[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

Dave R

Chris, I didn't have any trouble with the plugin yesterday when I tried it. When I woke up this morning there was an e-mail froma friend who was trying it. He sent it to me and I'm getting the same weird results. See the screen grab. The group starts out as long has the straight line. I tried it without the swirly thing at the end and get the same results. I've also tried changing the length of the curve but without luck. I discovered that it depends upon which direction the straight line is drawn. If the line is drawn from right to left, the geometry is added as shown. I also notice that if the curve is drawn from right to left the start and end points are transposed compared to the line.

Right to left-drawn line:
bend tim.jpg

Left to right-drawn line, right to left-drawn curve
bend tim2.jpg

Left to right-drawn line, left to right drawn curve
bend tim3.jpg

Is there any chance of getting the plugin to ignore the direction of the drawn lines and curves?
Edited to add, I tried it with the new version and got the same results.

BTM

Even with the new one, the up arrow NEVER does anything. I've been doing it properly, but nothing happens. Could another script have broken it? Also, I'm now having trouble with the smoothing. When the shape is first created, I have to open it again, because it doesn't appear smooth until I do.

DonVid

Greetings Chris:

This is another great plugin that surpasses other 3D modeling program: easy, intuitive and precise. It can give several steps ahead when modeling architectural objects and entities.

Thanks a MM.

DonVid

Component before bending

Good and precise output

Chris Fullmer

oh no!!, the script is indeed not working if you draw the first line from right to left......grrrr! I've got an idea of how to fix it though. Give me an hour or two and I'll get it updated very shortly. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Thanks for pointing it out.

@Bob, yes I meant April - oops! - The date is updated now, thanks!

BTM - sorry about the arrow key. I'm guessing its another script breaking it. Would you mind poking around to see which one it is? I don't even know how another script could, but its "amazing" what other scripts do........ Also, the smoothing thing is an odd bug I agree. I noticed it to, but I couldn't find a fix. I'll look into again today and see if I can get it working better.

Thanks everyone for the quick and detailed feeedback!

Chris

Dave R

Thank you

Chris Fullmer

UPDATED v2.5 beta!

0.25 Beta:: 2009-04-10

Hit the down arrow key to change the start/end positions of the line. The line needs to have its start point "to the left" of the endpoint... If you notice weird behavior in how the shape is lining up on the curve, try hitting the down arrow key.
Up arrow key AND Home hey toggle the curve. Downd arrow key AND End toggle the line now for added compatibility (for BTM

So please tell your friend to re-download the plugin Dave, and try using the down arrow key or End key to toggle the line. Essentially the start point on the line needs to have its x position be less than the end point's x position. Hence, "to the left of" the endpoint. But obviously that just depends on how you orient your view.

BTM, I also added Home and End keys to the toggle. Try those to see if they work,

Thanks!

Chris

I'll still look into the faceting of faeces.

Dave R

Thank you Chris. This is great.

jim smith

Thanks Chris, this is a very welcome plugin and I will find it very useful.

pilou

Don't forget that the second curve can be vertical and in fact has any 3D orientations!

Chris Fullmer

@unknownuser said:

Don't forget that the second curve can be vertical and in fact has any 3D orientation!

Really???? Thats pretty cool! I have not tested that - at all. The way I made it work, I never implemented any z position checking, except on selecting the first line. So I suppose it makes sense that it will let you choose a curve with some z variation. Thanks for the picture!

Also, the curve doesn't have to be a curve at all. Just a series of connected lines work perfectly well too. Though they normally create some weird bendining since they are not so smooth as a true arc, or bezier curve.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

This is a complex bend I did. It took about an hour to figure out the bend position, and about 10 minutes to finalize it. It is a 9mb car component.
the model is here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=fcfbaefff1d389ceb6b80685d8c0f2bc
bender car 1.jpg
bender car 2.jpg
bender car 3.jpg

xrok1

Chris great job, i love it!

on the smoothing thing can you not manually set the angle between normals with your script when you smooth it, to be say 45deg. ? it seems to be smoothing 90deg. angles. also you could consider not smoothing at all then the user could decide if they need smoothing and at what angle. Or maybe you could read the smoothing settings of the group to be bent before you bend it and then reapply the same settings to your output.

Chris Fullmer

@xrok1 said:

Or maybe you could read the smoothing settings of the group to be bent before you bend it and then reapply the same settings to your output.

That is what is supposed to be happening more or less. It is trying to leave all edges unchanged, except the ones that it adds when it slices the model up for the bending locations. But what happens is that if a en existing line falls exactly in the same place as where the script adds lines, it can't tell that a line was already there and sometimes it will appear to smooth existing hard edges. This is the case when the end face is lined up exactly to the end of the line.

Are you seeing it happen more often than expected? If so, could you upload a model where it is behaving poorly, thanks!

Chris

joergj

Hi Chris,
first of all, thank you so much for all your brilliant plugins. They are absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately, Shape Bender does not work well for me. Well, it kind of works, but I can´t keep the results,
Here is what happens:
Bild 1 - Shape selected
Bild 2 - Shape bender activated, one klick on the strait line, one klick on the curve
Bild 3 - hit enter
Bild 4 - hit enter second time
Bild 5 - hit enter third time...
Bild 6 - changed to the select tool after first time hitting enter

with each additional enter, the shape bends a little more.

am I doing something wrong?

btw: Mac OS 10.4.11, SketchUP 5 pro

anyway, I can´t thank you enough!
Jörg

Shape selected

Shape bender activated, one klick on the strait line, one klick on the curve

hit enter

hit enter second time

hit enter third time...

changed to the select tool after first time hitting enter

xrok1

@unknownuser said:

Are you seeing it happen more often than expected? If so, could you upload a model where it is behaving poorly, thanks!

well actually i expect it to never happen

seriously, i noticed if you unsmooth it then resmooth it after its bent that its fine, what about doing it that way in your script?

dtrarch

Hi Chris

Just a basket full of Easter eggs and thanks.

Here is one that just went by me.
When the script is executed the original shape just seemed to disappear.
HMMMMM.?
While the bend conversion does make a saved component out of the original shape it would be nice to have the shape remain in place instead of disappearing when the script is executed.

Also with all your super scripts growing daily an icon set would much appreciated by all to have them at the ready 24-7.

Just a couple of thoughs for the day and thanks again for all the killer stuff you have created.
Happy Easter to all

dtr

david_h

Chris. . .the first iteration worked like a charm. The next version. . .not so great.

All kinds of wierd results. Should I dump it and reload or what?

weird 1.jpg

weird 2.jpg

Chris Fullmer

@David, your line is not lined up on the red axis in that example. I'll add a check to the system so that it will not select a line that is not on the red axis. I think that is the problem there.

@Jorg - hmm, there is a command that is called after the user hits enter to de0activate the tool. It looks like it is not being called. Could you open the Ruby Console and then run the script. It should write a lot of errors to the screen just after you hit enter. Could you copy and paste those this forum for me? I'll see if I can put in a workaround for people still on version 5. Thanks!

@xrok, smoothing in SU doesn't remember what angle/degree the smoothing was set at. The angle is used only to tell SU what lines to apply a smooth to. But it then promptly forgets what angle it was. So there is no way to find and retain that information. So I can't just implement a shape-wide smoothing at a certain degree. thing about models that have some places smoothed where the angles are at 90 degrees, and other places where the angles are flat, but they left line unsmoothed to give it a highlight. A global resmooth would break all of that. It essentially is set up to run an intersect with model on the shape. All the new lines that are created should be smoothed, and all the others should be left alone. But any line that already existed precisely where that intersection takes place, is going to be smoothed, regardless of its previous setting. Also, some faces get bent in ways that I have not figured out how to determine ahead of time. SU does some bending and adds lines on its own. Those are the lines that are not smoothed that should be smoothed. Perhaps there is a setting to have SU add them as pre-smoothed edges. That would be ideal. Otherwise I'll have to find a way to determine where SU is going to need to add breaking-lines and add them myself before SU does, so I can smooth them when I add them. I only explain it all in this detail in hopes that someone will understand the dilemma and help me find a better solution.

@dtr, thanks! I do like the idea of leaving the original component/group back where it was originally. If it was a group, I might need to convert it to a component. Is that acceptable? Perhaps not, I'm not positive. I'll play with it. It would nice in my mind too. And I do keep thinking about putting together an entire toolbar of all my scripts. I suppose I'm not opposed to it. But I would want to figure out a good way to make it so the user can selectively turn off unwanted icons while leaving others on. Maybe once I think that through all the way, I can make a comprehensive set.

Thanks everyone! Great round of suggestions. I'll probably be working on it for the next for hours if anything else comes up.

Chris

joergj

Hi Chris,
here is what I find in the Ruby Console after hitting enter once:

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method to_component' for #<Sketchup::Group:0xb2357a0>> /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:103:in activate'
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904:in select_tool' /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904 /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904:in call'
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method to_component' for #<Sketchup::Group:0xb22f698>> /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:885:in componentizer'
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:230:in `onReturn'

and this after hitting enter a second time:

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method to_component' for #<Sketchup::Group:0xb2357a0>> /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:103:in activate'
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904:in select_tool' /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904 /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:904:in call'
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method to_component' for #<Sketchup::Group:0xb22f698>> /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:885:in componentizer'
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:230:in onReturn' Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method to_component' for #Sketchup::Group:0xb22f698>
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:885:in componentizer' /Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:230:in onReturn'
/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 5/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:885

thanks a lot!
Jörg

Chris Fullmer

oh bummer. I'm sure I can put in a workaround. It might take a little while though. I'll probably need to find a version of SU 5 to install to make the testing go faster.

If I get it fixed, I'll try to remember to PM you directly too. And I'll put a note in the first post that its not currently compatible with version 5. Thanks!

Chris