[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

jeff hammond

@chris fullmer said:

I think you need an entire plugin of your own for that skateboard park type work.

oh man, that would be nice.. if times were better, i'd be into paying for 2-3 custom scripts.. maybe in another year or two. :hope:

@unknownuser said:

Sorry I can't be of more help at this point Jeff,

ha, your plugins have already helped immensely.. i used to have to draw stuff like this line-by-line and being able to bend things now cuts more than 1/2 the time it used to take.. don't sweat it..
you gotta realize that i know i'm asking for some weird requests that only I or maybe a handful of others would actually use ..

just in case anyone else has the need to get the lines to break like this, i put a little step-by-step together...
custom_arc_tut.skp

i actually do it a little bit different than this (esp. steps 4-6) which is a little easier/less confusing but it was harder/more confusing for me to show how i do it.. this should get the idea across though.

wolfy

Chris, you are a machine!! (the good kind, of course)

Chris Fullmer

Jeff, I want to emphasize a bug in the code since it might matter to you, since you are making shapes that get built. But the first and last angles might not be calculated the way you would expect - I suppose that depends on what you expect. The image shows the problem. Every sliced part of the model lines up correctly to the curve expect the two ends. That is because I am not actually finding that outer angle at this point. It is a planned improvement

curve bug.jpg

So I thought you should be aware of that so that it doesn't cause you undue pain when you can't figure out why stuff is not lining up right,

Chris

jeff hammond

yeah, i noticed that.. i didn't realize it was a bug though and i more/less attributed it to being like using the follow-me tool on an arc.

here's a top view showing that problem:

the workaround (and the same workaround goes for shapebender) is to make sure there is some flat before going into the bend.

followme_problem.skp

i guess if you manage to figure out how to fix your bug, pass that info along to google so they can fix follow-me

[fwiw - if you look at the skp titled bend2.skp a few posts ago, you'll see that i added the flat ends.. the flat won't affect the setup i do to get all the intersections to match up because there are no vertices on it.. if i add 4' of straight wall prior to bending, i'll also add 4' of straight line before the curve]

sepo

Chris

It seems make faces makes error but makes faces nevertheless. Here is an extract from the console.

Error: #<ArgumentError: comparison of Float with nil failed>
(eval):44:in >' (eval):44:in update'
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/makefaces.rb:146:in makeFaces14' C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/makefaces.rb:140:in each'
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/makefaces.rb:140:in makeFaces14' C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/makefaces.rb:163 C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/makefaces.rb:163:in call'

dtrarch

Chris

I'm not sure if this is the core issue, but rotating the arc to mid segment works for this simple try.

dtr

Rotated_Arc-Bend.skp

jeff hammond

dtr...
the problem with doing that is it throws off all the measurements.. the SU arc is only correct at the vertices -- not the midpoints of the segments.

ideas_arte

Thank you very much..!

muchas gracias..!
thank you very much..!

dtrarch

Jeff

Got it and thanks.

dtr

waltw

Draw line on red axis, build and group a cube, draw an arc all on the same plane. Select tool.

Can't seem to get by 'please select a single line on red axis' I don't know much about ruby but thought that the following info might be pertinent?? Ruby console output.jpg

Line 165 refers to code snippet: @line_pointer = UI.create_cursor(line_cursor_path, 15, 2)

My cursor does not change in anyway. Supposed to??

I thought there might be a conflict with other scripts so I removed them all (other than progress bar) to test - no avail.

Using XP SP3, SU7

OpenGL problem? Any suggestions as to what to tweak?

Thanks, Walt

Chris Fullmer

That sounds like it did not get installed quite right. There should a file called clf_shape_bender.loader.rb in the main plugins folder. Then there should be a folder caled "clf_shape_bender" and inside that folder should exist the files:

clf_shape_bender.png
clf_shape_bender.rb
clf_shape_bender_small.png
curve_pointer.png
default_pointer.png
line_pointer.png

I'm guessing you might have ended up with everything in the main plugins folder. So manually create the clf_shape_bender folder and move all those files above into it, leaving only clf_shape_bender_loader.rb in the main plugins folders.

See if that is by chance the problem and let me know, thanks!

Chris

Chris Fullmer

I gotta admit, neither of those uses crossed my mind! They look great. I'm going to a cad manager meeting and I'm doing a presentation on Dynamic Components and Ruby. I'll be sure to include that example in my presentation!

Chris

sepo

Chris is there any solution to my problem yet?

Gaieus

What I'd absolutely love (and don't get me wrong, Chris, this is a brilliant ruby in its kind anyway) is if the UV maps (say positioned texture and such) would keep their maps relative to the modified (bent) mesh. I.e. if the texture bent along with the mesh itself.

Example: just imagine building perfectly textured arches in seconds.

massimo

Many thanks for the plugin, Chris.
It can make this...
bend tool.jpg
or this!!
bend tool 1.jpg

Chris Fullmer

Hi Sepo, thanks for reminding me. At this point, no, I've got nothing for that. It is odd that its the same error that most people get when they have a conflicting script. But you said you unloaded all other scripts and the problem persisted, right?

sepo

Yes that is correct. I have installed it my quad desktop with vista and it is really fine. I have also loaded it up on my laptop xp and it fine. It is only on this xp desktop which is making error. I can't work out why. I will go again through the plugins, but these are the same ones which I have on the laptop. I must point out the first version worked fine on the xp desktop . It is the last version I have problem with. It seems it has something to do with progress.rb but I do not know where to look. BTW plugin is awesome and I see much more use for it than simple bending. Using form to do transformations seems to give a lot of possibilities.

Chris Fullmer

ok, I have to ask again just to be sure - as this has bitten many many people in the passed - but did you look in "compatibility files" folder? This is a special new fun feature of Vista where it hides files to keep you safe. Navigate to the plugins folder and look for a button called compatibility files as shown in the picture I found on the internet:

Ignore the path and the "games" that is circled, just notice the compatibility files button that is circled. If you have that button showing, then you have hidden plugins installed. You need to click on that button to go to your Plugins "Compatibility Files" folder. Once in it, you'll find a bunch of plugin files. You can just move them all into your plugins folder. They still work just fine when in the compatibility folder, they just make troubleshooting challenging Now is there any chance that you have a copy of component spray in that folder? Move it over to the plugins folder and then make sure you have the updated version I linked to earlier. Or for testing purposes, you could even remove all the plugins from compatibility files location and the regular plugins location temporarily. Then put back clf_shape_bende_loader, the clf_shape_bender folder, and progressbar.rb.

If you are not having the compatibility files problem, then I'm really running low on ideas. There is no reason that just my script and progressbar.rb alone should not work. Unless you also have another location that is loading ruby scripts somehow....?

Chris

sepo

As I said I loaded it on Vista qaud desktop. It works no problem there.
It has problem on my other desktop which runs on XP.

Chris Fullmer

mis-read that bit. sorry about that. Could you send me a model that it is not working on? (which should be easy if it is every model). If I can't find anything, I'll just release a simulatenous version that does not call progressbar.

Chris