Skindigo as an Extension?

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Jeff Hammond
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:30 am
Location: newyorkcity

Skindigo as an Extension?

Post by Jeff Hammond » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:19 pm

hi Whaat.

is there any reason in particular why skindigo can't be an extension? (you know, the plugins you can turn on/off in sketchup prefs)

i ask this because of this constant little battle i have with skindigo which i talked about last year:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... 76#p100976

the latest betas are showing this behavior again and i've tried so many things the past couple of days and i can't outsmart it.

cliff notes: osx:
when opening a new sketchup window, skindigo does some things to the fresh file.. depending on which state i leave the material browser in prior to closing it determines how many actual steps skindigo does to a new file (as seen in view->edit->undo.. it's always a generic 'undo properties' so i can't tell exactly what's happening.. sometimes a new material is created, sometimes an existing material is modified, sometimes i can't tell what it did but there are always at least two (and up to six) steps made..

problem is, you can't simply close a file that's been modified without a pop up prompt asking 'do you want to save etc..' to which you have to answer prior to the file closing.. it's a bummer in more ways than one but it can be a big headache if you have a several different windows open.. sometimes i'll open files to select/copy geometry in order to paste it in other files — which doesn't 'do anything' to the file (i.e. you can't undo an orbit or select or ⌘C..).. so basically, i can't save the file i'm working on and then quit the app without going through the prompts for all the other windows i have open.. i just want to ⌘Q and be done with it but skindigo doesn't let me..
i also always close the first file in a new session as to refresh my custom toolbar which is already somewhat of a hassle but easy enough with ⌘W⌘N.. that's another thing i can't do smoothly since the save as dialog pops up..

over a year ago, i found a way to prevent it by leaving the material browser in a certain state prior to closing it.. then the problem came up again in a newer skindigo release to which i found i could save the new file that skindigo messed with as my template and the problem went away with new windows or files that were created from that template.. then another skindigo and i was able to revert to the other solution..

but now, i can't find a solution other than uninstalling skindigo and installing it when needed (i render maybe 3 days a month while i'm using sketchup nearly everyday)..

i figure if it were an extension then i could at least disable/enable as need be without the hassle of uninstalling/reinstalling it (which would also require a relaunch of the app itself…) but as of right now, that's what i'm going to have to do..

or obviously the best case scenario would be to fix skindigo itself and prevent this from happening altogether..

any insight appreciated.
thanks

Jeff Hammond
Indigo 100
Posts: 105
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:30 am
Location: newyorkcity

Re: Skindigo as an Extension?

Post by Jeff Hammond » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:28 pm

oh, i meant to add this tidbit as well…

google hasn't yet tied in to Lion's new versions and autosave features but i suppose they will eventually (rhino osx has already done it and it's sweet)..

basically, you're no longer prompted to save a file because lion does it automatically.. you have one main file with different versions you can browse through.. much like time machine except on individual files instead of the entire system..

so when google hooks it up, whatever skindigo is doing to the file is going to start piling up every time you open it.. since i'm not exactly sure what skindigo is doing, i don't know if it's going to lead to problems later on in the workflow but if i work on a file over a period of say a month, there are going to be a countless amount of these little secret skindigo processes attached to it..

i'd be fine with enabling via extensions on an as needed basis but i know other people won't..
the behavior might be worth looking into in that regard.

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Whaat
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Re: Skindigo as an Extension?

Post by Whaat » Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:56 pm

You are right, this needs to be fixed. As a minimum, I should make it work as an extension. I'll see what I can do to improve this for the next release.

Jeff Hammond
Indigo 100
Posts: 105
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:30 am
Location: newyorkcity

Re: Skindigo as an Extension?

Post by Jeff Hammond » Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:06 am

awesome Dale!
thank you.

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