Problems with Cutlist 4.1.1

[FloridaWoodWorker]

Hi, first off thanks for the awesome plugin.

Now then, I have the plugin working fine on my old laptop, the one I take along with me in the car. It still runs windows XP and the sketchup version is 8 (the free one).

I have another laptop that is newer that is kept at home, it runs Vista 64-bit, and the google sketchup version on this one is also 8 (the free one).

I cant get the plug in to run on the Vista computer to save my life, even after trying every remedy in every post I can hunt up on the internet.

The correct files are in the correct location, of this I am positive. When I open sketchup and click on plugins the only option is “generate cutlist”. And it does generate a cutlist of everything selected and sends the .csv file straight to the directory, however it does NOT open any kind of box like its supposed to to give me options to check. On my other computer it opens the blue cutlist box with all the options.

Something strange I noticed, just out of curiousity, I rebooted into “safe mode with networking”. I opened sketchup and clicked on plugins. Low and behold the choice “cutlist” was there (NOT “generate cutlist”). And when I clicked on it, the Cutlist box opened up with all the choices just as supposed to. However when I boot back into regular mode its just like it was before.

Can anybody help me out here please? I’m sure its something obvious that just keeps eluding me, but its very frustrating.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Terri

[AMarshall]

I did some digging and I think I have figured out the problem you are having. There are multiple plugins that have been called "Cutlist" over the years, and you certainly have at least two installed on your machine and they are competing with each other.

The most common plugin woodworkers use is "Cutlist 4.1.1" and it is written by Steve Racz. It is available on his site at www.steveracz.com, and it is also available on Lumberjocks. This version will show up on your plugins directory as "Cut List" and bring up the familiar dialog boxes you mention. Note that Steve's version will NEVER show up with a menu option of "Generate CutList".

I found one old plugin from 2005 that is from other authors, "CptanPanic and Vendmr". This version is available at this link and uses the "Generate CutList" menu option. From what you have said, this is probably what is installed on your Vista machine. It operates as a batch process with no dialog boxes.

So, to fix this I would delete cutlist.rb and the cutlist folder from your "plugins" directory and reinstall a fresh version of Cutlist 4.1.1 from a known source such as Steve's website listed above. You might be able to get away with just replacing cutlist.rb but I would start fresh if I were you.

Hope this fixes the problem!

[FloridaWoodWorker]

Thanks so much for the response,

I downloaded cutlist from the site you mentioned, I also went so far as to completely delete sketchup, along with the cutlist files. I then downloaded

a fresh copy of each and reinstalled.

Unfortunately the end result is still the same. But I think your right about having another version somewhere that is interfering as I vaguely remember

installling and trying one a long time ago.

I'm not sure where it could be that completely deleting everything and starting over would still allow it to pick up the old version. Its strange that in

safe mode it only picks up "cutlist" and allows it to run.

I'll try to find the link you mentioned, and get the name of the origional files, perhaps I can get them out the registry? or wherever they are hiding.

Thanks again for the help,

Terri

[FloridaWoodWorker]

You my friend are dead on the money,

I actually deleted the cutlist.rb file from the plugins directory, along with the other folder "cutlist" that the 4.1.1. installed. When I start sketchup?

it still has the plugin "generate cutlist".

Now then, since its a clean install of sketchup, and I see no files in the directory that even say cutlist, how do I get the old version off?

Any suggestions? BTW your a genius for figuring it out in the first place thanks.

Terri

[AMarshall]

The first place to look is in the plugins folder. Remember though that any of the ".RB" files could be the old plugin - it doesn't have to be called cutlist.rb and could be called anything. If you open up the .rb files with a text editor like notepad and search for "Generate Cutlist" you should be able to figure out which one is the old plugin.

There is a line in the ruby script that sets up the menu item, and the one you are looking for will say "Generate Cutlist". For instance, the REAL cutlist.rb has this line in it:

plugins_menu.add_item("Cut List") { interactive_generator }

If you can't find it in any of the .rb files in the plugins directory, I guess I would check for other .rb files on your hard drive. But I think you will find it in the plugins directory.

[FloridaWoodWorker]

Hello again,

After beating my brains out, searching for any instance of an rb file, even in the registry. And any instance of sketchup, previous versions, old file fragments etc...

I decided to try booting back into safe mode with networking. And I searched from there. Believe it or not, even though the searches didnt return anything but the new version in regular boot, in safe mode it returned fragments and such left over from sketchup 5, 6, and 7. All of these were unstalled before the newer versions were installed but I guess it still left pieces scattered here and there.

And for some reason Sketchup was still picking up files from those locations too.

The only way searches picked them up was in the safe mode. Learn something new every day

Anyway I deleted the pieces and every reference I could find that was dated before yesterday when I reinstalled it all again.

Its gone!!! I can now put the new plug in back in and it should pick up that one and only that one.

Thank you again for all your help and ideas, without you figuring out the problem in the first place I would have been stumped trying to figure out where to go after trying everything I knew. Until you said something, I didnt remember that other cutlist. And probably wouldnt have LOL.

Anyway thanks again, your the best!!!

Terri

[AMarshall]

Glad to help. That's really strange about the how the search and safe mode works, but I'm glad you were able to remove all the traces.

Good luck!