OK. Solved it. I was building the unit the wrong way. I now have referenced all the sub component sizes and positions to a set of custom values for the parent component. The custom values are the user options. It now works perfectly.
Thanks for your input guys.

@unknownuser said:

Yes ! good idea !!
It's OK with only two components and not so long formula :[attachment=0:175kwns3]<!-- ia0 -->Cube_DD1.skp<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:175kwns3].

NICE!

Just look those threads :
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=30749
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=36852
and other posts in this part of Sketchucation forum.
I think you will find some info about parametric design and DC...

@teamsda said:

If I make all the groups in the DC into components everything works great.

Yes I think this second workflow is normal,.. because only Sketchup::ComponentInstance class objects can have dynamic attribute dictionaries, that the DC extension can work with. (Meaning, that there is no such thing as dynamic groups.)

Your points are very fair and make sense, but man was it frustrating to figure out the hard way. 😳

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your response. I noticed you switched everything to components. I did that test early and for some reason everything works great, as well as in your example. The reason I've made everything groups is so we can clean up our components list window. Do you now if it is a bad practice to use groups inside of DC or does it normally work correctly.

Regards,
Christian

daredevil

yeh I saw your bridge, very impressive work. My models are a lot more humble but I aspire to create complex dynamic components. That is the reason why I would like to find out how to do these things nicely and elegantly.

I presume the IF problem we both had is a problem with the way sketchup parses the IF function. I have a little experience with C++ from 20 years ago and would have expected it to work.

Anyway I am wondering if I should learn Ruby and if these sort of things can be done in that. I am frustrated with the way you enter formulas in the dynamic component attributes dialogue, it works fine for simple components but it is difficult to read complex nested functions in such a small text box. Sometimes I have resorted to copy/paste into notepad, and use indentation to help match parenthesis and make it clearer and then copy/paste back. It would also be nice to be able to add comments.

From seeing the bridge you've made you're obviously well ahead of me. I would like to produce fully configurable pieces of furniture and joinery for my business. Do you think I should persevere with Dynamic Components or will I discover that their limitations mean I should learn the Sketchup Ruby API?

Again very impressive work you do, it would give me a real kick to produce something half as good as that ☀

I have exactly the same question, I like the idea of using groups inside my dynamic components as they don't clutter me up with lots of little sub-components that only have relevance within the main component.

I have used both groups and components successfully and haven't noticed any discernable difference but I am a newbie.

One day when I have time I have considered making a dynamic component using nested groups and an identical one using nested components and then compare the two for file size, speed etc.

Unfortunately my TODO list is pretty long, I will watch this thread with interest

I knew an architect who would strip off his clothes and run through the streets naked after creating a dynamic component. Does that qualify?

Thanks.
It works.
And it also works if I make the specific face a group (instead of a component).

Well that's a bit embarrassing, I guess I should have checked out the available functions.
Thanks for your help!

@unknownuser said:

I don't know if I really understand your request, but here is my answer 😉
[attachment=0:6mcjm8ou]<!-- ia0 -->Distrib.skp<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:6mcjm8ou]
There is a component in a component, you choose the number of sub component and you can stretch the mastercomponent along the red axes. The sub components will be placed at
X = Copy * (Master!LenX - LenX)/(Copies + 1)
You must fix the LenX of the sub component to avoid to transform them when you resize the master component.

I'm trying to do something similar to some of the typical fence direct components (DC's) that are floating around.

I have LenX of the subcomponent fixed, and the number of them is being determined by dividing the Master!LenX/LenX. Additionally, I'm trying to use the 'INT' math function to round-down the number of repeating SC's, to keep the total length of them to less than Master!LenX.

LenX is also the "spacing", as the sub-components are touching each other, so there is actually no space between them.

Thanks.

After a month of working on this, I finally figured it out. The short answer is, EVERYTHING that is dynamically resized must be a sub-COMPONENT, NOT a sub-GROUP. If sub-groups are used, any copies of the original component which are resized will screw with any other copies.

Peter

11.5″ × 1′8.75″ × 5″ drawer with handle.skp

In the "select from list" function, the "value" is something between value and index. This value must be unique but can be anything, number, text or function.
I think about two ways to correct your problem :

Dirty but easy way: Play with the INT function
In your list, just use a decimal value to make each value unique and when you use the value just ad INT(value). The "Electrical - Other" value can be 20.1 and "Civil - Asphalt" can be 20.3 so they're unique, but is you ask the INT of them they return 20 as you want. Of course, that works if you only need integer values... Cleaner but indirect way: Use a CHOOSE and OPTIONINDEX
In the list, use a unique value for each to avoid the error, but this value doesn't mind. To have a value, use the OPTIONINDEX function to return the position in the list and use the CHOOSE function to give the value you need.
In this case, the function must be something like that :
%(#000000)[= CHOOSE ( OPTIONINDEX ("list"), 15, 20, 25, 30, 15, 20....)]
This is a little harder to modify, because if you want to ad an item in the list or re-order the list, you must change carefully the CHOOSE function.

Completly missed this thread! Very cool examples! 😎

I by accident came across this discussion
I have created doors and windows that cut holes in both sides of the wall, so long as the wall is at a set thickness
they are uploaded on the 3D warehouse and in this case the required wall needs to be 120mm thick and then you drop the door into the wall and explode
easy!
Try this double glass sliding door for example http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=1a0cdc0066070dfe80d6227ff9b21190&prevstart=0
as long as placement of the component is correct, it works no problemo!

@jonavery16 said:

@victor4390 said:

Jim
The ruler is already set to "cm" units the model is set to architect millimetres

The issue is you including the Units in the formula field. The field is looking for integers.

Fortunately, not only integers, decimal too 😉
But right, no unit needed.

You must put all the components in one global component. In this case, the origin will be the inner 0,0,0 of the global component and this one can be move anywhere.

Thank you again DD. It works fine now 😄
I learned a lot from this. I am testing to make a menu system. I guess there will be problems if I wanted to implement another choice of depth of shelves and endwalls(Stige) into this model due to the holes..?

I dont understand where is the problem... If I make a component copy inside an other component, rotating, moving and scaling the copies work.
Test.skp
Can you send your SKP file to see the problem ?