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This topic is intended for any general discussion of the 3.0.4 Maxwell for SketchUp plugin, which is announced in the Plugin Updates thread at the top of this forum.

Hi, i am wondering if their any advantages to the ruby 2.0 system especially for the maxwell plugin ?

For this plugin, it doesn't make much difference, given two main factors: a) in this plugin, Ruby code is more or less just glue between the UI and native code that deals with the Maxwell SDK, and b) the plugin still supports multiple versions of SketchUp. For a more Ruby-centric plugin it could be pretty important, less because the version of Ruby is now 2.0, and more because where in previous versions there was only a small subset of Ruby included in the SketchUp implementation, with SU2014, the whole standard library has been included. So people are free to use threads, communicate over the network, and so forth.

The other day half of my course participants were unable to make the Materials tab in Maxwell Scene Manager react on material selections made with the native SketchUp-eyedropper.
Usualy, selecting the paint bucket, holding down the Alt-key and clicking a material in the SketchUp model will make the appropriate material editable on the Materials tab...
But on half of the machines this didn't work (all Windows, SketchUp 2014).

Anybody else got this problem?

I've "succeeded" in encountering the problem in one of my own files now.
Because I prefer the native SketchUp-eyedropper by far (I like the simplicity: it just activates the material you click, whether it's been painted on a group or on a face in a group), I'd love this SketchUp-Maxwell "connection issue" to return to normal
JD, I'll PM you a link to the file as my project hasn't been published yet.
Best regards.
/Stefan

I see what you mean. Looks to be due to a SU2014 Ruby API issue, and not specifically related to the eyedropper (the same applies when selecting materials in the SU material panel), but rather to opening a new model. Meaning, it will work with the first model you open, but may (or may not) stop working after you open another. I don't see any way around it, so we'll have to wait and see if it gets fixed in a maintenance release. There is a related issue, where if two plugins attach observers to the view, one or the other, or both, may cease being called after an indeterminate amount of time. This plugin alone previously used two such observers, and I had to re-work things so that it didn't, so if you should find your camera suddenly not responding, first try shutting down SketchUp, disabling or removing other plugins, and starting it up again. It's a pretty big change moving to Ruby 2.0, so I would not be surprised to find several such issues over the course of SU2014.

Am I being daft? I cannot find out where to download this latest plug-in (that is compatible with SU 2014). Any help much appreciated.
thanks

In the top post of the updates thread, you'll find a link to the Maxwell Betas page -- you can always find the most recent update there.

Thank-you very much.