How to add entities inside a group?

NewOne

Well, title says all... I can't figure out how to add entities (component instances) inside a group that I already have created. It contains some entities, but I want to be able to add more things inside it, using a ruby script.
And one more thing that bothers me: when I initially made the group I did it like this:


...
group = model.active_entities.add_group entities_array
group.name = name

But, the problem is that I gave a name just to the group entity and since group.definition.name is not a valid method, I'm stuck. Why I need to give same name to the definition as the entity? Because when/if I use right-click -> Make Component, the new created component instance will take definition's name.

Thank you.

thomthom

You get a groups definition by group.entities.parent
But, there's a bug in SU where that reference some times get mixed up with the wrong definition.

I use this snippet to get groups definitions:


def self.get_real_group_parent(group)
  if group.entities.parent.instances.include?(group)
    return group.entities.parent
  else
    Sketchup.active_model.definitions.each { |definition|
      return definition if definition.instances.include?(group)
    }
  end
  return nil # error
end

thomthom

To add entities to a group:

group.entities.add_face(...)

TIG

@newone said:

Well, title says all... I can't figure out how to add entities (component instances) inside a group that I already have created. It contains some entities, but I want to be able to add more things inside it, using a ruby script.
And one more thing that bothers me: when I initially made the group I did it like this:


> ...
> group = model.active_entities.add_group entities_array
> group.name = name
>

But, the problem is that I gave a name just to the group entity and since group.definition.name is not a valid method, I'm stuck. Why I need to give same name to the definition as the entity? Because when/if I use right-click -> Make Component, the new created component instance will take definition's name.

Thank you.

Last things first...


name=group.name
inst=group.to_component
defn=inst.definition
defn.name=name
### done !

To add to ANY entities - including those of a group or definition...


ents=group.entities
tr=Geom;;Transformation.new(point)
ents.add_instance(defn,tr)

NewOne

thanks thomthom, can I borrow your snippet for what I need? It shows very useful!

thomthom

Go ahead!