[prototype] Doublecut (0.1.0a) - Need help debugging

Sir

this will indeed be an incredibly useful plugin! when doublecutting, will it make a permenant cut, or will it just make the intersecting faces hidden?

because this would then allow you to move the windows about, and as you moved them the wall would hide before them and then heal behind...

this will be so useful fo old skool windows where they didnt know what symmetry was

plot-paris

@thomthom said:

Try making sure you have edges where it intersects with the wall, then extrude further out once more.

thats what I did with the example on the right hand side. so that means you always have to design Double-Cut-Components (DCCs as opposed to DCs (Dynamic Components) ) for a specific wall thickness.

now that I come to think of it, this may even be a positive thing - thus you will always see, if a wall is not exactly the right thickness

thomthom

Mind you, if you make a DCC for a wall 200mm thick, and then try to place it on a wall 400mm thick; it won't cut initially. But if you scale the instance 2x in the components Z-axis so that it intersects it will make the cut.

thomthom

I changed the script so all observers events where I added/removed/edited anything to the model where qued up in an command array. That array where then read by the onTransactionCommit. At first it appeared to work, but then I got the bugsplats again. (I might not have done the actions to trigger it initially.)

I've been trying to find the cause of the bugsplat, but all I've found so far is that it happens if I add/remove DDC after they have been made into DCC components. If I just move, rotate or scale them there is no bugsplat.

What I find very odd is that the bugsplat occurs when I open the second scene.


Make DCC
Add/Remove DCC (this will trigger the splat later)
File->New (New model opens, no bug splat.)
File->New (Blugsplat! Why so late?)

I'm wondering if it might be due to some entity references, but I reset all arrays/hashes containing references when a new model is opened.

The only thing I haven't tried is keep track of all observers and removing them. But I'm not sure if I'm able to remove them all...

Version 0.2.0a

plot-paris

hi Thom,

I had a lot of problems with SketchUp the past week; lots of 'bug splats' when using the drape tool. and I got an error message every time I closed the program (and in fact, when I opened the task manager, I discovered that SU hadn't closed at all, but was still running in the background. so after opening and closing several models I had five SU versions running in the background at full speed, bringing down my computer entirely).

after checking, which plugin was responsible for these errors, I found that it is the DCC-plugin. no idea, why that is. but I thought you might be interested in that.

Chris Fullmer

You might check the first post again Jakob, I think Thom's aware of the splatters If I remember correctly this plugin release was more of a developer preview than a full featured stable release.

Chris

thomthom

Yes, it's written in large bold red letters at the very top of the original thread...
And in the comment to the download link.

plot-paris

I know. but I just thought it was interesting to know that the plugin disturbs all the workings of SketchUp - even when not being used. so the crashes appear when you use completely different tools... (that does make sense of course, because the plugin has to monitor the model at all times).

thomthom

Yea - I've had to disable it. Only have it enabled when I try to debug it.
This plugin has really been bugging me. I just wish there was any data to get from SU when it crashed...

I have thought of an alternative method to do this. One that doesn't keep direct references to entities. Hopefully that'll sort it out. But it require a heavy re-write. So it's set aside for later when I have better time

Jim

I had a look earlier this week, but I was getting an error indicating you were calling .entities on an Instance. Will look again today.

thomthom

@jim said:

I had a look earlier this week, but I was getting an error indicating you were calling .entities on an Instance. Will look again today.

hm.. that's an error I haven't gotten... care to paste it here next time you get it?

Jim

This happened after I downloaded your hole example, turned-off double cutting, then tried to turn it back on.


Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `entities' for #<Sketchup;;ComponentInstance;0x6113c84>>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;356;in `intersect_edges'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;349;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;349;in `intersect_edges'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;174;in `place_cutout'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;149;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;139;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;139;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;138;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;138;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;1068
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;356;in `call'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/other/tt_double_cut.rb;356

thomthom

Was that with the original 0.1.0 or with the 0.2.0 which I posted later in the thread?

Jim

0.2.0a

thomthom

Strange error. Though I never tried that much to toggle it on/off.

I get a different error though (maybe I changed it after 0.2.0)

Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `name=' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;201;in `place_cutout'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;149;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;139;in `each'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;139;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;138;in `each'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;138;in `make_cutouts'
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;1068
C;/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/tt_double_cut.rb;1068;in `call'

When I got this Europan competition finished and I've sorted out the last webdialog for Street Generator I'll give this plugin another go witha different approach.

utiler

Hey Thomas, Just downloaded the Drill plugin and couldn't help but notice how easily it cuts through the opposite face. Maybe there is something in it that may help solve this one...
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=19556&p=165720#p165720

Keep up the great work, mate. Blokes like you are taking SU to new heights!!!!

thomthom

Thanks.
I'm afraid that the problem it's making the holes. It's keeping track of them.

icepam

Thom,

maybe this is a very old project you gave up on, but i have an idea for you - or anyone else willing to develop a double cut plugin. it's a technique i use manually and it relies on pure and tested core sketchup tools, so no need to really keep track of the holes. (unless i missed anything,) your plugin creates an actual hole and removes part of the back face.

what i suggest, is to have the plugin automatically create a copy of the front component but mirrored -1 along its blue axis and stuck onto the back wall. This would cut the whole in any thickness of wall, and as long as the "depth" of the component is half or more the thickness of the wall, the model will be "closed".

obviously it means the component trim will look similar on both sides of the wall, but you may be able to circumvent this if you create a component copy with everything above the reference plane of the component removed.

the idea in the end is to create double components, not to try to cookie cut the wall and then try to keep up with it, which is what you say is causing the bugsplats.

if i scale/edit/etc the original component, its back mirrored version will follow and the cut will follow. if i need to move the actual component all i have to do is select both and move them together.

if i got it wrong, please forgive my naiveté.

thomthom

That is exactly what this plugin tried to do. In fact, it worked very well to create the appropriate cut-out component on the opposite face.
The problem was keeping everything in sync when the user moved any of them around.

Maybe I should just release the part that creates the opposite component. Relax on the attempt of catching all updates and leave a Manual Refresh command. Even that would make things easier.

TIG

My 'HolePunch' script [do a search in plugins] does what you seek ?
It punches cutting components through walls. The inner reveal and window [say] are then inexorably linked and move together unless you 'unlink' or 'undo-punch'. Currently it's one shortcoming is that if you copy a punched component on an elevation etc it does not cut/punch the face - the work-around is to un-punch it and the copy/matrix, then re-punch all of the copies again...