Is there a Windows build in sight?

@adamb said: Also tried Chris Fullmer's shape blender but it ignores UVs Yeah, sorry Adam. I don't actually do a lot of rendering or texturing, so I'm not really a UV person yet. In theory I'll be re-writing shapebender someday to account for UV's. I'm sure you guys are excited thinking about that headache - everyday 20 new noob questions from me about textures

which is not support that much anymore. and needs MS COM mumbo jumbo to work

I've experimented with using start_timer, and changing the time and/or partition size on the fly. It just gets far too slow to be worthwhile. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=27092&p=234026#p234026 Using an Animation class instead of a timer may be easier to code, but I'd guess the result would be similar.

Thanks a lot for your answer, Mayby i'm wrong, but i believe, you misunderstand me. so i show you what i've programmed: ` driller= Sketchup.active_model.definitions.load("\driller.skp") pos_driller = Geom::Point3d.new 47,32,25 set_driller= Geom::Transformation.new pos_driller instance1 = entities.add_instance driller, set_driller cuboid_wood = Sketchup.active_model.definitions.load("\Cuboid_wood.skp") pos_cuboid = Geom::Point3d.new 0,0,0 set_cuboid = Geom::Transformation.new pos_cuboid instance2 = entities.add_instance cuboid_wood, set_cuboid` but this is hardcoded and i want that the computer places the objects correctly together automatically,by calculating the best position, but i can't calculate the size of these objects, because i don't know how. (i would have to measure the size with the measure-tool in SU with the mouse, but it should retrieve the values with a method) I have the task to do that with many components, that's why i wouldn't say the detailed coordinates for every components, which i load. the programm should be able to load componentes, put it together correctly and dynamically, take some photos in different perspectives, save these pictures, clear it all and start at the beginning with other components ... everthing is quite clear to me, with the exception of the hardcoded coordinates of these objects P.S. i have wrote this problem in a new topic too

Thanks ThomThom, Here is what I planned to do: nEntsBefore=Sketchup.active_model.entities.length Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_faces_from_mesh(m) nEntsAfter=Sketchup.active_model.entities.length arrayOfNewFaces=[] nEntsBefore.upto(nEntsAfter-1) { |i| next if ent=Sketchup.active_model.entities[i]; arrayOfNewFaces.push(ent) } Your code is mush more simple than mine

Just trap for any non-standard characters and replace them with _ It's done all of the time in things like OBJ exporters...

@tig said: comparing strings is probably slower It is. Much slower! At all times avoid string comparisons if possible.

Yea, erasing the zero length edge would make a gap between adjacent edges. ...I think... might need to verify that again.

@thomthom said: So it appears what happens is not that f.to_a is called, but instead Array.new( f ) - and Array.new uses .to_ary . Actually (if you use the CHM Ruby refdoc,) the source shows that the #| method explicitly calls: %(#0000BF)[arg2 = to_ary(arg2);] ie, it makes a copy of the second arg to use locally (within its body.)

Now I have got to the stage where I can pop my freestanding php file into a web dialog but so I can run Sketchup either via my localhost or website I need to have a ruby version of this php: class IP{ public function Iptrue() { if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == "127.0.0.1"){ echo true; } } } Can this be done with Sketchup ruby API? Thanks Thanks

Robin Please reread my post you have to set the definition's is2d= AND its snapto=... and then the instance's glue_to= ... If you are loading a premade component ten why not give that the correct behaviors so you needed worry about reinventing them each time? and then you just need to place the component onto the face and tell it to glue_to it! You should add the instance with a transformation, OR Geom::Transformation.new() and then later transform it so that it's located on the face to which you want to glue it - it's z-axis needs to be parallel to the face.normal and it's origin somewhere on the face... It will not magically 'jump' onto the face - you need to code that. There after it will stick onto the face's plane like any other glued component, and move with the face too...

@tig said: Printing to the console will slow things greatly... That's a good pointer - if you use the Ruby Console to debug then the more you output the more it slows down. I use a small snippet that uses the Win32 API to clear the content of the console in order to keep it responsive. I also use Win32 to output data to DebugView.

Dan, Thanks I finally got it to work using the code you provided. Derek

TIG thank you very much.

This is awesome and exactly what i was looking for, thanks a lot!

It's 'newer' NOT 'new'! It's been around for a while... Look for it in the 'Plugins Index' lists... 'LatticeMaker' works on premade meshes - it has a sibling in the Extrusion Tools tool 'EEbyRailsToLattice' that takes curves and makes the 'mesh-grid', and if option is selected it also frames/panes it...

@chris fullmer said: Interesting, I would have just put it as modal for both. Modal just means it stays on top of all windows? No - in the Windows world it means that the child window blocks any interaction in the parent window while it is open. It also means that .show_modal doesn't return until the webdialog is closed. (Like UI.inputbox - where you continue with the code after you prompted the user.) But it's under OSX where the scheme suddenly change. Not use if it's a platform quick, or just an SU OSX quirk, but suddenly the window does not stay on top when using .show and .show_modal means "stay on top of parent" instead of actually being modal. It's an annoying difference as the behaviour displayed under OSX does not correspond to what the method name implies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_window

In SU6 you will not find any way to disable the UI from updating that gives any performance boost that is worth the optimisation effort. If you want to cut down the time, look at the Ruby code itself - find ways to make it faster. (See if there are places where a Hash can be used instead of an Array if you are doing lots of lookups, when manipulation selection and entities - use bulk methods that modifies many instead of single elements.)

yes, maybe i'm better at it after a few guinness... meantime here's the result - i don't have a mac so do not know whether it works there. only thing is that upon reopening, the windows always dock at the bottom of the stack.. Cheers