s interesting. I have two questions then.

1- Why when I install a plugin manually or with Sketchucation store, it asks me where to put it, if they should all be in the same place?

Screenshot 2023-03-23 115331

2- Should I copy or reinstall all my plugins into the User folder? Except for the Shipped ones.

The SketchUcation store has the option to choose a custom location to install extensions. My advice is to always use the standard (user) autoinstall location unless you fully understand the implications of putting it somewhere else.

The shipped extensions are installed by SketchUp itself when you first run it. There is no reason to ever need to do anything about them unless you want to disable them.

Oops! I see that Dave beat me to it (as usual).

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My brain was thinking differently. I though the default one was the Program data. I was wrong for all those years!!

Thanks for your help. All you wrote make sense. I will clean that mess and be sure all my future installs follow that rule. I hope also this post will help someone else not installing plugin in the right folder.

Good luck. While you’re in that ProgramData folder look to see if there’s anything else you might have put in there which doesn’t belong.

I do, too.

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This is untrue. The distibution copies of the shipped extensions are in the %ProgramFiles%, (aka the binary path,) not the %ProgramData% path.

SketchUp itself does not create a "Plugins" folder in the %ProgramData% path, just a few resource folders for common "Materials", "Classifications", "Components", "Styles", etc.

Also, since the SketchUp installer does not create the %ProgramData%/Plugins folder, uninstalling will not affect this folder. Ie, uninstalling SketchUp will not remove this folder.

If the "Plugins" folder exists within the %ProgramData% path, then some 3rd party installer (using Admin privileges) has created it.

SketchUp will load from this path if it exists and has extensions installed there.

There are several extensions installed via standalone installers that install in the %ProgramData% path. These that I know of are:

  • Twilight Render
  • Unreal Datasmith
  • MJGrundman_SPGears (this might be in here for a test?)

Manually moving extensions from where an installer puts them, is a recipe for getting a duplicate install if you rerun the installer later to attempt to fix the extension or update it to a newer version.

SketchUp’s native manual install via the Install Extension button at the bottom of the Extension Manager does not ask you where to install extensions.

  • It asks you to point at where you’ve put the RBZ archive.
  • It always installs into the User’s %AppData% path "Plugins" folder.

Thanks for the clarification Dan.

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Hello everyone, I’ve read through this forum and I am still unable to view and utilize Solid Inspector. I am certain it is the latest extension from the developer. I have done everything I can think of including the suggestions in this thread. I am using a M1 Mac. I have other extensions not showing up as well including Dynamic Components and Sandbox Tools which at one point were always available to me. I have completely uninstalled SketchUp from my Mac and reinstalled. Ive made sure to enable everything. All extensions are up to date and are visible in the manger but not in my working file header. I have also tried downloading the extensions manually from the developer and installing it that way through the manger manually, but to no avail. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your time.

You say you are on a MAC ?
Have you actually “installed” SketchUp or are you running it from its installer app ?
If it’s not properly installed then things like the shipped tools [DC, Sandbox etc] and many extensions will not be installed properly, and cause a variety of issues…

I don’t know what that means. Could you please clarify? Do you mean the toolbar at the top of the SketchUp view window?

Window SketchUp 2023 (and 2022) you can go to the Extensions menu, Developer, and open Ruby Console. Do that, and then close SketchUp. Reopen SketchUp and see if any errors appear in the Ruby console, or in any dialog boxes.

If any extension has a problem it will stop later extensions from loading as well. Hopefully there will be errors, and you will know which extensions is causing the problem.

This thread was only discussing extension installations on Windows platform.

Joe’s issue was also solved by removing all the Solid Inspector installs (he had a duplicate) and then reinstalling using the Extension Warehouse. If you must do this, close and restart SketchUp to clear out it’s Ruby process memory.

You really should have opened your own issue thread to keep these separate as the platforms differ.

The first time I am hearing this in all the years of writing extensions.

:question:

That seems contrary to my experience too. I don’t have time right now to do a careful check, but I am sure I have more than once seen multiple extensions report errors during load, which should be impossible if what you wrote is true!

I’m starting to doubt myself now! I will try to reproduce what I think I’ve seen in the past.