Need helpfull informations for a project

[sirnoname]

Hello,

I will try to make a bridge which will control a object and it's placement / orientation from a external program. So I need some advice if this is possible and some hints where to begin.

What I have:

• Scetchup
• Ruby (standard installation + C++ libraries)
• a simple object drawn with scetchup

What I want:
I have a external software written in C++ which has a degree slider 0-90°.
The object in scetchup should turn if I move the slider.

The goal:

• Make a drawing of a mechanical object and find out how it will work with real parameters

How to realise??
Here is my attempt:
Ruby owns mmap library which can access memory mapped files and therefore the C++ application can create such a interprocess communication and ruby will read that value and set the object in the new position.

This are the open questions:

• Which mode of scetchup can work with such a ruby loop?
• will the mmap ruby library available within scetchup?
• what are the other options to move/rotate a object in ruby?

Would be nice to get some ideas ...

Best regards
SirNoName

[avariant]

I'm not really familiar with "memory mapped" files, but I can imagine more or less what it is.
You will probably need a ruby script in SU that polls the memory to detect changes, and then control the geometry when there is a change. In order to poll the memory, you'll need a thread or a timer. However, from what I've seen, threads and timers don't work well, or at all, in SU. They tend to start out ok but stop after a very short period of time. So I think the biggest hurdle is to figure out how to poll the memory inside SU.

[chrisglasier]

@sirnoname said:

... - what are the other options to move/rotate a object in ruby?

Would be nice to get some ideas ...

How about a web dialog with an html/javascript slider and a callback in the ruby plugin file to do the rotating?

Chris

[chrisglasier]

PS see also:

This topic.

This clip

cg