[gtalarico]

JD-
Does the SU plugin automatically checks out a network license as soon as SU is opened? Even if it's not being used?
Thanks

[JDHill]

At startup, the plugin attempts to obtain a Maxwell Render Suite license, or a Standalone Maxwell for SketchUp license, in order to know how it should build its UI (since certain functions are only supported with the Render Suite license). I have had another person ask about this, and then another just five minutes ago; currently, to prevent this happening, you would need to disable the plugin from loading in SketchUp Preferences. In an update, I am going to add a preference to restrict the type of license that the plugin will check out.

[gtalarico]

Thanks JD.

One of the other guys who asked was likely from my firm.
We just upgraded to SU 2014, and we only have two licenses.
Today chaos emerged when people needed to render, and weren't able to use it.... but when they asked, everyone claimed they were NOT using Maxwell at all.

I guess disabling the plugin is a decent work around for now...

[Delineator]

is there maybe a parameter flag we could throw into the executable to disable Maxwell from loading when SU does? That way we could have (2) separate executables: one for when you want to use SU+Maxwell, one for when you just need to model.

[gtalarico]

I remember thomthom made at some point a "vray loader" plugin so he could leave vray disabled but load it on demand.
Something like that would work well too... it would probably be few ruby lines....

[JDHill]

How about this --

Code: Select all

require "sketchup"
require "extensions"
require "maxwell"
  
if !file_loaded?("maxwell.loader.rb")
  module MX  
    module Loader
      @ext = nil
      def Loader.ext
        if !@ext
          @ext = SketchupExtension.new("Maxwell for SketchUp", "maxwell/init.rb")
          @ext.version = MX::CURRENT_VERSION
          @ext.creator = "Next Limit Technologies"
          @ext.copyright = "#{MX::CURRENT_YEAR}, Next Limit Technologies"
          @ext.description = "#{MX::CURRENT_MAXWELL} plugin for SketchUp."
          Sketchup.register_extension(@ext, true)
        end
        @ext
      end
      ::UI.menu("Plugins").add_item(::UI::Command.new("Enable Maxwell") { Loader.ext.check })
      ::UI.menu("Plugins").add_item(::UI::Command.new("Disable Maxwell") { Loader.ext.uncheck })
    end
  end
  file_loaded("maxwell.loader.rb")
end

If you save this as maxwell.loader.rb and put it in your Plugins folder, it will add two items to your Plugins menu: Enable Maxwell and Disable Maxwell. Basically, they just check & uncheck the box for the plugin in Preferences > Extensions. As you may know, you cannot unload an already-loaded plugin from a session, so using the disable item just means that the plugin won't be loaded automatically in the next SketchUp session.

Lastly, you should be aware that this is not capable of controlling what happens with the c++ MXS exporter; if you use File > Export > 3D Model, and choose MXS format, the plugin is going to attempt to obtain a license, and there's not really much way around that.

[gtalarico]

Perfect.

[Delineator]

Agreed, I think this would solve our issue too. Thanks so much JD!