Centralizing your common shared files on a network.

There have been a few questions out here about putting shared files on a central location on a network for multiple users. I posted a message a while back in response to someone's question about this but have since then have discovered addition info.I thought I'd take a moment to share what I learned for those who are curious.

Sketch Up uses registry variables to look for components, materials, libraries and styles. Before I upgraded to V6 I found these variables for V5 and modified them with good success. My computer did not crash from editing my registry so don't worry.

Therefore I also made similar changes to my registry for V6 and everthing is working fine.

If you'd like to fix this for youself I'll do my best to outline the process below.

-First I had to create the folders on the network I wanted users to access.

-And just to be sure I was reading the right folders I placed a few test files in each folder.

-I then had to get into Sketch Up, open Preferences, go to the Files tab, and change the paths for Components, Materials, Styles, & Texture Images

-Close Sketch Up

Now comes the fun part...

-Open your registry by clicking on the Start Menu and Run....type in REGEDIT and press OK

The path to the variables are different for V5 and V6 so I'll post both here.

-The path for V5 is:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\@Last Software\SketchUp5\File Locations]

The path for V6 is: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp6\File Locations]

Once you navigate to this "folder" you should see a long list of variables on the right panel of your window. You should recognize some of the paths as the ones you changed in the Sketch Up preferences. -Others may still be looking on to you own harddrive. -A quick way to fix this is to double click on one of the correct variables and copy the path to the clipboard -You can then double click on any of the other variable and paste. For example: The variable "Components" should have the path YOU chose while the variable "ComponentBrowser" may still be looking on your harddrive. -You can copy the path for "Components" to "ComponentsBrowser"

It appears in V6 there are a few extra variables that didn't exist in V5. I'm not sure how these come into play but I have changed each of mine to suit my needs. -Once you have fixed all appropriate variables close the Editor. -You should now be able to get into Sketch Up and see those files from the network.

***Please note that if you have installed any of the add-on component bonus libraries they will still be shown and found on the local harddrive of the machine. At my company I try to disallow users to install anything and put whatever is needed on the network for all to share. Occasionally I have to go around and check users systems to ensure consistancy by checking if any component folders exist under the Sketch Up directory and if the registry settings are correct. As a small aside, I also centralize our ruby scripts by adding a very small script I created on each machine that automatically loads the plugins off the network. (This was posted in a previous thread.) I hope this helps and feel free to contact me if anything was unclear or you have any questions.

Thanks for the info, Kevin! (I also tracked down the handy "Load Remote Plugins.rb")

I keep going back and forth with dumping Components and Materials into the SketchUp install directory. I'd prefer to keep them separate, but I can't figure a way to have the remote directly be automatically listed in each browser.

(SketchUp will automatically recognize first depth sub-directories underneath the installed Component or Material directory, listing them by name in the dropdown menu. This is great for new users which doesn't require manually adding (or later removing!) remote directories.)

If I say screw it, and manually add the base remote Components directory, it lists as "Components (1)" to not conflict with the install Components directory, which could be confusing to new users (and an eye sore!)

Any thoughts?

Hey alz,

I think I understand what your saying. On our network here I have different folders in the Components folder for oganization. When I pull up my Components Browswer it shows this list first. The one drawback is if you select another option from the pull down menu of the Components Browser such as "In Model", you then loose the entry of your network folder. You can still get back to it if you click the small "Back" button on the left side of the Browser. If needed you could rename the network base folder to something different such as "Shared Components" and "Shared Materials" so they're different than the locally installed ones.

I admit this does not work without a few glitches and I hope Google can address this in a later release so that networking files is much smoother. After all my investigation I still believe there are some things "hard coded" into the Sketch Up interface that are confilicting with this effort of networking shared files. One of the problems I have had are the Bonus Components and Materials. I have had to install these, copy the files to the network, then uninstall them so Sketch Up will stop trying to find them on my local machine. Good luck with your efforts and let me know if I can help in any way.

Thanks for the tips Kevin! I'll try a couple things out and see what sticks.

(You did your install/copy/uninstall exactly how I did, too ;))

Here's what each path means in the regedit location:

ComponentBrowser \Components\

ComponentBrowser1 ...browser choice when last closed

ComponentBrowser2 \Components\

Components Preferences for Components

Images Preferences for Watermark Images

ImportExport Preferences for Export Models

Materials Preferences for Materials

MaterialsBrowser ...browser choice when last closed

MaterialsBrowser2 In Model\

Models Preferences for Models

Styles Preferences for Styles

StylesBrowser ...browser choice when last closed

StylesBrowser2 \Styles\

Textures Preferences for Texture Images

(Not sure why ComponentBrowser has an extra entry)

With this in mind, you can edit the pathways to match your external location -- then EXPORT the regedit file (from the "File Locations" folder) and have it saved as a <name>.reg file. This allows you to simply double-click the file to instantly change these settings.

Has anyone done the same for OS X?

It sounds like something we should be doing.