Hello Driven 😉

I work with SketchUp, 2015.

the difference between my examples (hide.skp) and your model (save.skp) is the parent is a component in mine whereas yours is a group. It appears groups can't pass down a value, but rather they need to reference the parent.

Has anyone figured this out, by chance? I know it's been a while, but I have an application for it, and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how to make it work. For mine, it's more of a "snake" component, where the user begins with one part, then selects 1 of 3 interactable "buttons" that creates a copy in one of the directions, turning the copy to fit. The link below should make sense of what I'm saying. Thanks in advance!

BT

http://forums.sketchup.com/t/help-making-copied-arrays-with-distinct-attributes-for-each-copy/31487a

@chris fullmer said:

Ahh, yes I was thinking about this Jim, and I thought it was simple. But I started playing with it and in about 5 minutes I saw just how not simple it really is. The random width means that the amount of copies will vary depending on the width of the books. That is tricky!

I had a thought on placing them though. Each X should be the X of the previous (called "LastX") + the LenX of the previous (called LastLenX"). So what about each component passes its X and LenX out to a custom attribute in the parent component. So the next copy created would look to "parent!lastX" and "parent!LastLenX" to figure out its new X. Then after it sets its X and LenX, it writes its current state to the parent, overwriting the previous states and the cycle continues. So it runs like this

Copy0
X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (These values will be zero since they have not been filled yet)
LenX=3 (randomly chosen)
<<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is 0)
<<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is 3)
Copy1
X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (Now this reduces to 0 + 3)
LenX=2
<<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is now 3)
<<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is now 2)
Copy2
X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (Now this reduces to 3 + 2)
LenX=4
<<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is now 5)
<<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is 4)

Anyhow, its all theoretical since I am not on an SU7 enlightened computer at the moment. I hope that makes sense. In my mind it does, but I'm sure it will probably fall apart due to something I've forgotten. Anyhow, think about it 😄

Chris

DCs have no awareness of the Model Units, so you have to force it into using what units you want.
DCs always default to inches unless told otherwise...

I think I've got one for the next Doh Book. When constraining a component attribute it pays to delete the units from the value. I was leaving the cm in the value box and this is what was causing the #=100 cm in red. Noob I am.

Is that the only solution? I'm trying to avoid encasing, as my hierarchy is already getting out of hand

If you do figure it out post back regardless. We love success stories here!

I came across this thread while looking for solutions to some of my issue. i.e 'formulas'

They're not perfect but I'm pretty proud of them, especially the drawer cabinet, with all the drawer boxes. Go ahead. Stretch out the floor cabinets to the construction lines along the walls. The wall cabinets stretch on the Z axis as well as the X axis.

As I said, a work in progress.

Walls 2.skp

I believe in coding -1 is returned when a match is not made

the use of + seems to create a bug in the ruby side to DCs

=2*current("leny")*2.54-val

where the attribute val initially = 5, then change it to -5 after the first run

this is probably only required if you were relying on the index for your calculations

Nah, I'm good to go now thanks

Never mind. I figure it out for myself. 👊

Eric Schimelpfenig eat your heat out. 😉

P.S The doors extend down past the cabinet to cover the 16mm light shield. I's not a mistake. 😄

Wall Unit.skp

@garry k said:

Yes
The Mother component has an new variable that you add called Rotation.
Rotation starts out = 0
Click once and Rotation goes to 1
Click again and Rotation goes to 0

In a situation where you want more than 2 states - separate them by commas.

So for a 4 state variable where you might open and close the door in increments.
ANIMATESLOW("some variable", 0, 1, 2, 3)

Yea I get it now. It's basically math with functions and variables, variables which can be defined at one place to use it at another, not so complicated actually.

Thank you for your time Garry.

Especially -

@garry k said:

Think of it this way
The top most component (Mother) gets rotated 90 which rotates both the grey and the white panels.

Then rotate the gray one -180

Maybe it was an error. The solution was to explode and then re-make the component.

Sketchup Nube here. I am not using sketchup for 3D modeling, only slab footprint. Where would I need to input the code that TIG posted to allow for lineal footage addition? Please and thank you.

Brandon Irby

Hi guys,

Thanks for help. To be honest I tried your suggestions, and I still have all the problems I described above.
In your (PCMOOR) DC area does not update even if I redraw component. Cant get it to work.
Also why did you put slabs in floors component ?

Thank you

The component cylinder idea works. Thanks so much for figuring this out. I have this problem a lot.

Best,

Ken Harstine

@howard leslie said:

Jim,

Thanks very much for your reply.
.........
Yes, its a very tricky problem
The main problem is trying to create something that doesn't exist - a hole !!!
.........
A Possible Workaround
I'm thinking along the lines now of creating the holes as solid cylinders on a layer that can be turned off eg called "Hide" and the main body as a solid rectangle (as before). (Not REALLY solids obviously but you get the idea).
That way you can repeat the holes (cylinders). (Cylinder = Potential Hole if you like).
Once the components length has been defined and cylinders automatically repeated, edit component by selecting all cylinders.
Then use Bool Tools (Thank you Dale) or manually cut out the Holes
...........
Long Term - possibly add a behaviour to DCs for Holes ??? Is this possible ???
...........
Just some thoughts anyway

Thanks once again

Howard L'

Sorry my bad, should have said spin port not spin wheel, which may have confused you.
You have tried it the other way round, you should wrap the component with the animation in another then change this new component to the same axis.
So with your original, select the spinport and the guide and make this a component, then right click change axis, (hide rest of model) and place

the rotation is in reference to the parent environment, so the wrapper acts as a shield or bridge between the two axes or worlds

Here's a basic file with each stage showing the point where the Dynamic Component breaks it's Len Values..

This Contains Each Step that leads to Error

Thanks a heaps for looking at this Jim...

http://i66.tinypic.com/zkrekj.png

Okay, so I think my last post was a bit overkill - I will try to break my problems down!

I want to create a tent where the user can choose between predefined heights. The tent must not be resized, as the sizes of the subcomponents need to stay the same. But, as in the real life version, the upper part of the tent (roof and upper part of the tent legs) need to slide up or down on the lower part of the leg.

I can do this quite easily if I click on the subcomponent "tent_upper". There I can define the position of the subcomponent. BUT: in order to do so I need to click on the component "tent" and then click on the subcomponent "tent_upper". But this is not intuitiv.

I'm looking therefore for an option to click on the component and get to choose the different heights. I tried using LenZ on the tent and locking the subcomponent LenZ in the hope SketchUp would keep the height of the subcomponents as they are and just change their position.

tl;dr: How can I change the position of a subcomponent in a DC by just selecting its parent component?

I hope this clears things up a bit!

Thank you pcmoor!