Change the color of only one instance

Pout

Hello all,

They referred me to the ruby section to find a answer for my question. See also: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13891

In short:

We are looking for a method to temporary change the clor/material of one or more instances without influencing the other instances of the same component.
When the component elements have no color/material defined there is no problem. The color/material can be set on component level.
But when the elements of the component have a color defined before they were turned into a component the color cannot be changed. (at least not on the component level)

Now, based upon the result of a script an instance should be temporary colored in a different then original color/material BUT without losing the link with the original component.

Is there a way to do this? We were thinking about creating (duplicating) a stand-in component with the color red and make all the instances that need to be red, instances of this stand-in component. With a hit on a button (or another script result) they should become instances of the original component again.

Easiest way would be if an instance has an attribute that defines the source component and we just temporarily change that.
is there such an editable attribute? Or are there better methods to accomplish this?

Thx!

Pout

i'm just thinking of another question:
Is there a way to edit, with ruby the colors of the contents of a component (the geometry) So a loop through the geometry of the component and change all the materials/colors of them.

Pout

i'm posting my progress.

To change the component definition from an instance i have found.

Leaves me with 2 questions:

Can i copy the 'in model' components in the library
Secondly: how do i set all those copied components to be red? (also the internal geometry of the component)

thx

TIG

Assuming you are not going to edit the component definition...

Pick the component instance [let's callits definition Y].
Use make unique on it [let's call this new version's definition X].
Chnage the definition of X to make all of its materials the <default> (nil).
Make the instance's colour say 'Red' - or whatever.
At the end you simply swap the instances of X with the original definition Y and it looks the same.
You will have a spare definition hanging around unused - could purge it or empty it's entity list and give it a 'scrap' name...

.

Pout

Thank you Tig,

Sounds like the setup we thought about yesterday.

This is the processflow we were thinking about:

Change color depending on script result

Get the component definition of the instance
Write this component definition as an attribute in the instance attribute dictionary
Make the instance unique (this results in a new component definition)and give it a name (can we use the auto-component name generator from SU itself?)
Loop through all the entities in the component and set color as red

Reset color

Check to see if the current instance component definition equals the component definition that is available in the attribute dict of the instance
If there is a difference: give the instance the component definition it has set in it's attribute dictionary.
Delete the 'current' component definition from the component library

Is this a good way? Thx again

Gaieus

And you were asking for help in the SU discussions

Pout

lol Gaieus
Well i thought i asked it in the component section
The thread we had going on there was very helpfull to see the posibilities and clear my mind of what exactly i wanted it to do.
I now have the basics of it but still there are some major issues.

Here is the code:

def cinchange
########################
#--Change the instance--
########################
#--initialize--
  model=Sketchup.active_model
  ss=model.selection.first
#--Get component definition name of instance--
  compdefname=ss.definition.name
#--Write component def. to instance dictionary
  ss.set_attribute 'xdid_dict', 'compdefname', compdefname
#--Make instance unique (creates new comp. definition)--
  ss.make_unique
#--Edit the instance (make all entities red)--
  compdef=ss.definition
  ent=compdef.entities
  ent.each {|i|
          if i.typename=="Face"
            i.material="red"
            i.back_material="red"
            end
          }
end

def cinrestore
#########################
#--Restore the instance--
#########################
#--initialize--
  model=Sketchup.active_model
  ss=model.selection.first
#--Get current component definition of instance--
  current_compdefname=ss.definition.name
#--Get the component definition defined in the attrib. dict.--
  orig_compdefname=ss.get_attribute 'xdid_dict', 'compdefname'
#--If comp. def. set in attrib. dict. does not equal current comp. def., set the component definition from the attrib. dict. back--
    if orig_compdefname
      if orig_compdefname!= current_compdefname
      definitionlist=model.definitions
      ss.definition=definitionlist[orig_compdefname]
#--Delete the current component definition from the library--
#--Delete the attrib. dict. entry from the instance
  end
  end
end

The issues are:

what to do when there is only one instance of a component present in the model. make unique does not work then. (any thoughts on this?)
now for each instance of the same component it creates a new component definition while it could reuse the first one. (dito)
get the attribute information out of the instances dictionary

I don't know if anyone could use the above script and if i need to put it in a plugin or something.

Pout

ok i have my script (almost working)

def cinchange
#--initialize--
model=Sketchup.active_model
ss=model.selection.first
UI.messagebox('selection OK')
########################
#--Change the instance--
########################
#--Get component definition of instance--
compdef=ss.definition.name
UI.messagebox('definition OK')
#--Write component def. to instance dictionary
ss.set_attribute 'xdid_dict', 'compdef', compdef
UI.messagebox('attribute OK')
#--Make instance unique (creates new comp. definition)--
ss.make_unique
UI.messagebox('unique OK')
#--Edit the instance (make all entities red)--
compdef2=ss.definition
ent=compdef2.entities
ent.each {|i|
        if i.typename=="Face"
          i.material="red"
          i.back_material="red"
          end
        }
UI.messagebox('rood OK')
UI.messagebox('total succes')
end
def cinrestore

#########################
#--Restore the instance--
#########################
#--Get current component definition of instance--
model=Sketchup.active_model
ss=model.selection.first
UI.messagebox('selection OK')
#--Get the component definition defined in the attrib. dict.--
orig_compdef=ss.get_attribute 'xdid_dict', 'compdef'
UI.messagebox(orig_compdef)
#--If no comp. definition set in the attrib. dict., do nothing--
#--If comp. def. set in attrib. dict. does not equal current comp. def., set the component definition from the attrib. dict. back--
current_compdef=ss.definition.name
UI.messagebox(current_compdef)
if orig_compdef!= current_compdef
UI.messagebox('niet gelijk')
ss.definition=orig_compdef
end

The only problem left is how to set the definition of the instance back to the original one based upon the variable orig_compdef which is the name of the definition.
I have saved the original 'name' of the component definition in the attrib. dictionary cause appaerently it is not possible to save the definition itself.
Can someone help me on this? --> SOLVED

Also, could you check if it is possible to make this script 'better'?

Thx

Gaieus

@pout said:

what to do when there is only one instance of a component present in the model. make unique does not work then. (any thoughts on this?)

True this works that way but how to solve it with ruby, I don't know. Maybe make a temporary copy of it, make it unique then and delete the copy.

Pout

Does anyone know how i can give a component definition a certain name?
When making an instance unique it automatically adds #1 behind the current component definition name.

Gaieus

You can always rename the component (and yes, there have been several feature requests for the Create Component window to pop up when making a component unique).

Now how you would do it in ruby, that's a different question

Pout

Ok i have found that (jeez, i should stop posting when something pops up in my mind)
Almost finished.
I'll post my code soon.

TIG

http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp-Plugins-Dev/web/Ruby-ComponentDefinition.html#name=

.