Shape notes posted by Plurry in Discord on 23 Jul 2022:

I'm one of those people who tried to modify shapefiles many, many years ago. I know one thing for sure, Google Sketch Up 8 and FASHion work flawlessly in Win XP, Win 7 and Win 10 as well.

Unfortunately, FASHion is not exactly a perfect program. Hawke created it, perfected it and used it, but unfortunately did not finish it. It lacks a lot of important features. If you are making more extensive adjustments, its a very lengthy and complicated job.

Shapes (.SH) are very complex files, a lot of information is stored in them. The main shape consists of many smaller shapes, mainly for moving parts such as landing gear, flaps, airbrakes, swing wings, rotors and then other simplified shapes for distant views. Another content of.SH is the determination of colors and skins for individual polygons.
Detailed information about shapes can be found on the FA Resource Center and the zephyr forum.

During editing, you will always encounter a fundamental problem - there is not enough polygon and their structure is fixed. In FASHion, you can only change the positions of individual points (nodes), nothing more. The overall structure remains preserved.

Many polygons are given a certain property due to its position. E.g. if you change the slope of one of the polygons too much, that polygon will flicker in the game and will be transparent at certain angles.

In my opinion, CAG uses FASHion in his work, but for more complex modifications he directly edits the clean code. By the way, CAG is a great magician, but also a great secretive person, he doesn't share much about his procedures publicly. 
plurry — Today at 12:09 PM
My installation procedure (Win10): 
1) Do not install Google SketchUp 8 in the classic folder "C:\Program Files.." but to a folder such as "C:\Program Files <USERNAME>..".

2) Copy the "shedit.rb" file to the "Plugins" folder:
"C:\Program Files <USERNAME>\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins\shedit.rb".

3) Create a folder e.g. "C:\FASHion" and copy the files "fash.cpp" and "fash.exe" into it. 
My editing procedure pt.1: 
1) In the above folder "C:\FASHion" copy for example the file "F14.SH" you want to edit. 
(ATTENTION - these shapes files must be extracted from the *.LIB archive, which must be first decoded using LIBHACK)

2) Run Google SketchUp 8

3) Plugins -> Shape -> Extract -> select the file "C:\FASHion\F14.SH"

4) The "Choose method to extract" dialog will appear, for new shape types select "New", for older shape types select "Old" -> NEW -> OK. "Extract F14.SH into C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH" -> OK

In the folder "C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH" there are many text files with coordinate numbers:
VEX.TXT - Vertexes
EDG.TXT - Edges - uneditable
FAC.TXT - Faces - uneditable 
List for F14.SH:
VEX_F14.SH_18_0_3711158.TXT - F-14 main fuselage
VEX_F14.SH_18_1_1216283.TXT - Upper airbrake
VEX_F14.SH_18_2_1616552.TXT - Right wing
VEX_F14.SH_18_3_1617475.TXT - Left wing
VEX_F14.SH_18_4_818398.TXT - Extended rear landing gear right
VEX_F14.SH_18_18_5_818591.TXT - Extended rear landing gear left
VEX_F14.SH_18_18_6_818784.TXT - Unknown (2x 3 points in horizontal plane at 45° angle are displayed)
VEX_F14.SH_18_7_418955.TXT - Unknown (Nothing displayed)
VEX_F14.SH_18_8_819062.TXT - Extended front landing gear
VEX_F14.SH_18_9_319241.TXT - Extended arresting hook
VEX_F14.SH_18_10_1619308.TXT - Afterburners for both engines
(Dimensions and location follow the shape of the main fuselage)
VEX_F14.SH_18_18_11_18819724.TXT - Distant shape - main fuselage
VEX_F14.SH_18_18_12_2826305.TXT - Distant shape - front and rear landing gear
VEX_F14.SH_18_13_526776.TXT - Distant shape - right wing
VEX_F14.SH_18_14_526867.TXT - Distant shape - left wing
VEX_F14.SH_18_15_9826945.TXT - Even more distant shape - main fuselage
VEX_F14.SH_18_16_429542.TXT - Even more distant shape - right wing
VEX_F14.SH_18_17_429625.TXT - Even more distant shape - left wing 
My installation procedure pt.2:
5) Load vertexes:
Plugins -> Load vertex -> Coordinates group 00 and select the file: 
"C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH\VEX_F14.SH_18_0_3711158.TXT"

6) Make point adjustments (see "Simple instruction for FASHion.doc" in install folder "FASHion 0.5b")

7) Save the point positions after editing: 
Plugins -> Save vertex -> Coordinates group 00 : 
"Save C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH\VEX_F14.SH_18_0_3711158.TXT" -> OK

8) Create a new "shape" file: 
Plugins -> Shape -> Build (Please noting, save VEX Files before build) -> OK -> select the original file "C:\FASHion\F14.SH" and type "Open" -> "Build F14.SH" dialog box appears -> OK
ATTENTION:
You must back up the modified original "F14.SH" file before you want to edit F14.SH again. Because you cannot change its name when saving. You have to overwrite the original file over and over again. (Beware of long file names!)
Before reopening "F14.SH" for editing, you must delete the entire folder "C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH" with all VEXs, EDGs and FACs. After loading it will be created again.
So you need to back up the original and edited files "VEX_F14.SH_18_0_3711158.TXT"
EXCEL:
To make it easier to edit a large number of points in single longitudinal or transverse sections, or when mirroring along the left and right longitudinal axes, I used the conversion: VEX***.TXT -> MS Excel -> VEX***.TXT.

The procedure in FASHion when editing in EXCEL
A) Above points 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 
B) Abort the procedure and leave GSU8+FASHion open
C) In the folder "C:\FASHion\tmp_F14.SH" replace the original file "VEX_F14.SH_18_0_3711158.TXT" with the new one edited in Excel
D) Return to GSU8+FASHion and complete the above points 5 - (6) - 7 - 8