[Plugin] Selection Toys

thomthom · 13 Dec 2008, 17:42

Plugin renamed! Please remove old version 1.x before installing version 2.x!

Overview
Set of commands to manipulate selection.

Compatible

Sketchup 6+ (Older versions untested)
Windows* and Mac

Requires

Windows requires Internet Explorer 7 or newer for the UI Manager window to function.

New in version 2
Many many bugs brutally squashed. Accuracy improved. Selection speed improved. A spanking new toolbar with a stupid amount of icons. (Don't worry - it will have to be enabled first!) And last but not least: a UI Manager.

New in version 2.1

Command Cheat Sheet

New in version 2.2

Select Quad-Face loop now accept multiple start-edges
Added Selection filters for Border Edges
Added Selection filters for Selection Border
Fixed Select Instances by Layer bug
Updated some method names to reflect changes in TT_Lib 1.2

Toolbar

Customize the amount of buttons you want from the UI manager.
Have no fear! You must enable it from Tools->Selection Toys->Enable Toolbar before it appears under View->Toolbars->Selection Toys.

This is to avoid the possibility of the dreaded toolbar mayhem that might occur when you add a new toolbar. So if you never want to use this plugin's toolbar you don't have to worry about it causing problems.

However, if you do enable it, be aware you might suffer toolbar madness - there is nothing I can do about that. I warned yee!

Tools:
Select Edge Loops — (1.14.0)
Access: Tools -> Selection Toys -> Select Edge Loop

This select tool will pick out the loops of a face. Using the normal Select modifier keys you can add/remove/toggle their selection. Loops are either the bounding edges of a face or a hole in a face.

Components:
Select Instances - Selects all the instances of the selected component.
(Works just like Rick W.'s Instances script)

Select Active Components - Selects all the instances in the current work space. Excludes everything that's nested inside other components etc.
(Works just like 'Select Instances' when you right click an component from the component browser.)

Select Active from same Layer - Selects all the instances in the current work space of the selected component which is on the same layer.

Select All from same Layer - Selects all the instances of the selected component which is on the same layer.

Dynamic Components:
Same methods as for Components, except that it allows you to select by DC family type. Commands located under 'DC Instances' submenu.

Groups
When you make a copy of a group without modifying it SketchUp keeps a track of each these group items that's similar. You can see the Entity Info give you a number of how many copies there are.
(Commands are located under the submenu 'Copies')

Same selection methods as for Components.

Convert into Components - Converts all the group copies into components. Transformation and materials will be transferred.
Useful for when you have a model where groups where used instead of components.

Edges
[i:2sg303xcSelect Quad-face Loop[/i:2sg303xc]] - Select one edge and the connected faces and lines going in either direction from that edge will be selected as long as the faces have four edges. More or less than four edges and the selecting stops at that point.

Faces

[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected Perpendicular Faces[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected Parallel Faces[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected Coplanar Faces[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcConnected Faces by Angle[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcConnected Faces by Area[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Perpendicular Faces[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Faces in Same Direction[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Parallel Faces[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Opposite Face[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Faces by Area[/i:2sg303xc]]

Edges/Faces

[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected By Material[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected By Back Material[/i:2sg303xc]]
[i:2sg303xcSelect Connected By Layer[/i:2sg303xc]]

Entities

[i:2sg303xcAll on Selected Layers[/i:2sg303xc]] - Select all the entities in the model that are on the same layer as the selected entities.
[i:2sg303xcActive on Selected Layers[/i:2sg303xc]] - Select all the entities in the active context that are on the same layer as the selected entities.

Selection Modifier
[i:2sg303xcSelection Submenu[/i:2sg303xc]] - Currently there's two kinds of modifiers. One filters out the type of entity you want. The other deselects the entity you specify.
You can filter/deselect these kind of entities: [i:2sg303xcEdges, Faces, Groups, Components, Guides, Construction Points, Text, Images, Section Planes, Curves, Arcs, Circles, Polygons, nGons, 3D Polylines, Linear Dimension, Radial Dimension, Front Default Material, Back Default Material, Hidden, Soft, Smooth[/i:2sg303xc]]
Other filtering options are filtering entities with default materials, by their layers.
Tip: Assign keyboard shortcuts for these commands for quick selection modification. For instance; Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 for the filters and Shift+1 to Shift+9 for the deselectors. Very handy.

Known Issues:

Ghost selections appear when selecting all groups/instances and some of them are nested inside other groups or components. [i:2sg303xc](Fixed in Sketchup 7.1.)[/i:2sg303xc]
Convert Groups to Components doesn't transfer glued_to and attributes.

Guide: How to install RBZ Files
http://sketchucation.com/plugin/738-tt_selection_toys

UI Manager
[floatl:2sg303xc][/floatl:2sg303xc]
The UI Manager let you add and remove menu and toolbar items. So if there's features you never use you can hide them forever! Check / Uncheck to add or remove - items marked green will be added next time Sketchup starts, items marked red will be removed.

free agent · 13 Dec 2008, 18:40

wow another old request of mine you've made a reality, so it converts all "similar" groups into instances of a component?!!! i wonder if i would be the only one to make use of this script when i made this request i got a lot of technique suggestions

EarthMover · 13 Dec 2008, 18:49

Right on Thomas! Thanks for your efforts! Now if I can only get that damn loop selection tool.

thomthom · 13 Dec 2008, 19:54

@unknownuser said:

wow another old request of mine you've made a reality, so it converts all "similar" groups into instances of a component?!!! i wonder if i would be the only one to make use of this script when i made this request i got a lot of technique suggestions

Didn't know it was requested. heh

It will only convert the groups that are copies of each other. If you where to even just open up one of the group copies SU breaks the link and makes it unique. Even though you've not actually after anything. In fact, SU will even make the group unique if you select the group, minimize SU then restore the window. Go figure...

I suppose it would be possible to compare the content of each group and calculate which ones are 'similar' even though SU claims they are unique. But, I think that'd have to be for when I'm getting more warmed up with this Ruby thing.

free agent · 13 Dec 2008, 20:19

yup the thread was called [Req] Similar groups to Components, i bumped it for your viewing pleaure.

thomthom · 13 Dec 2008, 20:51

Ah, wonder how I missed such a recent thread on this. Oh well.

So did you also want to make a selection of instances into individual group?

free agent · 13 Dec 2008, 21:44

? no just similar groups to components...

bagatelo · 14 Dec 2008, 10:12

thomthom

Very good, I like the script very much.

Maybe you can improve the script by make loop selection also in horizontal, not only vertical.

thomthom · 14 Dec 2008, 11:05

@bagatelo said:

thomthom

Very good, I like the script very much.

Maybe you can improve the script by make loop selection also in horizontal, not only vertical.

It has not concept of horizontal or vertical. Effectively if you have a cube, select an horizontal line to get a vertical selection, select a vertical line to get a horizontal selection.

It simply starts with the faces on either side of the edge you select and keeps on selecting the opposite faces and edges.

bagatelo · 14 Dec 2008, 16:34

I'm sorry to not explain corret to you, before.

thomthom · 14 Dec 2008, 16:50

Ah, yes. I understand now. I will be looking into more looping variations. But no guaranties. This first type was very easy to do.

btw, what application did you use to create the animation?

Fletch · 16 Dec 2008, 00:07

Thanks Thomas!

please only update original post with new plugin release... now I'm confused which is latest version of the ruby I should d/l thanks.

re: converting similar groups to components - I seconded the request! and I will use it!

re: loop selection... I have desired this many times... we will see how well it works in practice

thomthom · 16 Dec 2008, 09:12

@earthmover said:

Right on Thomas! Thanks for your efforts! Now if I can only get that damn loop selection tool.

Here's a beta of version 1.1.1b.
(beta removed. obsolete)

Highlight one edge and click 'Select Loop'.

I've only tried this is faces of four sides. The script currently make this assumption as well, so I don't know how it behaves if you throw in less or more edges.

Here's my test model:
loop selection test.skp

thomthom · 16 Dec 2008, 09:23

@fletch said:

please only update original post with new plugin release... now I'm confused which is latest version of the ruby I should d/l thanks.

Sorry for the confusion. The one I posted further down in this thread was a beta. Experimental. After some more testing making sure it did what it should do I updated the one in the original post. To avoid further confusion I've removed the other versions now.

@fletch said:

re: loop selection... I have desired this many times... we will see how well it works in practice

Yea, I've not tried it out on very irregular cases. Not sure how it will handle really weird geometry. In order to improve the edge/face selection tool I need to study more the SU API on how to deal with edges, faces and determining their direction and relationships. If anyone with some experience would like to jump in and add some more tools I'd be most happy.

urs0815 · 16 Dec 2008, 09:42

thank you for this useful tool!

GUNAWAN W · 4 Jan 2009, 09:40

thank's a milion Thomas.

bigstick · 4 Jan 2009, 10:42

Nice one Thomas! This should improve my productivity no end!

Kyprus · 4 Jan 2009, 13:53

Hello:
New to the forum. Had to join when I found this tool.
Saves me a ton of time. Thanks for the plug-in.

I was however wondering if there is a plug-in that
once you have selected a bunch of polygon's that you
could evenly subtract or add to your selection by using
the "plus" and "minus" keys. I'll try to elaborate a bit.
Say you have a a rectangle evenly divided into five
sections you select the end polygon and you can then press
the "plus" key and it will select the polygon's next to it.
Then you can press the "minus" key to subtract. this would
work the same as if you used the "select/connection faces"
in the right click menu, but sadly there is no subtracting.
The reason for this request is = if you have allot of
polygons selected, and you move the selection and you want
to subtract a row of polygon, you have to unselect all,
reselect one row less and make change and repeat each time.

Unless I'm missing something that pre-exists in SU
already, this would be great.

jim smith · 4 Jan 2009, 17:16

Thanks Thomas, I will find being able to turn a number of groups into components very usefull.

thomthom · 8 Jan 2009, 12:01

Updated with some more selection tools.