STL Extension for Sketchup

[atamakosi]

We've just installed our first 3D printer and Sketchup requires the STL extension to export for the correct format. It seems that any Sketchup extension requires the user to login, download, and then install. Has anyone had success with deploying extensions through group policy or scripts? Our student policy prevents users from installing software so the Google way does not work for us.

 

Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Arthur]

By default, SketchUp plugins downloaded through the Extension Warehouse are installed to %AppData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins which means every user would have to have their own copy of the plugin.

 

However, what you can do instead is copy the files belonging to the STL plugin to %ProgramData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins so that you only need one copy of the plugin per machine. SketchUp will automatically look in this folder and load the plugin(s) the next time the program is started.

 

From

%AppData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins\sketchup-stl.rb
%AppData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins\sketchup-stl\*.*

 

To

%ProgramData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins\sketchup-stl.rb
%ProgramData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2014\SketchUp\Plugins\sketchup-stl\*.*

 

A copy the STL plugin is attached below to save time downloading it from the Extension Warehouse.

SketchUp STL Plugin v2.1.4.zip

[atamakosi]

Arthur, you beautiful human being. Thank you!

[sloughman]

Hi, I had this working perfectly as per Arthur #2 with SketchUp2015, I have now installed 2016 version applied the exactly the same technique to 'program data' it does not work. I uninstalled 2015, still no joy, has anyone got the stl extension working for students....thanks.

[Arthur]

@sloughman. To get the STL extension working in SketchUp 2016 I found I had to download the latest version (v2.1.6) from the Extension Warehouse, copy the files to the relevant location in %ProgramData% and add the registry values below via GPP to enable it for all users.

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\Extensions]
"STL Import & Export2.1.6"=dword:00000001
"sketchup-stl.rb"=dword:00000001

 

I created an MSI to install the STL extension if you want to give that a try? All this does is copy the files to %ProgramData%\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins.

SketchUp 2016 STL Import & Export Extension v2.1.6.zip