The Toggle Units plugin created by Matt666 on SketchUcation.com is an essential plugin to have in your SketchUp toolbox. It allows you to switch between metric units, standard units and other fornmats while using SketchUp.

Toggle Units allows you to switch from Meters to Centimeter and Millimeters in the Decimal mode. You can also switch from Architectural, Fractional and Ingeneiry. Though many of these modes are very similar to each other.

This plugin definately is a feature that SketchUp has left out. It allows you to change all dimensions and even changes the way you can input distances for creating lines and other objects. The plugin uses the metric conversion of 0.3048 meters equals 1 foot. A drawback to this plugin is that there are no shortcut keys to toggle between. Though on the Sketchucation.com forum you can read some tips to do this.

Overall, the Toggle Units plugin created by Matt666 is a simple and easy to use plugin and should be at the top of your tool palette. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at Sketchucation.com. I give this plugin 5 out 5 stars.

Download Notes: Download link on the page button links to. The main (1st page) has an outdated version that did not work on my system.

The Model Location plugin created by Jim on the Sketchup [Plugins] Blog is a simple plugin to specify the location of your model. It seems to work well, though we do not have the tools to test it’s accuracy. The plugin does not really come with any explanation and can be a little frustrating to figure out.

The menu comes with 8 fields/options. The first two are for your informational purposes, they don’t really affect anything much. Then you need to input your latitude and longitude which can be found fairly easily online (we used itouchmap.com to find the values). Then you need to input the time zone, this was a little tricky as the plugin does not really explain this. But basically you count using a general timezone map from the “international date line”, to the right you go in the negative direction and left positive. We could be wrong on this but this is how we think it works. The daylight savings option specifies if your region abides by daylight savings standards (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time)*. And then you can specify the North location with an angle and choose to display it or not. It displays as an orange line on your SketchUp window. We are not sure if these directions are 100% correct but we believe it is, please comment if you observe that this plugin works otherwise.

It is suggested to set this up once and then create it as a template so these options are saved on all future drawings. And note that two plugins are needed for it to work, the model_location.rb and inputbox.rb.

Overall, The Model Location plugin created by Jim is a useful plugin, granted if it works correctly. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at the Sketchup [Plugins] Blog. I give this plugin 3.5 out 5 stars.

The JS Move Tool plugin created by Jan Sandstrom with Pixero.com is a great plugin to assist in the movement of of your object(s) in an simple and easy to control way.

The JS Move Tool allows you to move your object based off of a numerical figure that you input before using. Then using the arrow keys on your keyboard allows you to move your object around in the x and y axis. To move in the z axis all you need to do is hold the alt button while using the up and down buttons. An additional feature of this plugin allows you to move the object in factors of 10 times the distance while pressing the shift key or a factor of .10 using the ctrl key. This plugin works great and is suggested that you create a shortcut key for it. We used ctrl+m for the shortcut.

Overall, the JS Move Tool plugin created by Jan Sandstrom is a very useful tool to have in your arsenal, especially with a shortcut. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at Pixero.com/. I give this plugin 5 out 5 stars.

*Update: After continued use of this plugin, we noticed that for objects that are grouped or components separately (in other words different groups or components) that are wanted to move together will move together if you use the tool normally. BUT, if you use the move multipliers (shift or ctrl), the two objects will move in different scales to each other. So their positions relative to each will change. We thought that this was important for users to note.
*NOTE: you will need to have sketchup.rb for the plugin to work correctly. It usually comes with SketchUp and should be in the tools folder.

The Volume Calculator plugin created by TGI is a great plugin that allows you to calculate the volume of certain objects. It works really well and has a simple menu to fill out. The menu gives you the option of the units to be used, which layer to place the NEW object on (be aware that this plugin does create a new object that is not the original). You also have the option to hide sides and the original object and finally what color to make the new object. I recommend using a certain color style to differentiate from volume measurements and the actual object.

This tool has a drawback it will only allow you to find the volume of objects that are grouped or a component. You cannot simply just highlight objects and find the volume. NOTE: to use this plugin you need to create a group or component, then right click it and click “Volume”.

Overall, the Volume Calculator plugin created by TGI is a great tool to have to get some more insight into your model. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at www.cad-addict.com. I give this plugin 3 out 5 stars.

*UPDATED

The Driving Dimensions plugin created by Ledas is a great plugin that takes the Google SketchUp concept one step further. The idea behind SketchUp is to make 3D modeling easier and simpler, but the Driving Dimensions plugin takes this idea and allows you to quickly AND accurately design your model. It works like the dimension tool but the sweet part of it is that it allows you to resize the area just by changing the dimension. And once you place the final value of that dimension this plugin looks it into place. See the tutorials below.

This SketchUp plugin works with straight lines, angles and radii of circles and arcs. But there are some drawbacks, first the plugin does not really allow you to choose which direction the side, angle or radius (we’ll just call these measurements) will go. This sometimes completely distorts your model to something that you did not want. Another issue that I found is that on some computers it will crash SketchUp (7.1), could be because it conflicts with other plugins.

Overall, the Driving Dimensions plugin created by Ledas is an essential plugin to have and can really help you speed up your designing. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at DrivingDimensions.com. I give this plugin 4 out 5 stars!

*UPDATE 3/6/10
Driving Dimensions is free as a trial version. In one model you can only create 25 Driving Dimensions. Once you get to this limit a screen pops up and gives you the option to purchase the pro edition. This is quite annoying when the driving directions automatically sets itself within your model. And once you pass this limit a screen will pop up with every new surface or faces. Very disappointing to find this out and sorry to our readers for not catching this earlier. The Pro version is $45 and can be purchased at DrivingDimensions.com.

The Camera Distance plugin created by Rick Wilson with Smustard.com is a tool that allows you to measure the distance of the camera from an object. This is all it literally does, in essence this is a great tool to have. But it has many limitations. The biggest one is that it does not allow you to select a single point for measurement, but rather it chooses the entire 3D object. But what it does not tell you is from which point the measurement is made. I am assuming it is the closest point to the camera but in an example of a sphere, it would be somewhere along the surface with no real insight as to where it could be.

Another issue that I ran into is that there seems to be a bug in the program. There are times that a dialogue box comes up saying that “there is no object in the direct line of sight” when there is actually an object. To fix this I turn the object into the component and play around with the views, I guess to refresh the script in some way.

Overall, the Camera Distance plugin created by Smustard.com is a great idea for a tool but this version could use some work. More insight into the measurement would be useful. At the time of this review this plugin is free and is available at Smustard.com. I give this plugin 2 out 5 stars.