SketchUp Pro, LayOut, and Style Builder

Every download also includes LayOut and Style Builder, but these will stop working after a trial period of 8 hours, unless you buy and register a license. In these 8 hours, you can explore if the features it offers are really what you are looking for and decide if SketchUp is the right tool for you. Since you are reading this book, you obviously have made the right decision. A word of warning: SketchUp Pro will stop working altogether after 8 hours of use if you do not purchase and enter a license. In the previous editions, you could still use it with a limited feature set.

LayOut is a standalone program and is explained in more detail in Chapter 11, Presenting Visuals in LayOut. With LayOut, you can easily import your SketchUp models and create slideshow pages for print or onscreen presentations rather like PowerPoint or Keynote. Style Builder is an external tool for the creation of new visual styles that can be used in SketchUp.

SketchUp Pro also enables you to import and export CAD data, which is a must when using SketchUp within a professional workflow. You also gain the privilege of creating dynamic components, which work a little like dynamic blocks in AutoCAD.

An additional import format with SketchUp Pro:

Additional 2D-export formats with SketchUp Pro:

Additional 3D-export formats with SketchUp Pro:

The 3D Warehouse

Google has established the 3D Warehouse as a platform for SketchUp users to easily share their models with the rest of the world. Trimble also took over the Warehouse from Google when it acquired SketchUp. Thanks to the large and active user group that SketchUp has gained over the last few years, the Warehouse is an invaluable resource for all sorts of 3D models that you can use to enrich your own designs.

In SketchUp 2014, the 3D Warehouse browser received a web technology based face lift:

If you choose not to insert the component directly into the scene, you can still download and save it to your hard drive. Using this method, you can find and collect all the bonus pack components from the 3D Warehouse. Of course, you only need to download components you are likely to use.

The main collections that you should look for include the following:

Unlimited upgrades – Ruby plugins

If you've ever looked over the shoulder of someone who has been using SketchUp for a long time, you'll see lots of buttons you never came across earlier. If you wait until they've gone for a break and secretly check out what's in their menus, there'll be twice as many menu items as yours.

These additional tools are due to the SketchUp Ruby API (Application Programming Interface) that allows anyone with a bit of knowledge of the Ruby programming language to create new functions that can be used in SketchUp. The plugins can extend SketchUp with simple tools that help you to do an ordinary task in a slightly different way or can automate complex procedures that can even generate entire cities.

In SketchUp 2014, the installation of plugins is fully integrated via the Extension Warehouse, Extension Preferences, and finally via the Plugins folder for older Ruby scripts that do not offer the full functionality of extensions.

The Extension Manager

Extensions that are available as a direct download, but not within the Extension Warehouse, can be installed via the built-in Extension Manager. Ruby scripts that can be installed via the manager have a *.rbz file extension (they are, in fact, common *.zip files with a bit of extra programming sauce). As a demonstration for this type of extension, we will install the SketchUcation Plugin Store:

1. Open a web browser and go to http://sketchucation.com/resources/plugin-store-download. You will get to a page that is shown in the following screenshot.
   
2. Download the extension archive, SketchUcationTools.rbz, via the Download Now button and save it to your hard drive.
3. Open SketchUp and navigate to Window | Preferences (on Windows) or SketchUp | Preferences …(on Mac).
4. The System Preferences window opens, as shown in the following screenshot:
   
5. In the list box to the left, highlight the entry, Extensions. You will now see a list of extensions that are already installed on the right.
6. You can enable and disable the extensions with the checkbox next to the extension names.
7. Click on the Install Extension… button at the bottom of the window.
8. A file browser pops up. Navigate to your download location and select the SketchUcationTools.rbz file.
9. Click on Open and wait for the confirmation that the installation was successful.
10. Check that the new tool is now listed among your other extensions.
11. Close the System Preferences window.

You will find a new submenu called SketchUcation under the Plugins menu (the Plugins menu only appears after you install a plugin). The SketchUcation Plugin Store entry starts the store browser window, but you have to register on the SketchUcation website before you can use the store (the other tools work without registration).

The Plugin Store is great, because it gives you access to a much larger number of plugins than the Extension Warehouse. The plugins are mostly developed by members of the SketchUcation community, so when you read about a new plugin in one of the SketchUcation forums, chances are that you can just go and download it right away. Version 2.0.0 of SketchUcation Plugin Store is shown in the following screenshot: