Thanks for the replies. I'll have to get back to this later, so please don't think I am ignoring you... Cheers, Alex

@thomthom said: Looks like it evaluates the string and treats the backslashes as special characters. I had no end of troubles with slashes. Finally implemented this none-too-clever code and all the bugs went away: =begin qq() and qq!() do these replacements; "'" -> "qq1" '"' -> "qq2" '/' -> "qq3" '\' -> "qq4" '\n' -> "qq5" '\r' -> "qq6" =end def self.qq( str ) return str.gsub( /\'/, 'qq1' ).gsub( /\"/, 'qq2' ).gsub( /\//, 'qq3' ).gsub( /\\/, 'qq4' ).gsub( /\n/, 'qq5' ).gsub( /\r/, 'qq6' ) end # of qq() def self.qq!( str ) str.gsub!( /\'/, 'qq1' ) str.gsub!( /\"/, 'qq2' ) str.gsub!( /\//, 'qq3' ) str.gsub!( /\\/, 'qq4' ) str.gsub!( /\n/, 'qq5' ) str.gsub!( /\r/, 'qq6' ) end # of qq!() These reversers complete the Ruby: def self.unqq( str ) # reverses qq() return str.gsub( /qq1/, '\'' ).gsub( /qq2/, '"' ).gsub( /qq3/, '/' ).gsub( /qq4/, '\\' ).gsub( /qq5/, '\n' ).gsub( /qq6/, '\r' ) end # of unqq() def self.unqq!( str ) # reverses qq!() str.gsub!( /qq1/, '\'' ) str.gsub!( /qq2/, '"' ) str.gsub!( /qq3/, '/' ) str.gsub!( /qq4/, '\\' ) str.gsub!( /qq5/, '\n' ) str.gsub!( /qq6/, '\r' ) end # of unqq!() These are the reversers in JavaScript: single_quote = String.fromCharCode( 39 ); double_quote = String.fromCharCode( 34 ); ford_slash = String.fromCharCode( 47 ); back_slash = String.fromCharCode( 92 ); function unqq( msg ) { s = msg.replace( /qq1/g, single_quote ); s = s.replace( /qq2/g, double_quote ); s = s.replace( /qq3/g, ford_slash ); s = s.replace( /qq4/g, back_slash ); s = s.replace( /qq5/g, '\\n' ); s = s.replace( /qq6/g, '\\r' ); return s; }

@dedmin said: Is this possible with SketchUP "this" - dancing robot? Or simply scripting Python in SU? Someone has been working on adding a Python layer to SU - but it'd interface with the Ruby layer, so it's slower than using Ruby directly. http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/SuPy/

great code, works perfectly. thanks!

Should be fixed soon, I have submitted the change and it needs to be picked up by the servers. thanks for the report. Simone.

@cjthompson said: Is it even possible for a plugin to add actions to Sketchup? No - but these where just constants. I was just wondering if a plugin had defined them to simplify things.

@thomthom said: Could be that the transformation done inside the timer block slows the iteration down to a point where you're getting a time close to what you expect. As this thread title seems to have morphed I want to ask other related questions. Is the timer different from an array because it does not call the next iteration until the transformation is complete? I am more concerned about sequence than precise timing. So would multiple transformations suffer/benefit from hardware efficiency equally - i.e. the sequencing will be correct? Thanks

@brett mcallister said: What I don't understand is when I open a web page in a web dialog you get scroll bars if I opened a webpage located on my hard drive no scroll bars?. The various render modes in IE triggers differently depending if the HTML page is loaded in a browser or in an embedded control such as webdialogs.

@tig said: I've looked too and can't find anything... there is group.definition and various extra group methods, but none that should clash - weird or what ? Xrok1 found that with SP installed, he couldn't get group.copy to work at all it kept returning Nil ! BUT after un-installing SP it all worked OK... i even reinstalled then uninstalled SP twice to confirm. here is the offending version, i saved a copy for just such skepticism. BADSetupSketchyPhysics3x-Jun27.rar

Thanks for the update. I haven't had a chance to try to implement this yet, hopefully I will in the next few days. I will certainly let you know how it all turns out!

Take a look at my 3-minute movie to see SketchUp in its full-4D glory. Then use the code in my tutorial's Chapter 16 for classes that let you do all this without need for the APIs Transformation class.

In addition to TIG's info, you should move all the one-time code outside the loop. model = Sketchup.active_model entities = model.active_entities path = Sketchup.find_support_file "mymodel.skp" ,"Components/" . . . I also heartily recommend that you use four-space indentation in spite of the fact that two spaces is a Ruby convention. Four is much more readable which is why it is mandatory in Python, convention in C++, Java, JavaScript, ... (every language I know, except Ruby). New languages are always a PITA. Fortunately, quite a small subset of Ruby is all you really need to create SketchUp plugins.

When adding groups components programmatically you got to think somewhat different from when you model. When you model you first make the geometry and then group or make a component out of it. When you program you create the group or component first and then add the geometry directly inside it. model = Sketchup.active_model entities = model.entities # Create a series of "points", each a 3-item array containing x, y, and z. pt1 = [0, 0, 0] pt2 = [20, 0, 0] pt3 = [20, 20, 0] pt4 = [0, 20, 0] # Call methods on the Entities collection to draw stuff. new_face = entities.add_face pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4 new_face.pushpull 0.75 # Draw a circle on the ground plane around the origin. center_point = Geom;;Point3d.new(1,1,0) normal_vector = Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,0,1) radius = 0.3 # Make a new component definition comp_def = model.definitions.add("Cylinders") # Generate the geometry. Note that component definitions has and Entities collection - as model does. edgearray = comp_def.entities.add_circle(center_point, normal_vector, radius) first_edge = edgearray[0] face = first_edge.faces.select { |f| (f.outer_loop.edges & edgearray).length == edgearray.length }.first face.pushpull(3) # Now add an instance of hte component to the model transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new([2,1,0]) componentinstance = entities.add_instance(comp_def, transformation)

Dan, no astronomy, no calculation, no ancient dates are needed, no RA and DEC anymore. I'm using another coordinate system that uses SU horizontal plane and north. Please read this post: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=27480&start=15#p238823 I will do all the astronomy, calendar calculations and math. Just need a script that tells a vector to rotate around blue axis given an angular measure and then raise that vector with another angular measure as I explained with the pictures in the post, and lastly align the Zaxis of a given plane to the vector. Thanks Dan and all you people that are investing their time to help. @dan rathbun said: @chris fullmer said: I think none of us want to learn how to calculate the position of the stars 8,000 years ago. Besides it cannot be done in Ruby. Standard Ruby (and Sketchup Embedded Ruby,) use the included class Time which has an initial date of January 1, 1970 CE(AD). I have tried to set Sketchup dates before this, and the app does not allow it. (In addition, the MAX year is 2037.)* The ShadowInfo['ShadowTime'] attribute takes and returns only Time class. (It actually does not not raise an Exception if you say give it an Integer, but the value will be unchanged.) This post actually began over at GoogleGroups, and there I posted some info for the requester, that if he wanted to be historically accurate, the plugin would need to ignore Sketchup's built-in Sun positioning and Time keeping. The plugin would need to keep it's own date and time (with a dialog to set them,) and the Moon (Luna) and Sun (Sol) would be treated as just stars (like all the rest.) In addition, the plugin would need to use the Ruby Extended class Date, which can go back 6723 years MAX, as the initial date is January 1, 4713 BCE (4712 BC, accounting for year 0). I would think this implies that future versions of software utilizing Ruby should move to using the Date class (and it's DateTime subclass,) sometime in the next 27 years. I did a bit of checking, I'm looking for calculation software that runs on remote web servers, so a plugin could query that server for a particuler star's RA and DEC, from a specific geolocation and date; rather than do it itself. I did find some code, at an Italian University but it's written in IPL, and would need to be translated to C or Ruby. I don't know IPL.

So, you have a reference to a ComponentInstance_ And you want to sniff it out using the pickhelper? Maybe just some typo bug in your code?

will this work? http://www.alexschreyer.net/cad/sketchup-ruby-api-cheatsheet/

Chris, Have a look at the film and stage plugin - if I remember, there is some code in it which might be useful.

That would either be using Entities.add_faces_from_mesh for each mesh - if its ok to merge them in the Entities collection. Otherwise you need to iterate one mesh and add all the polygons to the other.

It looks like it's like it's the same as the four argument version, but works with 3 vectors at once, instead of just 2.

@jessejames said: I find the need to grab a group/comp by it's "bbox.center", "bbox.center_bottom", and "bbox.center_top" so important that i wrote a nice function to encapsulate all the calls required to retrieve these points. So maybe you would like to add this, maybe not. Let me know. It would be so nice to call obj.bounds.center('center'), obj.bounds.center('top'), or obj.bounds.center('bottom'), but that will have to wait. There is a plugin for this (that needs some language cleanup,) written by Sahi. It's called AxizComp.rb (Axis Components), see this thread (ther's some code snippets for other languages later in the thread.) http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=21635&hilit=axis#p181881 EDIT: With the release of SketchUp 2020, grips on object bounding boxes are now native ! https://help.sketchup.com/en/current-release-notes