[Plugin] Exploded arc lines to arc

nobnob

I create a script that converts lines (exploded arc curve) to an arc curve.
It also can convert offseted arc and followmeed arc.

Special thanks to Chris Fullmer! You may take, rebuild and release this as yours.

nilines2arc.rb

ken

@nobnob said:

I create a script that converts lines (exploded arc curve) to an arc curve.
It also can convert offseted arc and followmeed arc.

Special thanks to Chris Fullmer! You may take, rebuild and release this as yours.

Don’t want to seem ungrateful, but am I being a jerk?

Shouldn’t the menu’s item name for a script have some relationship to the script’s function?

I renamed the menu item’s name to “Unexplode Arc” for this particular script, so at least I would have some hint what the menu selection was suppose to accomplish. And why is there a menu item of “ni” and a submenu item “Lines to Arc”? To me it seems unnecessary to have to make two clicks to accomplish one action.

One time I had a script that the menu item had no relationship to the script’s name, another two character menu item's name. I had no idea what the script was to do, to what script the menu selection was referring to, and could not find the script by doing a search for the menu’s items name in my list of scripts. Finally, I did come across the script and deleted the darn thing as it was no longer needed.

All and all a very useful script and thanks for your time and effort and I am very gateful, Nobnob.

Ken

Jim

Split into new topic.

nobnob

Oops! I hesitate this is on top topic, since this script has many lines that 'Exploded arc centerpoint finder' Chris wrote.

I use many tiny scripts that I wrote. That's why I use submenu. It's only for me. You may change lines of this script for menu placing as Ken did.

Thanks Ken and Jim.

purplewind

Thanks, but what’s the difference between this one and the "weld.rb"?

Gaieus

A welded series of lines is still "just" a polyline. Arcs (and circles and polygons) are special entities in SU with a couple of special attributes and functions (like they can have centerpoints while a "simple", welded polyline cannot)

nobnob

Thanks, purplewind and Gaieus.
I often use 'Point at Center' in context menu, since I'm piping designer. That because I hardly use 'weld.rb' and I often use 'clf_arc_centerpoint_finder.rb', 'centerpoint.rb' and 'nilines2arc.rb'. If the circle function can specify its normal vector via drag as the rotate function, then I don't need 'nilines2arc.rb'.

mariocha

This is useful when having to send a SkUp model to a CAD soft that needs arcs such as for CNC operation.
Works fine on circles.
Pity it does not work well on offseted arcs. I often get an error message "All of edges must have the same length", which is not often the case with an arc, the first and last segment being trimed more often than not.