Where is my SketchUp Plugins Folder?

This article was written in response to a question asked on the Google SketchUp Help forum. I've covered this before, but it comes up often enough that it justifies another post.

A highly reliable way to find the Plugins folder is to ask SketchUp where it is located.

Type (or copy and paste) the following line into the lower part of Sketchup's Ruby Console, and press ENTER. (The Ruby Console can be opened from SketchUp's Window menu.)

Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins")


You will always get the correct location of the Plugins folder for the computer you are using.

Using a Separate Plugins Folder

If you do not have the rights to put files in Sketchup's Plugins folder, you may still be able to use many plugins from your HOME folder, or even from a portable media device.

Using the portable device as an example, create a folder on the device to store the plugin files - "plugins" might be an obvious choice. Then, Install the plugin files to the plugins folder you created. Using the Ruby Console, enter the following text - but use the full path to the plugins folder you created: (In this example, I will use e:/plugins on a Windows operating system, but note that the drive letter will likely vary from one computer to another.)

require_all("e:/plugins")


Not all plugins will work when loaded from a non-standard location, but a good many will. And it may be possible to modify the ones that do not work to allow them to work; but that's a topic for another day.

No comments:

Popular Posts (Last 30 Days)