Thanks guys, I'll try Ruby modules SérgioBizello

Ah, thanks for all the tips, guys! The line[1] vector will be useful, as long you are after the forward edge direction. I tried to use it yesterday, but couldn't because the polyline direction did matter in my case. And the second argument in .offset(). I didn't realize there was a second argument and was scaling my vector, instead. Actually, I only recently realized you could scale a vector by vector.length= and had been doing it a harder way, before. -Kwok

Yes it works just fine. Soon people who visit my site will be able to make and save an "ownerfile". When they return they can upload the file to work with all the named links, keys, functions, value options and config settings previously set. This will also be extended to upload shared project or activity files (later including Sketchup of course). This is why the uploading business is so important in this context and why your pointer was much appreciated. Many thanks, Chris

@adamb said: Dan: Its the other [way] around surely. The add_line is superfluous and added just to confirm the lines are sane. He wants to test the performance of the raytest you commented out.. Okie.. dokie. I didn't understand what he was trying for (it was late.) That was why I just commented out the lines and did not remove them. The gist of what I meant was to init references (vars,) outside the loop, and limit creation of new ones inside the loop unless they are actaully necessary (ie, to be used in some way.) Ruby takes time to create references.

@bluetale said: thx But I receive an error if the faces normal is parallel to Z_AXIS. I have added the following lines and it seems to work, but is it the correct solution? if !vector.parallel?(Z_AXIS) then > up = Z_AXIS > else > up = Y_AXIS > end It's a good trap! PS you don't need the 'then' and perhaps more 'simply' put if vector.parallel?(Z_AXIS) up = Y_AXIS else up = Z_AXIS end

@dan rathbun said: @al hart said: We want to write a routine to take a 360 degree spherical panoramic HDRi image ... These HDRi images are spherical? or cylindrical? Environment maps can be in many shapes - even cubical. HDRI image aren't always environment images.

@kdasilva said: So do those escapes keep the quotations around the word so JS knows its a string and not some undeclared variable? Yes. The string you send to execute_script is processed by JS eval() in the webdialog. So remember that all strings you send to execute_script is processed and evaluated twice, once in Ruby and once in JS. Though, the code will be easier to re4ad and understand if you avoid escaping quotes. js_update_command = "UpDateVisionList('#{updated_visions_div}')"

Ok here's my current version: <span class="syntaxdefault">def self</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path_knife</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault">max</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">60</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># make sure it's a Ruby path using '/'.<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  path </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> File</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">expand_path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  if path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">length </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">></span><span class="syntaxdefault"> max<br />    </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># cut the file path into 2 lines<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    ok </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">((</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">length</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">-</span><span class="syntaxdefault">1</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)*</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0.45</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">).</span><span class="syntaxdefault">to_i<br />    cut </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> path</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">split</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxcomment">//).each_with_index { |e,i|<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">      break i if</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> e</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">==</span><span class="syntaxstring">'/'</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">&&</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> i</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">>=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">ok </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">}<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    cut </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 0 unless cut</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">is_a</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">?(Integer)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    return </span><span class="syntaxstring">"  #{path[0..cut]}   \n  #{path[(cut+1)..-1]}   "</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> if cut</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">></span><span class="syntaxdefault">0<br />  end<br />  </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># otherwise, leave it as one line<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  return </span><span class="syntaxstring">"  #{path}   "<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  </span><span class="syntaxcomment">#<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># def<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span> **EDIT: Added test after iterator, to set cut to 0, if a string had no '/' characters (in which case each_with_index just returns the array characters.) Also removed frivolous line before iterator: cut = 0 EDIT 2:(2011-02-19) Simplified path substring references (line 11.) Removed frivolous else clause (were lines 12 and 13.)**

Make sure to read WebDialogs - The Lost Manual (by ThomThom) The webdialog is an instance of your custom WebDialog class. When you .close() the window, the instance object still exists, and when you .show() it your only opening up the window again. On PC you can use the block argument to do something in the javascript. (It is bugged on the Mac.) <span class="syntaxdefault">webwin</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">show </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">{<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  webwin</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">execute_script</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxstring">"window.location='startpage.html';"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> <br /></span><span class="syntaxkeyword">}</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span>

Angles are only defined between two vectors, so finding the angle between a vector and a plane can vary depending on which vector in the plane you're interested in. Most of the time, the vector you're interested in is the angle between the vector and it's projection into the plane which can be calculated using the face.plane method and the Array.project_to_plane method. The only trick here is that vectors are not points, so you would have to either pick a point in the plane, then transform it by your vector or translating the plane to the origin and simply calling the vector3d.to_a method. As it turns out, the second method is much simpler since given a plane of of the form [x,y,z,c] then translating it to the origin is as easy as changing it to [x,y,z,0]. Here is the code def angle_between_vector_and_projection(vector,face) plane = face.plane plane[3] = 0 projection = Geom;;Vector3d.new(vector.to_a.project_to_plane(plane)) return vector.angle_between(projection) end

Note that start_operation cannot be nested. Doing a new start_operation after another will commit the first.

@chris fullmer said: Well there you have it! Glad you can test if they have Hide Rest of Model on or off. Just be aware that Scene (Pages) can also have their own RendingOptions hash instance.

@kdasilva said: 2) ... How would you recommend saving the variables that keep track of the various inputs my users put in if they want to re-open Sketchup. If the variables are specific to a certain model.. then attributes attached to the model. If they are general to a plugin and will be used with more than one model, then look at Sketchup.read_default and Sketchup.write_default methods. (It's best to convert all data to strings that will be written into the Windows Registry.) Or you can use a Settings Hash convert it to a string with .inspect() and write it out to a file. An easy way is to use Marshal.dump() and Marshal.load() (but there are versioning issues.) It's not that hard to open a File object and use it's write() or puts() method to send the string to the file. That way you won't have marshaling version isssues, and as you need to open the file IO object in both cases, it's not much difference, either way. @kdasilva said: I can store variable information with attributes for entities...but if i wanted to say have arrays that hold different community visions for the model, I don't think I can assign attributes to the model can I? Any Entity subclass inherits the attribute methods. And also they are defined for Sketchup::Model class. So for instance you can attach attributes to a Layer or a (Scene) Page because they are Entity subclasses (not just to the Drawingelement subclasses.)

Hi Tig, Thanks I'll do some more study until I get what you suggested and come back here

If you make them components you can find them by name, or attributes you might attached to the definition or instances etc... Using >=6 connected faces [as a 'solid'] could return almost anything from a box of paper-clips, through a TV set or Bed to a 20 storey office building ? Please be a bit more explicit with what is is you are trying to do...

@dan rathbun said: @tig said: a1=[1,2,3] both a2=a1 ### makes a new reference to the same array, 'a1' a2=a1.to_a ### makes 'a1' into an array [which it is already!] and then makes a new reference to the same array, 'a1' !! will still refer to a1, so consequently changing a2 changes a1 too ! BUT a2=a1.dup makes a separate copy of a1, as will a2=a1+[] as adding two arrays together produces a new array, even when the second one is empty; and now changing a2 leaves a1 alone To clarify, since "assignment creates references"...: a1=[1,2,3] ### creates a new array object referenced by a1 a2=a1 ### makes a new reference ( a2) to the same array object that a1 is pointing at. a2=a1.to_a ### a1.to_a returns *self* both references are pointing at the same array object, so consequently that object can be changed using either reference a2 or a1. BUT a2=a1.dup ### makes a new array object, (referenced by a2,) that is a copy of the array object that a1 is pointing at. Nice round-up.. But be aware #dup performs a shallow copy. So any proper objects (as opposed to simple numbers) in that array are copied by reference. So: a = [10, 20, [30,31,32]] c = a.dup a[2][0] = 'Tada!' c will print: [10, 20, ["Tada!", 31, 32]]

Mission accomplished Thanks to you all Geniuses

I use the jQuery .ready() event that loads when the DOM is ready to make a callback back to Ruby. Then I can 100% sure I can use execute_script. Works on both platforms. No need for sleep or timers. I've made a few notes about WebDialogs: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=23445

@didier bur said: Besides all this, isn't it a built-in function ? This only captures elements in the currently active entities collection. My plugin also searches for that material in any sub-components or groups. EDIT: It also doesn't work on the default material. Karen

Cheers beans! Appreciate it.