Sketchup and Plugins

[Greg Sznajdruk]

I'm trying to use the Cutlist Plugin in Sketchup. There are numerous reference on this topic including SMC.

These references seem to start with the premises that one is familiar with plugins. I can't find the Plugin directory. What I'm looking for is a step-by-step instruction on how to load the plugin assuming that I don't know squat.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Greg

[John Schreiber]

Greg,

It's totally obvious . . . after you know how it's done. But totally unclear until then.

Assuming you are working on a PC and settings are standard: From My Computer, go to C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins, and copy the file there. Then close SketchUp and Open it again. There will be a new drop down menu called "plug-ins," and Cutlist will be there.

That's the place to put all plug-ins. Plug-ins are often called rubies because they are written in the ruby programming language and end with .rb. If you read the plug-in with a text editor there are often instructions about how to use the ruby at the beginning of the text and near the end of the text, you may be able to figure out how to access the ruby from inside SU. They do not always go to the "plug-ins" dropdown.

[Brian D Anderson]

http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/daltxguy/blog/5143

That may help as well. I just installed it this morning. Seems to work ok.

-Brian

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Thanks foe the info will give it a try.

Greg

[Greg Sznajdruk]

I've down loaded Cutlist 4.0 and have it in my plugins directory. When I try to export to Cutlist a screen pops up and informs me that it can't open the web page. I was expecting it to create a csv file any idea?

Greg

[John Schreiber]

First, if you have an old version of Cutlist in that directory, be sure to remove it. That could be messing things up.

The new version of Cutlist has a lot of options. Depending on what boxes you click, it will produce a web version of the output or a CSV file and there are other options too. If it's trying to open up a web page unsuccessfully, un click the option which says Web Page, make sure CSV has a tick mark next to it and you should be good. I'm not sure why it wouldn't open the web page, but I'm no expert.

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Thanks John.

I can make it work if I use the csv file extent only. I still have to clean up the csv file in Excel there is some junk in the file that Custlist doesn't like. It still a lot better than a sharp stick to the eye.

John on a related topic since you seem to be knowledgeable is there some way to explode a 3d view into it's component parts. I found out the explode function in SU did not perform this function.

Greg

[John Schreiber]

. . .I found out the explode function in SU did not perform this function. . . .
Yes, that was a great disappointment to me too. It sounded so cool.

There is a ruby which is supposed to do something similar <http://www.smustard.com/script/ExplodeImplode> (http://www.smustard.com/script/ExplodeImplode) . I've never used it though. I see that it is written by Todd Burch. He is a quality guy who posts at the Creek some times.

Rather than exploding, I usually save a final version of a model, then save another version and modify it with scenes so that it works well for planning purposes.