"Smustard" is a play on words. In American English, ketchup is a tomato-based condiment and mustard is a mustard-seed-based condiment. It is common to see both mustard and ketchup on hot dogs and hamburgers.

Our favorite 3D software, SketchUp, looks like "ketchup" with an "S" on the front, so we added an "S" to the front of "mustard" to get Smustard - the companion to Sketchup, just as mustard is a companion to ketchup.

Also, American mustard is typically a bright yellow, thus the use of yellow on our website.

Now if we just had some relish (a pickle-based condiment, usually green)...

Contact us with full details on what you want. Your request may be a script that is already in the pipeline, or might be quickly created using existing technology. Either way, we will provide timely feedback on whether it is something we can tackle, and an estimate if one is available.

Per the EULA (End User License Agreement),

You may not alter, publish, market, distribute, give, transfer, sell or sublicense the Scripts or any part of the Scripts.

So, the answer to the first part of your question is yes, there is every restriction in regards to you modifying it and/or redistributing it, free or non free.

First of all, thank you for choosing to comply with the law and the EULA, and thank you for your interest in Smustard plugins.

To answer the question: for free plugins, you do not need to pay any money to install the plugin on multiple machines in your organization.

You will need to contact us so we can reset the information in the database, and give you instructions for resetting the SmustardToolbar.

If this does happen, not to fear.

First thing is to try to download it again using the email link you received at purchase (we do provide some leeway for such an event).

If you don't have it, try accessing it from the "MySmustard" button of the free Smustard Toolbar - this will provide a list of scripts you've purchased, with links to download them.

If that doesn't work, simply send an email to info@smustard.com and let us know the email id you used when purchasing the script. We'll verify your purchase and tell you how to obtain a replacement.

First of all, once the transaction is complete, you should be returned to the Smustard website, where you should see a summary of your transaction and a link to your MySmustard page, which you can bookmark for future reference, without waiting to receive the email with download information. However, if you missed that link, the email is the second method of providing download information.

As for why you may not have received an email:

The most common reason for not receiving an email with download instructions is providing an incorrect email address (you'd be surprised how often that happens).

The second most common reason is that the email was blocked by a spam filter or rejected by an email server before your filter ever saw it. In these cases, the easiest remedy is to download the free Smustard Toolbar and register the email address you used to make the purchase. You can then click on the "MySmustard" button on the toolbar to view your completed transactions and download them to your computer. If you discover you provided an incorrect email address, let us know and we'll correct it on our end.

The third most common reason is paying by eCheck. This can take several days for the transaction to complete (international payments can take several weeks), and email notifications are sent only upon completion of the transaction. If you paid by eCheck, please be patient. If you don't get a confirmation after a week, let us know so we can check our records.

The fourth most common reason is a failed transaction. If you don't get a confirmation of your transaction from PayPal, then your account/card/eCheck was not charged or didn't clear, and you should try your purchase again. If you find duplicate transactions, let us know - we'll work with you to get everything corrected.

Finally, there could have been an error in transmitting the data of your transaction to our server. Let us know if you don't receive download information, and we will take care of the problem as quickly as we can.

Once you are done adding selections to your cart (or once you click on the "Buy Now" button), you will be directed to PayPal, where you will complete your transaction.

Note that you do not need a PayPal account to pay by credit card - simply skip the login process and pay as a "guest".

After the transaction is complete, do not close the window or tab - you will be directed back to Smustard where you will see a summary of your transaction and a link to your MySmustard page where you can download your current and past purchases, check version information, and view any relevant upgrade offers. Please bookmark this link for future reference and access.

You should also receive an email with your download link.

For electronic payments, we can invoice through Amazon Payments.

If you can't use PayPal or Amazon, we accept payments via MoneyGram or Western Union, but the process can be rather slow. Please contact us if you need to use one of these services.

If you are a company or school that needs an invoice, we can provide invoices through PayPal, Amazon, or email invoices for purchase by company or cashier's check. Again, please contact us if you need an invoice for accounting purposes.

One of the "security features" of Vista (and higher) is that downloaded files are saved to a real location but shown (sometimes) in a virtual location. If you search your hard drive for the files, you should be able to locate them. Most likely they'll be in

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp x\Plugins\ (where 'x' is your SketchUp version number)

or

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files(x86)\SketchUp\SketchUp 20xx\Plugins\ for SketchUp 2013 and higher.

Once you locate them, right-click on each file and select Properties from the menu, then click on the "Unblock" button near the bottom right corner of the "General" tab. After that, you can move them to the "real" Plugins folder.

An option for future downloads is to save the files to your desktop, unblock them, and then move them to the Plugins folder.

If this does happen, not to fear.

First thing is to try to download it again using the email link you received at purchase (we do provide some leeway for such an event).

If you don't have it, try accessing it from the "MySmustard" button of the free Smustard Toolbar - this will provide a list of scripts you've purchased, with links to download them.

If that doesn't work, simply send an email to info@smustard.com and let us know the email id you used when purchasing the script. We'll verify your purchase and tell you how to obtain a replacement.

If you're running OSX Lion or later, you may see an error message like
Error Loading File filename
undefined local variable or method `book' for main:Object

This happens when you drag a plugin to the Plugin folder alias. OSX creates references to the dragged plugins, rather than putting the plugins themselves into the Plugins folder. You can verify this by using the Finder window and looking at the icons for the plugins generating the error messages. If you see a small arrow in one corner of the icon, you have a reference pasted into your Plugins folder, and not the actual plugin file.

To correct this, first delete the reference file(s). Then navigate to your downloaded plugin(s) and choose to "Copy" them from their downloaded locations. Finally, navigate to your Plugins folder and "Paste" them. Relaunch SketchUp and enjoy!

Generally speaking, all scripts and plugins should be forward-compatible, and work with all newer versions of SketchUp, unless noted otherwise on the plugin's page. That means that if you upgrade your version of SketchUp, your previously downloaded plugins should work in the new version of SketchUp.

However, each new version of SketchUp generally adds new Ruby features, so some newer plugins may not be backwards-compatible - that is, may not work in older versions of SketchUp. Any plugins that are version-specific will be labeled as such, and indicate the version(s) with which they are compatible.

If you do discover a problem with a plugin in a new version, please let us know so we can investigate the issue.

Generally speaking, all scripts are platform-independent. Scripts that are not cross-platform have this information in their description.

First of all, we apologize for any inconvenience. We will do what we can to make sure the script will work for you.

We will ask you to collect some information for us to speed up problem resolution. Please send the following things to info@smustard.com and we'll make sure the information gets to the right author.

Please do not tell us "this doesn't work" - that will not help solve the problem. Instead, describe what you expect to happen and what is happening. Tell us the name of the script that is not working properly. If you think screen shots of the error condition will help us to diagnose the problem, please include those. If you can send a copy of your .skp file, that may help as well (please pare it down to the basics if you can).

If any error messages are displayed in the Ruby Console, please cut and paste the output from that too. (You will have to have the Ruby Console open at the time of the error situation in order to capture the contents. In SketchUp, Window>Ruby Console will open the console).

Again, we appreciate your patience and will work on your problem as soon as we are able.

No. Ruby scripts add functionality to SketchUp. This functionality typically shows up as Menu choices within SketchUp. No programming skills are required to use the scripts.

The problem comes from unicode (UTF-8) characters (such as "ü" or "ß") either in the filename or in a scene name.

Export/import works in SU 2013 because that version has better unicode support in Ruby than did previous versions.

The two options are:
1. Rename files or scenes to not use unicode characters, or
2. Install SU 2013

Option 1 is the fastest and easiest solution short-term, but you'll need to avoid unicode characters in all your files and scene names, which may not be a practical long-term solution.

To solve the problem, use SketchUp 2013 or later.