SketchUp - Installation

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: 05 Feb, 2019 by Next Limit
5 min read

 

The Maxwell for SketchUp plugin runs in one of two modes: Standalone (SA), and Render Suite (RS). Both of these are supported using a common installer, with the determination of which is used being based on the type of license found at plugin start-up. For more information on licensing, please see here.

Compatibility

  • SketchUp Make and SketchUp Pro, 64-bit only, from SketchUp 2015 to 2018)
  • Maxwell Render 4
  • Windows Vista and up
  • Mac OSX 10.11 and up

Installation

Windows

  1. Unzip the downloaded zip file to your Desktop.
  2. Double-click the installer (Maxwell_for_SketchUp-x.x.x.exe) file.
  3. Choose the desired SketchUp versions and click Install.

Mac OSX

  1. Unzip the downloaded zip file to your Desktop.
  2. Double-click the installer (Maxwell_for_SketchUp-x.x.x.app) file.
  3. Choose the desired SketchUp versions and click Install.

Uninstallation

Windows

  1. Open Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features.
  2. Uninstall the desired versions of Maxwell for SketchUp.
  3. Optionally, use the Plugin Files section below to confirm the plugin's files have been removed.

Mac OSX

  1. Double-click the installer (Maxwell_for_SketchUp-x.x.x.app) file.
  2. Choose the desired SketchUp versions and click Uninstall.
  3. Optionally, use the Plugin Files section below to confirm the plugin's files have been removed.

Plugin Version

The plugin supports running in one of two modes, Standalone (SA), or Render Suite (RS), with the determination of which depending on the type of license found at start-up (with the plugin first checking for a Maxwell Render Suite license, then a Standalone Maxwell for SketchUp license). If no license is found, the plugin will run in unlicensed mode, in which resolution is restricted, and the Production render engine is not available.

Troubleshooting

If the plugin menu and/or toolbars do not show up in SketchUp after installing, the first thing to do is to go to SketchUp’s Preferences > Extensions  panel and make sure the Maxwell for SketchUp extension is enabled. If the still plugin fails to load, or causes any malfunction as it is loaded into SketchUp, it is recommended to manually perform a clean install, in case the issue is due either to the presence of files from different plugin versions, or files that are missing or corrupted.

Windows

First, use Programs and Features to uninstall any currently-installed instances of the Maxwell for SketchUp plugin. Next, use Explorer to confirm that the following files have been deleted:

  • maxwell.rb
  • maxwell (folder)
  • Skp2Mxs.dll

The locations of these files, for different versions of SketchUp, may be found in the Plugin Files section below. After ensuring that the listed files have been deleted, re-run the plugin's installer. Should the issue continue to occur, repeat the process using a fresh download of the plugin, in case the one you are using has been damaged (by a third-party virus scanner, or unzip program, for instance).

Mac OSX

The plugin's installer application may also be used to uninstall the plugin. To do so, run the installer again, choose the versions of SketchUp for which you wish to uninstall the plugin, and click Uninstall. The installer will generate a report indicating whether the uninstall was successful; if not, use Finder to locate and delete:

  • maxwell.rb
  • maxwell (folder)
  • Skp2Mxs.plugin

The locations of these files, for different versions of SketchUp, may be found in the Plugin Files section below. After ensuring that the listed files have been deleted, re-run the plugin's installer. Should the issue continue to occur, repeat the process using a fresh download of the plugin, in case the one you are using has been damaged (by a third-party virus scanner, or unzip program, for instance).

If the installer should fail to properly install the plugin, note that it is also possible to perform a manual installation, using files contained directly inside of the installer .app. To access these files, right-click the installer .app and choose Show Package Contents. Inside the package, you will find the various plugin files, in the Contents/Resources subfolder. Detailed instructions regarding which files should be installed for different versions of SketchUp, and where they should be installed, may be found in the readme.rtf file, in the downloaded zip file.

Other Issues

Very rarely, but more than a couple of times now, it has been reported that upon opening one of the plugin windows, all that is seen in the window is a message stating "This page requires CSS! Please ensure that you have not disabled styles in your browser." Each time this has been reported, it has been found that Dreamweaver has been installed on the machine, and that it has erroneously altered the registry, adversely affecting how web page files (in this case, .css files) are handled by the browser when they are located on the local file system, as they are in a SketchUp plugin.

When you browse to a web page, several files are downloaded to your browser, and it determines what to do with each one based on what is known as a MIME type. The MIME type is sent to the browser from the server, along with the data, but if you are viewing a file locally, there is no server, and therefore nobody to tell the browser what type of file it is. In that case, Internet Explorer apparently uses some information in the registry to determine what to do with the file, and it is this information, in this case pertaining to how CSS files are to be handled, which is damaged by the Dreamweaver installer.

In order to fix the issue, it is necessary to fix the registry, which may be able to be done using these steps:

  1. Go to the page for NirSoft's FileTypesMan and download the x64 version (assuming you are using a 64-bit OS).

  2. Unzip the downloaded package and run the FileTypesMan.exe application.

  3. Once the list of file types has been populated, scroll down to the .css entry.

Here, we will be looking at the MIME Type column for the .css extension, which should be set to text/css. If it is not, you should double-click the line, and set the MIME Type back to text/css. After doing so, and restarting SketchUp, the browser windows should load the plugin's user interface as expected. As you can see, it is not necessarily Dreamweaver which will have done this, but that has been the case when we've had it reported.

Lastly, it must be said that these instructions are given on a strictly use-at-your-own-risk basis; though the procedure is not especially difficult, the fact is that Next Limit can accept no responsibility for any damage you may inadvertently do to your registry while attempting this fix.

Plugin Files

The plugin consists of two main parts: a SketchUp Ruby Extension, consisting of a maxwell.rb file and maxwell folder, and, for the Render Suite plugin, a SketchUp 3D Exporter plugin, named Skp2Mxs.dll on Windows and Skp2Mxs.plugin on Mac OSX. The standard location of these files, for each OS and version of SketchUp, is as follows:

maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder on Windows:
  • C:\ProgramData\SketchUp\<SketchUp version>\SketchUp\Plugins
maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder on Mac OSX:
  • /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/<SketchUp version>/SketchUp/Plugins

Note: the ~/Library folder may be hidden by default; to locate it in Finder, use Go > Go to Folder, type ~/Library, and click Go.

Skp2Mxs.dll on Windows:
  • C:\Program Files\SketchUp\<SketchUp version>\Exporters
Skp2Mxs.plugin on Mac OSX:
  • /Applications/<SketchUp version>/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns