Hi Hal! I didn't want to make another topic so I'll post in this one slightly changing the focus.

Is there any possibility we can visualiza the component's "Description" in the CF preview? Could be useful to give some preliminary info to the user without having to actually load the component in the current work file.

Just an idea!

Not currently

@archijeff said:

Thank you very much halroach. I appreciate you work and your dedication. I will do as the video indicates and push forward! I look forward more awesomeness from flextools.cc.

Cheers!

You're welcome Sir! Thanks for the kind words 😄

Yoni

Super Halroach! Actually I allready found/tested that setting but did not click interact twice.

Appreciate your response. Look forward to future updates

Sorry of the late reply Epix.

In Sketchup's Component Browser, in the In Model view, you can right click on a chosen component and 'Replace Selected'. I don't think it would maintain the scale of the components though, only the placement point.

You would also have to select all the relevant components in the model first. You might find this (ancient) selection plugin useful:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62531#p62531

We've had some thoughts of adding a mass replacement feature into Component Finder like you need, which would also maintain the scale of the components... have to get to it.

There is the FlexSlider component.
There are other sliding door typologies we haven't gotten to yet. If you have one you'd like to see Flexed, send it by email. It would be very helpful.

@ianscroggins said:

Hi Gang, this is my first post and hopefully I'm bringing an easy n00b problem to solve. I've been using the Wall Cutter and Flex Door tools to place doors in my model. At first, they displayed the arcs for door swing in Plan View. However, I ungrouped my wall at some point and regrouped it and the flexdoors stayed dynamic, but I can't get them to show the door swing. Any ideas on not having to redo the doors or is that just a "deal breaker"? Thanks for any help in advance!

Hi Ian,

1. I checked out the model you uploaded. It seems that the door swing arcs were erased at some point. Normally the arcs are hidden (along with a few other sub-components that FlexDoor uses), and they could be erased if the 'Cleaner' tool were used on them, or if any other cleanup plugin that erases hidden geometry were used. In this case you would need to replace the doors with new ones.

2. If you try to move some of the wallcutting components you will see that their openings won't move anymore. If you want the door and window openings to remain dynamic, the wall must be a component. Groups just don't work well - Best to always use components.

If you need to explode and regroup (re-component!) the wall, to keep the dynamic openings working as you would expect them to, you will need to follow a quick 3 step procedure:
Remove Cuts > Make the changes you need > Refresh.

You can read a more in-depth explanation about this with animations and examples at:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

Hope that helps,
Yoni

@stadistoya said:

Hi

First of all thank you very much for these VERY useful tools! Life/Timesavers.

Hi Stadistoya

Very glad to hear this! We're doing our best.

@stadistoya said:

And is there any future projects for a garage door? I am not good at all with programming dynamic components, so my projects with folding doors/panels and garage doors are all static for now.

Thanks!

We have quite a list of components and other Flex tasks on our table now... but we are ALWAYS open to new ideas and suggestions. Shoot me an email to yoni@flextools.cc with example components of what you need.

Hi there,

1. I think most of the issues you are encountering are related to the wall geometry not being in a component, so please make sure that the walls are in a component. Not in a group! And that the cutting components are placed outside of the wall component, and not on bear geometry.

If you need to convert a group, that already has wall cutters on it, follow the 3 step workflow of:
Remove Cuts > Convert the group to a component > Refresh.

You can read more about the various situations where you would need the 3 steps:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

2. Make sure all the wall face normals are facing out, i.e. if you change the model's style to 'Monochrome' all white faces should face outwards ,and colored faces should face inwards.

3. It could be that because the wall was a group (If I'm not mistaken), some unwanted lines were created on the bottom of the wall. Those can interfere with punching the opening through when placing the door all the way on the bottom. If after converting to a component you still have issues with a specific wall, it could be some of the lines are divided and hard to find. Best to recreate the wall in that area and refresh the component so it punches a new opening.

When the wall is a component, it should work a lot better, without extra lines being left behind or other unexpected behaviors that you mentioned above of sometimes cutting and sometimes not.

If you still encounter issues, please send us the model and we'll gladly take a look.

4. Regarding having open doors on one layer and closed doors on another, I understand the benefit and we will try to integrate an option for that in future releases.

Currently, the solution is to select all the doors (you can also select components that contain doors, or select non-doors indiscriminately, or even select the entire model) and run the 'Open-Close' tool. It will open (or close) all the doors in one click.

I am not a FlexTool expert.
However, there might be a clue in your error message...

Is your normal Windows user-name 'Administrator' ?
Usually you'd choose something like 'Wenzhi' ?

Assuming it is your normal Windows user-name...
When you initially installed SketchUp did you do it in the proper way ?

Even if you [as a normal Windows user] have admin-powers you must install complex apps this way...
[Note that if SketchUp is already installed you should close it, then choose the Repair option offered...]
Find the SketchUp installer exe file - probably in your downloads folder ?
Select that exe file's icon.
Right-click > context-menu > "Run as administrator"
When prompted choose "Repair" and agree to all prompts thereafter...
[If it's a fresh install choose "Install" !]

Installing it in any other way - even if you have full admin-powers is not the same thing.
Double-clicking on the exe file's icon might 'Run' it, but NOT as 'the administrator'.

It's not recommended to run SketchUp while logged in as the full 'system-administrator' - but if you have another user-name called [confusingly] 'Administrator', probably with admin-powers that IS OK, BUT you will still need to use "Run as administrator"... as explained...

If you have really messed up permissions on the C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp path then you might also need to fix then using Right-click > context-menu > Properties > Security > Edit and ensure that every entry has 'Full Control' set and that this permissions trickles down to apply to all subfolders and files in the tree...

Hi Sander,
Unfortunately with the current FlexWidnow component it is not possible to create a window like what you need. We're currently working on a new set of windows/doors (slider,awning,casement,hopper...) and eventually I imagine we'll make something similar to what you need too. You can sign up to our newsletter to be notified when the next components come out.
https://flextools.cc/subscribe/

Ooops! I can't believe I missed this post from so long ago! I must have read it when I was half asleep one night and it just got marked as read... Please forgive me Rio!

@optimaforever said:

Hello!
Is it possible to automatically put the glass panel's inner face in the "2sided glass" layer or anything similar? An automatic scene management alike?

It seems like you've solved the issue by creating your own custom layer and saving the component as a favorite?

@optimaforever said:

Question 2:
When I tweak the (autogenerated) glass material name (apply a thea shader on it) and define a flexwindow favourite, what happens to the thea material definition? Is it embedded inside the favourite?

Saving a favorite is like saving a Sketchup File. It should maintain the material definition. What have you found out by now? Is it working properly?

@optimaforever said:

Question 3:
What about more possibilities like double and triple glazing parameters? For exterior/interior high end shots sometimes I need to model triple glazing to get realistic reflections.
Long live FW!

For now, you could use the thick glass as a containing component for let's say three different types of glazing components, and show and hide those by turning on and off custom made layers. Just make sure to set the glass thickness to the same size of the bounding box of the thickest set of glazing.

I'll add additional custom glass options to my list of possible future features.

Yup, I remember having read somewhere that SketchUp works internally in inch and it converts on the fly in metric for display...
But I can't work in arch units, that's impossible, I'm too old for conversion now 😄

yup, quadfacetool, vertextool and subd.

Basically, something like this.

Something like this?

@ben ritter said:

Yoni,
Thanks again for straightening me out. I can insert Flex Doors without any issues.
Can't wait for the Cutter doors to have all the same option selections as the standard doors. 😄

Glad it’s working 😄
The cutter doors have the same options (plus additional extra wall options). The rest of the options are one level deep, so you need to double click and select the inner component to get to them.

@halroach said:

@ben ritter said:

Thanks for the explanation to my questions. I'll try your suggestions and let you know.

So, bottom line, if I want a door opening that needs to have an exact 24" or 30" or 36" door leaf, I will have to do some additional math or some trial and error on the overall dimensions, then measure the door leaf width/height?

I believe so. You would leave the "Side Panel:" setting we mentioned above on "(a) OFF", and you would need to calculate and input the Total width of the door by adding up the following:

"Frame - Width" X 2
+
"Clearance - Sides and Top" X 2
+
The door leaf opening you require. (24" or 30" etc.)

Once you have that set, you can save the door aside into the "Favorites Library". (check out the star icon with a plus on it). Once it's saved, you can pull it back in to the model quickly by clicking on the Star icon (without a plus).

One more note: You can change the default door that gets pulled in from the main toolbar by right clicking on the components within the Favorites Window...

Thanks so much for your response s 👍 👍 👍

Currently FlexDoor has a flat panel, though once you set the width and thickness of the door, you could always paste inside the panel component, which ever ‘static’ panel you’d like, making sure it fills the boundaries, and save it aside into the favorites. We plan on making various dynamic door panels in the future, though no date on that yet.

I would affirm the request. When looking at the component attributes, how is does one know what A), B), etc. refer to.

A great plugin, but some tutorials would be helpful.

Thanks.

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