[Plugin] Three Line Tools (Updated March 9th, 2009)

Chris Fullmer

Will your script make normals to surfaces? For example, suppose one has an inclined plane on which one has placed a construction point. Can one use your plugin to create a normal of specified length at the construction point?

UPDATE! Yes, I finally got this implemented. Thanks for the suggestion Bob. This plugin now offers 3 tools. Vertical line by height, by elevation and Normal Line. Normal lines will work on a face, edge, or vertex. I've updated all the info in the first post and also the video is new too and it shows how to use the three tools. Though you can probably figure it out faster than watching the video Hope its useful,

Chris

Edson

chris,

thanks for the upgrade. deceptively simple, enormously useful.

broomstick

this plugin IS AWESOME!

Tell me: does it work on mac?

remus

Should work on a mac, there are very few platform dependant plugins.

Edson

@broomstick said:

this plugin IS AWESOME!

Tell me: does it work on mac?

it surely does. no problem at all.

kwistenbiebel

Wow Chris! You are really on a roll here making these tools.
I can sense you enjoy coding it. And it is so cool you share it with us.
Thanks mate!

pilou

Suggestion : just enter one time the measure
then at each click a vertical is drawn
Esc = Escape for choose another type and measure

Edson

@unknownuser said:

Suggestion : just enter one time the measure
then at each click a vertical is drawn
Esc = Escape for choose another type and measure

good suggestion. this would make the tool even more agile to use.

Chris Fullmer

@unknownuser said:

Suggestion : just enter one time the measure
then at each click a vertical is drawn
Esc = Escape for choose another type and measure

Oh yeah, that was another feature I wanted to implement. Thom even gave me a starting point. I've got a little bit of time today, maybe I'll get it worked out during that. Thanks for the comments and compliments everyone. And yes, I am really really enjoying coding.

Chris

pilou

And if you can make the same for the Greeble that will be also a super crazy cool plug!
Ergonomic must be the first thing to think for a plug!
Keep the good work!

Chris Fullmer

Hey Frenchy, I know you have issues with too many plugins cluttering your menus. Would it be helpful if I tried to make all my plugins register themselves with the extension manager, so you could disable them or enable them as needed? That way you wouldn't have to have all my plugins showing in the menus until you need them. Would that be useful?

Chris

Edson

definitely, yes.

pilou

Yes that can be helping, but it's not possible to create a new Menu something like "Plugins2"?
Then it's easy to put inside this new menu some numerous plugins

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

Yes that can be helping, but it's not possible to create a new Menu something like "Plugins2"?
Then it's easy to put inside this new menu some numerous plugins

Nope. No way to create new top level menus in SU.

Panga

Chris you rock !! This tool'll help a lot. Thanks again !!

Panga.

Teezer

Nice extension! Very useful. Thanks...

watkins

Dear Chris,

I have just viewed your video tutorial. The plugin is much, much more than I was expecting. Excellent work! It is going to be a very useful construction tool. Perhaps CADFather, or A.N. Other, could make a small toolbar for the three options and one could be selected/deselected either in View>Toolbars or Window>Preferences>Extensions.

Thanks once again.

Regards,
Bob

Ben Ritter

Always grateful to those who share their plugins, and you're no exception.

Thank you very much.

Chris Fullmer

Thanks for checking it out folks. Thanks for normals idea Bob!

I would like to implement the toolbar in the next release, or maybe the one after that. This would be a good tool to have in a toolbar I think.

Right now I am working on making be registered with SU extensions so it can be turned on and off easier. Also I am working on the VCB input. Its going pretty good. Currently it works like this:
(Note: this is in development and is not the posted version yet).
Run the plugin for the first time (per SU session).
Prompt box asks for initial height
Then click anywhere to create lines of that height.
Type a new height (into the VCB) and hit enter
All new lines will be made according to that size. (this also resizes the last line drawn)
Keep going until a different tool is activated.

Chris

thomthom

You can do it with no prompt at all, just use a default value until the user inputs anything. (Can you tell I'm not a fan of prompts? )