sketchUcation

Additional Plugin Folders is a small standalone script providing the capability to define one or several additional user-defined directories to load plugins into Sketchup.

This can be useful in some situations, such as:

• Restricted access to System folder (C:\program files...) without administrator rights
• Sharing plugins across different versions of Sketchup
• Sharing plugins amongst users on a network

The plugin adds a menu in SketchUp Windows > Additional Folders for Plugins. This command pops up a dialog box where you can enter the path of an additional directory where Sketchup should load the plugin from, in addition to the default directories used by SketchUp.

The specification of additional directories is stored across SU Sessions. So you will do it once for all.

Important

1. Plugins will be loaded first from the additional directory or directories and then from the SU standard plugin folders (/Plugins and /Tools). So you don’t need that all plugins reside in the additional directories.
2. Some plugins do NOT work when loaded from a directory which is not the standard SU plugins directory. However, most new plugins should normally be OK. You can leave these plugins in the Sketchup…/Plugins folder, and they will be loaded.
3. !AdditionalPluginFolders.rb is totally independent from LibFredo6. You don’t need to have LibFredo6 installed and it applies to any plugin.
4. !AdditionalPluginFolders.rb does not make any particular assumption on the plugins structure or installation. Just make sure that you have the same footprint in the additional directory as you would have in the standard SU plugins folder.
5. !AdditionalPluginFolders.rb allows defining several additional directories (paths can be entered in separate fields or must be separated by a semicolumn if entered in the same field) but you should try to limit this number for performance reasons.
6. It is indeed advised that plugins resides either in the additional directory or in the standard Plugins folder of Sketchup, but not in both.

To Set or Unset Additional Directories

1. Select menu Windows > Additional Folders for Plugins
2. A dialog box appears:
   
3. Type the full path of the directories. Both / and \ are accepted, on Windows or Mac
   Note: in SU2015 and above, you can click on the button on the right (...) to pick the directory via a dialog box.
4. A summary will be shown when you validate the dialog box
5. To remove additional directories, just make the fields empty
6. You will need to close and start SketchUp again to use the additional directories

Notes:

• You can enter several directories by typing their path separated by a semi-colon (;). When the dialog box is re-opened, each directory will however appear in their own field, with one extra field empty.
• If you prepend a ? before the path of a directory (like in the image above), then you will be asked for confirmation for loading it when Sketchup starts up
• If you prepend a ! before the path of a directory, then the directory will be ignored when Sketchup starts up
• The validity and the existence of the directories are checked when you enter the path in the dialog box. You will get a message in case of problem.
• The existence of the directories is also checked when starting Sketchup
• If a Directory is specified for confirmation at SU start up, you will see a dialog box appearing
  
• When Sketchup starts up, the plugin catches all errors related to the load of plugins in the specified directories and signal them. This avoids to interrupt the load process and create a total mess in the toolbars (the script does also catch the errors for the standard SU Plugin directory!)
  

VERY IMPORTANT

1. when you are prompted by a dialog box while Sketchup is starting up, there is a delay between the pressing on a button and the dismissal of the dialog box. Do not bother, the process continues and the plugins will be loaded.
2. Be aware that when you disable a directory containing plugins with toolbars and then reenable it later on, you will get a Toolbar reshuffling (also called toolbar hell). In SU8, the toolbars may appear undocked.

Links to Sketchucation Forum: Main Post   Latest Release

Release History

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v5.4a - 27 Sep 20: Fixed an issue with saving path

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v5.3a - 11 Aug 20: Fixed an issue with loading binary files

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v5.2a - 16 May 20: Load extensions in alphabetic order (for OSX Catalina)

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v5.0a - 13 Nov 15: Maintenance release

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.5b - 23 Jun 15: Small bug fixing

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.5a - 30 Dec 14: Small Update fixing a problem for some types of non-standard usernames

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.4a - 06 Nov 14: Update implementing a dialog driven selection of directory, available only in SU2015 and above

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.3a - 19 Oct 14: Important update necessary for SU14 if your username contains non-ascii characters

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.2a - 23 Oct 13: Important update necessary for loading LibFredo6 5.2 and higher and for future Sketchup compatibility

!AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.1a - 01 Sep 13: Change of name for the plugin. Still an important update necessary for loading LibFredo6 5.2

000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v4.0a - 30 Aug 13: important update necessary for LibFredo6 5.2

000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v3.2a - 29 Jan 13: small update giving more detailed information when errors are found (exact line in Ruby code)

000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v3.1a - 29 Jan 13: Important fix on an issue related to loading RBS files.

000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb -v3.0a - 23 Aug 11: Major enhancements 000AdditionalPluginFolders loads scripts also in the SU standard Plugin Directory, with protection against load errors New dialog box for specifications of additional directories (based on Web Dialog box). This was necessary because on Mac, the dialog box of v2.0 was too small.

000_AdditionalPluginFolders.rb - v2.0a - 11 Aug 11: Some enhancements and a change of name of the plugin More explicit capability for specifying several directories Protection against errors when loading plugins. This does not interrupt the whole load process and the errors are signaled Possibility to specify a confirmation for loading a directory when Sketchup starts up

000RedirectPlugins.rb - v1.1a - 30 Jul 11: Initial public release