But also Dan's suggestions have positive results: In the activate method of the tool I have put the Sketchup.active_model.start_operation "myTool",true,true,false And I have put the Sketchup.active_model.abort_operation in the deactivate method of the tool and in the onPreSaveModel model observer. Now the group is disappear before saving the model. Thank you both.

Once you have the group you can get a reference to its definition defn=group.entities.parent It acts just like a normal component definition. So then use group2=model.entities.add_instance(defn, group.parent.transformation) [you must check it's not already in the model - if it is use group.transformation] then group.erase! So the collection is now called ' group2' and it is in model.entities...

Yes,I have thought about this right after sending my post,but want to test first. Now it is working ok and sorry for blaming observer for this problem. So this is the working code: class MyModelObserver < Sketchup;;ModelObserver def onPreSaveModel(model) UI.messagebox("onPreSaveModel; " + model.to_s) end end # Attach the observer. Sketchup.active_model.add_observer(MyModelObserver.new) class MyAppObserver < Sketchup;;AppObserver def onNewModel(model) UI.messagebox("onNewModel; " + model.to_s) Sketchup.active_model.add_observer(MyModelObserver.new) # Here is where one might attach other observers to the new model. end def onOpenModel(model) UI.messagebox("onOpenModel; " + model.to_s) Sketchup.active_model.add_observer(MyModelObserver.new) # Here is where one might attach other observers to the new model. end end # Attach the observer Sketchup.add_observer(MyAppObserver.new)

So here is the jist of Anton's code: Capture mouse (Sketchup will stop reacting to it): getForegroundWindow=Win32API.new("user32", "GetForegroundWindow", [], "L") Win32API.new("user32", "SetCapture", "L", "L").call(getForegroundWindow.call()) Read all key states (keyboard and mouse): @getKeyboardState=Win32API.new("user32", "GetKeyboardState", "P", "V") @lpKeyState=" "*256 @getKeyboardState.call(@lpKeyState) @lpKeyState will hold an array of 256 numbers for all the keys. @lpKeyState[1,2,4] - [1]left-mouse, [2]right-mouse, [4]middle-mouse @lpKeyState[48..57] - keyboard keys 0 to 9 Release mouse Win32API.new("user32", "ReleaseCapture", "V", "L").call()

My intention was to write and read some attributes to some groups and components. After writing it to components (instances) ,it was impossible to read the attribute of the parent component(or group). To resolve it,I have decide to write and read only to definitions of the components. Now,before I write or read to entities, I check if the entity is group or component. If it is a group,I read and write to this entity,if it is a component,I read and write to the definition of this component.In this way,I don't need to know the exact parent instance of the component,because all the instances have the same attributes. So the problem is resolved

I think I found a way to do it =). I just project the geometry onto a curved surface. Than I export the view as 2D dxf. So,the imported dxf contains the distorted geometry. The distortion value can be controlled by the fov of the camera.

Why ask me? You are the one with all of the code... Just test it. You need to call your method self.draw_beam() within the onMouseMove method - probably after you've test for a certain 'state' being reached - e.g. perhaps initially 'draw_beam' doesn't kick in with @state=0, but after you have done some other stuff when you've then set @state=1 - then in the onMouseMove method the line would be self.draw_beam() if @state==1 etc, later on, perhaps after you click again, you'd set @state=2 so then the 'draw_beam' stops...

@unknownuser said: Ruby LOAD PATHs script for (Win32)](http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f)":1xbd78u2] I am trying to write a plugin for sketchup 8 using rubygems. ... About the initial load error now, whenever I uncomment the #$LOAD_PATH << "#{pre}/site_ruby/#{ver}" line (the directory containing the rubygems file among others), sketchup crashes during launch. It is NOT likely you will get a standard RubyGems to work with Sketchup. One problem may be that RubyGems redefines the Kenel.require() method, which is inherited by Object, and so inherited by all other Ruby objects. For info on RubyGems, see the Resources list under the section: TECHNICAL REFERENCES It is more probable that a special version of RubyGems would be needed for use under Sketchup.

@pixero said: Ok, that make sence. Following Jims example would it be something like: att = 0 > ary.each { |item| > item.set_attribute("Dict Name", att) > att+=1 > } 1) There's a parameter missing in set_attribute, the 3rd arg is the value argument to assign to the attribute. (Would the example assign nil, or would an ArgumentError be raised?) 2) The examples will begin at 0, not 1. (You could adjust the start ordinal for var att in it's assignment statement.) 3) Be sure the array is sorted first the way you wish to have the attributes numbered. You may need to write your own sort method if the objects in the array are complex objects, such as Drawingelement subclasses. Meaning you may wish to sort by some property of the object, such as it's height above the XY plane (just as an example.) 4) Whenever you need to iterate an enumerble Ruby object, you can use the each_with_index method (that is inherited from the "mixin" module Enumerable.) Here I add 1 to the index, so the numbering starts at 1: dict = "My Dictionary Name" val = "some value" ary.each_with_index { |item,pos| item.set_attribute( dict, pos+1, val ) } If you still wish to use 0 padded string attribute names: dict = "My Dictionary Name" val = "some value" places = 6 ary.each_with_index { |item,pos| item.set_attribute( dict, (pos+1).to_s.rjust(places,'0'), val ) } Note: The 2nd arg in rjust, the padstring, is optional and defaults to a space character.

OK. thanks. I have missed the notes part.

@thomthom said: @adamb said: Rather annoyingly, if you have IE9 installed, looks like SketchUp somehow thinks its running IE7. It doesn't think - it does. Embedded web controls are handled differently. You must force it to use a different version. The thing that threw me was that SU and IE8 installed correctly reports IE8, as does IE7 and IE6 with the same html. IE9 does not. But given the conditional comments are being dropped by MS for IE10, and frankly anyone still use IE6 or IE7 is living on borrowed time, I've ripped out all the conditional stuff. thanks for the all the info though.

@jim said: TIG, what if the user installed Pro, then let it expire? Does the Pro reg key still exist? I think it might. I just tested that. It seems the registry keys get deleted if you uninstall SU Pro. I will use this to check for my program. It's not ideal, since you could probably have a pro version running as a free version, but better than nothing Thanks!

http://floating-point-gui.de/

I'm a little uncertain what it is you are requesting A face has a face.material and face.back_material methods - these return 'nil' if there is no actual material assigned to these. There are the equivalent face.material=aaa and face.back_material=bbb - where aaa and bbb are the SUp materials or material 'names' - setting face.material=nil etc removes any material it might have, but this is unnecessary on a 'new' face as it already has 'nil' material. So if you create or 'import' new faces then by default they have no materials assigned to them. You assign materials by reference in your code to a SUp material or by-SKP-material-name (that material must be preexisting) or by-OpenGL-color-name [e.g. 'red'] (that material is auto-made if it doesn't already exist). If you are actually talking about an 'exporter' then you can find the RGB colors of the two default materials in that Style to pass on... or more simply invent two new colors within your code, so the two default materials are consistently made...

Because it's working on a user's selection then all of the selected entities are in the active_entities context and you won't run the risk of a BugSplat by making a group from them directly [this is advised against usually but try it]. model=Sketchup.active_model ents=model.active_entities ss=model.selection group=ents.add_group(ss.to_a) volume=group.volume group.explode 'volume' is the volume of the selected objects in cu" if the objects don't form a solid then it'll be a negative value... Assuming that the user should have selected one group to get the volume... if ss[0] and ss[0].class==Sketchup;;Group volume=ss[0].volume if volume==0 UI.messagebox("Warning! The selected group has no volume") elsif volume<0 UI.messagebox("Warning! The select is not a 'solid' group.") end#if else UI.messagebox("Select ONE group!") return nil end#if there are many ways to achieve what you want

@jim said: For me, the easiest thing to do would be to use a WebDialog to communicate with a server where some php scripts handle the db interactions. +1 Trying to crowbar in sqlite into Sketchup Ruby is a fool's errand. Better to use a WebDialog to send & receive html requests that are processed by some web server that actually does the talking to the server DB. So decide what your html requests are going to look like (don't pollute them with sql) eg : http://foo.com?cmd=dir http://foo.com?cmd=get&sheet=ABC then write some server side code to parse those requests and do actual sql queries to squirt html back to you.

here it goes (it's still a dev) 1.webdialog 1 opened with: $xdinfowindowke=UI;;WebDialog.new("xDInfo", true,"xDInfo",290,300,0,0,true) fn= $html_folder+"/xD_infowindow.html" $xdinfowindowke.set_file fn $xdinfowindowke.set_size(290,300) $xdinfowindowke.show {} 2.populated from ruby with //activated each time another SU entity is clicked command = "_sendinfo('#{$sendobjectid}','#{$sendlist}')" $xdinfowindowke.execute_script(command) 3.javascript in webdialog 1 function _sendinfo(theobjectid, theinfo){ //fill in the rows attr=theinfo.split("|||"); for (i=0;i<attr.length;i++){ splitted=attr[i].split("$$$") var oRow = oBody.insertRow(-1); //insert the first cell var oCell = oRow.insertCell(-1); oCell.className="attrnames"; oCell.innerHTML = splitted[0]+";"; //insert the second cell var oCell = oRow.insertCell(-1); oCell.className="attrnames"; //if it is the objectname, make clickable if (i==0){ oCell.innerHTML = "<a href='javascript&#058;_show4Dobject("+theobjectid+")'>"+splitted[1]+"</a>"; } else { //if the string contains ^ it means it is a link. split up if(splitted[1].indexOf("^") != -1){ waw=splitted[1].split("^"); oCell.innerHTML='<a href="'+waw[1]+'" target=_blank">'+waw[0]+'</a>'; } else { oCell.innerHTML = splitted[1]; } } } //add the end attach a last row var oRow = oBody.insertRow(-1); var oCell = oRow.insertCell(-1); oCell.height="1px"; oCell.colSpan="2"; oCell.className="split"; } This makes some html links in webdialog1 with this code: <a href='javascript&#058;_show4Dobject([i]id[/i])'>"[i]name[/i]"</a> handled by this code in webdialog1: function _show4Dobject(objectid){ query = 'skp;_show4dobjects@'+objectid; window.location.href = query; } Now back in SU this is handled by: $xdinfowindowke.add_action_callback("_show4dobjects") {|$xdinfowindowke,p| #check if the xdwindow is open--> [b]this is another window[/b] if $xdwindow visible=$xdwindow.visible? if visible==true command = "_xdhighlight('#{p}')" $xdwindow.execute_script(command) else UI.messagebox('Open the 4D Objects window to highlight') end else UI.messagebox('Open the 4D Objects window to highlight') end } Basically this all goes fine. When the html link is clicked in webdialog1, something happens in webdialog2 But from there on, when i click another SU entity the content of webdialog1 is not updated anymore. Hope the information here helps. Thx!

Keith, I don't have a clue as to why your BoxJointTool splats but I know where it happens. I added a number of statements to print to a file then ran the program several times and in all cases it reached assentially the same place before crashing. The referenced zip file contains the output files, your modified .rb file, and my own version of a BoxJoint tool. The procedure for using mine is a little different in that instead of selecting the component then two edges, in mine, you select the component then the end face. BoxJoint files

C not C++. http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/ext_ruby.html http://www.rubyinside.com/how-to-create-a-ruby-extension-in-c-in-under-5-minutes-100.html (There is some changed needed for making it work with Ruby SketchUp. TBD got a sample project to get people started: https://github.com/TBD/OpenSUP/tree/master/SUExt The SDK TIG linked to is C++, but that is only for reading and writing .skp files - not communication with SketchUp.

I tested it and it is actually the good origin point which is returned by the .origin method. I need to call the method for the nested component as I decided another point for the container component's origin. And I will use a for loop to get the right subcomponent (with the right name). Thanks a lot ! Marie