The developers of Sketchup have made much of it "open source". They allow anyone with programming skills to write their own plug ins. This has allowed a large community of Sketchup users to make plug ins for all sorts of applications. Some plug ins are made by large companies, and some are made by all night programming spree's fueled by Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets . As you might expect with this broad range of talents, there would be varying results. I am not sure if this plug in is backed by corporate investors, or skin irritating microwaved food, but I can tell you the results are genius!
The most obvious use of this plug in is for making crown moldings and trim. For years, I have been using the brilliant "Follow me " tool to make moldings. This works well, but it is a multi step process.
First, you need to draw your profile. Then you need to place it in the right spot, then you need to draw out a path for it to follow. Finally, you get to use the "Follow Me" tool and drag the profile along that line. This may sound a little "Rube Goldberg" It isn't all that hard, but it does require a bunch of clicking, and you do have to re-draw, or copy and past your molding profile each time you place a new molding. Often times when you have curved moldings, you have to "soften smooth" the edges to remove unnecessary lines. Lastly, if you need to change the path of your molding, you have to re-draw it over again.
Check out this video, made by the creator of Profile Builder to get an idea of how it works. At the end of this post, you can view my tutorial on how to use Profile Builder in kitchen design.
Don't get me wrong, the "follow me " tool is a brilliant addition to Sketchup, but this new plug in, "Profile Builder " takes the "Follow me" tool and really turns it up to eleven!
Profile builder can be used for so much more then just crown moldings. I also use it for walls, and even counter tops!
Profile Builder can also export lists of the lengths of moldings that you have used. If you want to save time, and make your Sketchup experience even easier, I highly recommend that you head over to Smustard, and purchase this plugin! You won't regret it!