SketchUp Installation

System requirements

SA

The Standalone plugin is designed for use with:

• SketchUp and SketchUp Pro, version 6+
• 32- and 64-bit Windows XP or greater
• Mac OSX 10.6+, on Intel processors

RS

The Render Suite plugin is designed for use with:

• Maxwell Render Suite 2.7.20
• SketchUp Pro, version 6+
• 32- and 64-bit Windows XP or greater
• Mac OSX 10.6+, on Intel processors

Installation (SA) 

Installation steps for the Standalone plugin depend on the SketchUp version and OS.

SketchUp 8 & 2013 (Windows)

• Unzip the download on your Desktop.
• Inside, navigate to the setup folder.
• Right-click setup.exe and choose Run as Administrator.
• For more info, see the included readme.txt.

SketchUp 8 & 2013 (Mac OSX)

1. Unzip the download on your Desktop.
2. Mount the contained DMG by double-clicking it.
3. Drag maxwell and maxwell.rb onto the Plugins alias.
4. For more info, see the included readme.txt.

SketchUp 6 & 7 (Windows & Mac OSX)

• Unzip the download on your Desktop.
• Inside, navigate to the plugin folder.
• Copy maxwell and maxwell.rb to the SketchUp plugins folder:

• If you are on Windows, Run vcredist/vcredist_x86.exe.
• For more info, see the included readme.txt.

Installation (RS) 

Individual Render Suite plugin installers are provided for each specific version of SketchUp and operating system.

Windows

1. Download and unzip the plugin .zip file on your Desktop.
2. Navigate to the setup folder.
3. Right-click setup.exe, and choose Run as Administrator.

Mac OSX (SketchUp 6-8)

1. Download and unzip the plugin .zip file on your Desktop.
2. Double-click on the .mpkg installer and follow the instructions.

Mac OSX (SketchUp 2013)

1. Download and unzip the plugin .zip file on your Desktop.
2. Double-click on the .dmg file.
3. Drag the plugin files into the indicated folders.

Updating to a new version of the plugin

From time to time, updates to the plugin are released. The process for updating your installation depends upon which version of the plugin you are using.

SA

Standalone plugin updates are available from the same download page where the plugin was originally obtained. For installer-based packages, simply run the new installer to update. For the manual installation used with SketchUp 6 & 7, update is performed the same as the initial install, just make sure to delete the existing plugin files from SketchUp's Plugins folder, before copying the new ones, in order to avoid possibly having files from two plugin versions.

RS

All Render Suite plugins use OS and SketchUp version-specific installers. Upgrading from one version to the next simply consists of visiting the Next Limit Customer Portal, downloading the appropriate package, unzipping it, and running the installer, as described above . The installer will update your installation automatically.

Notes on Plugin Files

As described in the above installation instructions, 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 applicability and standard location of these files is as follows:

Item	SA	RS	Location on Windows (typical)	Location on Mac OSX (typical)
maxwell.rb			C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins	/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins
maxwell (folder)
Skp2Mxs.dll			C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Exporters
Skp2Mxs.plugin				/Applications/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp.App/Contents/PlugIns

Relocating the Plugin Outside of SketchUp's Plugins Folder

Optionally, you may elect to move maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder to any location you wish.

If these are moved out of SketchUp's standard plugins directory, SketchUp will no longer find, and will therefore no longer load, the plugin. To get things working again, all that is required is to make a new Ruby file (that is just a regular text file with the extension .rb) which will be responsible for loading maxwell.rb from its new location. One might name that file something like maxwell_loader.rb, and it would need to contain just a single line (note the use of forward slashes in the path; they should be used whether you are on Windows or Mac OSX):

   require "C:/the/directory/where/maxwell/rb/is/now/located/maxwell.rb"

You would then need to place this maxwell_loader.rb file in the standard SketchUp plugins directory; at startup, SketchUp will find it and execute the require statement, loading the plugin from its new custom location. This strategy is used extensively during development: code is written and compiled for the most part on one machine, while being run and tested on multiple machines (and OSes). Using this strategy ensures that exactly the same code runs, regardless if it is being loaded from the local machine, or over the network.

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.

Windows

The plugin’s installer is not capable of uninstalling some very old versions of Maxwell’s SketchUp plugin. If you have any doubt about whether one of these might be installed, use Windows Programs and Features (Add or Remove Programs in XP) to verify that you do not find any entries named similar to MaxwellExport (Version 2.x).

If such a plugin is indeed currently installed, you should also find a MaxwellExport.dll (actual name may vary slightly) in your SketchUp Extensions directory. If not removed, this will cause the new plugin to malfunction; for example, it may start two instances of Maxwell Render when rendering, or one, when attempting to write an MXS file or render in Maxwell Fire. If you find that any of the above things are true, it will be necessary to remove the old plugin components:

• 1. Use Windows Programs and Features to uninstall the old plugin.
• 2. Delete any Maxwell-related .dll files from [SketchUp 8]\Extensions.
• 3. Delete any Maxwell-related files and folders from [SketchUp 8]\Plugins.
• 4. Use Windows Programs and Features to Repair the new plugin.

Mac OSX

The installer expects to find SketchUp in its standard location. When this is the case, the installation will be accomplished automatically, as described above. If, however, you have installed SketchUp in a non-standard location, it will be necessary to extract the contents of this package (right-click, Show Package Contents) and install the plugin’s components manually. If this is necessary, extract and place the Skp2Mxs.plugin file into the folder on your machine which corresponds with (this item only applies to the Render Suite plugin):

/Applications/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns

Then, extract and place the file maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder into the folder on your machine which corresponds with (this item applies to both the Render Suite and Standalone plugins):

/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins

If previous versions of the Maxwell plugin are present (i.e. SkpToMxs.plugin, MaxwellExport.rb, and the Maxwell folder), it will be necessary to delete them manually before installing new plugin files.

Uninstallation 

Uninstalling the plugin is accomplished differently, depending on OS, and the plugin distribution used. 

On Windows

For the standard installer-based distribution, uninstallation is accomplished using the Programs and Features window in Windows Control Panel, or by running the installer again, and choosing the Remove option. For SketchUp 6 & 7, uninstallation is simply the reverse of installation: delete maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder from your SketchUp Plugins folder.

On Mac OSX

Here, uninstallation is the same regardless of the installer used; it involves deleting maxwell.rb and the maxwell folder from your SketchUp Plugins folder. If you are using the Render Suite plugin, you should also delete the plugin's exporter, which resides directly inside of SketchUp.app:

• 1. In Finder, open /Applications/Google SketchUp 8.
• 2. Right-click SketchUp.app and choose Show Package Contents.
• 3. Delete SketchUp.app/Contents/Plugins/Skp2Mxs.plugin.

After deleting these files and folders, empty the Trash, and reboot the machine.