How to use Ruby API

[TIG]

points.each do |e|
    $mesh_file.puts(e.x.to_s)
    $mesh_file.puts(e.y.to_s)
    $mesh_file.puts(e.z.to_s)
end ###loop

Adds x/y/z into file on separate lines...
to test if it's at least getting the points values use plain puts so it appears in the console

points.each do |e|
    puts(e.x.to_s)
    puts(e.y.to_s)
    puts(e.z.to_s)
end ###loop

To write an xyz line use

points.each do |e|
    $mesh_file.puts(e.x.to_s+","+e.y.to_s+","+e.z.to_s)
end ###loop

Does

$mesh_file=File.new(out_path,"w")

actually make the file ?
You need to open the file for writing AND then close it after you are done writing to it.

$mesh_file.close

perhaps it's still open and so a second [separate] attempt to write to it fails...

[Chris Fullmer]

@thomthom said:

Normal convention is to type constants in all caps.

Oh yeah! I rarely intialize them. Thanks Thom,

Chris

[honoluludesktop]

TIG, Just got up, and finished reading at your post. Thanks I think I understand, and have a lot to work with.

$mesh_file=File.new(out_path,"w")

Made a 0 byte file that I can see in "My Computer". I assumed it was open, guess it wasn't:-). Looks like a lot of stuff to work on later today. Good advice about using "puts" to check output. I use the messagebox a lot but that is slow.

puts(e.x.to_s) prints Sketchup::Vertex:0xea24668 ?-(, Crossed this bridge once before, but don't recall how to get output as a number.

[Chris Fullmer]

puts(e.x.to_s) should return a numerical "x" position if e is a Point3d object. if e is a vertex, it should return an error. If e is a vertex, you can do e.position.x and that will return the x position of the vertex.

That sounded confusing to me. A few more lines of your code and I could give a slightly more complete example.

Great job so far!

Chris

[honoluludesktop]

"oops: - I" A little slow this morning, didn't get it until now. Thanks guys, lets see how far I can get with what I have before I, OOPS:-(, need help getting off the floor. Might not take too long.

Tig, I can now open, write to, and close files:-)

Chris above here is where I stumbled on the code.

It occurred to me that a "method", a "function" in other languages (I missed this one), was in my day know as a "procedure", having evolved from a "[C}all". Before this I did a Basic "sub routine", itself born out of "jump xxxx:xxxx, where xxxx:xxxx began a set of instruction that ended in "return". Before "Buddha" it was all 1111's and 0000's

[honoluludesktop]

Help! How do I get a number that repersents the location of a face vertices? The following is setup for Web Console. When I output to UI.messagebox(e.vertices), I get:

#Sketchup::Vertex:0xfc83800#Sketchup::Vertex:0xfc837e8#Sketchup::Vertex:0xfc837d0

The main proc is at the bottom, and the methods are above it.

model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.active_entities
selection = model.selection

### Test is selection made
if model.selection.empty?
  entities = model.active_entities
else
  entities = model.selection
end

###create file ComponentName.txt
def make_comp_face_file(the_name,faces,counter,model)
  the_line=the_name+" ",counter," faces"
  UI.messagebox(the_line)
  model_filename = File.basename(model.path)
  path=File.dirname(model.path)+"\\"
  out_name=the_name+".txt"
  out_path=path+out_name
end

###make vertices collection of faces in component
def add_face_vertices_collect(faces,points)
  faces.each do |e|
    points.push e.outer_loop
  end ### loop
end

###make 3dpoint from vertex HELP HERE!!!! I think
def print_vertices_collect(points)
  points.each do |e|
    UI.messagebox(e.vertices)       ###puts to test will be 
    ###$points_file.puts(e.vertices)###put here when works
  end
end

###Get su;;component collection
entities.each do |e|
  if e.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance
    the_name=e.definition.name
    stuff=e.definition.entities
    faces=[]
    counter=0
    ###Locate faces in each component and make faces collection
    stuff.each do |e|
	if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Face
	  counter=counter+1
	  faces.push e
	end ###if
    end ###loop
    make_comp_face_file(the_name,faces,counter,model)####Have to
    points=[]
    add_face_vertices_collect(faces,points)          ####nest these
    print_vertices_collect(points)                   ####later
    $points_file.close
  end ###if
end ###loop

[Jim]

The Vertex entity has a position.

point = vertex.position

The position will be relative to parent container, and not relative the SketchUp axes.

[TIG]

### points>>>vertices
vertices.each do |vertex|
  $points_file.puts(vertex.vertices.point.to_a)
  ### FILE of VERTICES POINTS AS AN ARRAY ONE PER LINE...
end

[honoluludesktop]

Hi guys, Thanks for your help. I stumbled on e.vertices.x.position after starting over. Now how do I read the SU Ruby API to make this easier to understand?-(

model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.entities
selection = model.selection

if model.selection.empty?
	entities = model.active_entities
else
	entities = model.selection
end

entities.each do |e|
	if e.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance
		ci_name=e.definition.name
		#UI.messagebox(ci_name)
		ci_collection=e.definition.entities
		#UI.messagebox(ci_collection)
		ci_collection.each do |e|
			ci_faces_collection=[]
			if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Face
				ci_faces_collection.push e
				ci_faces_collection.each do |e|
					faces_vertices_collection=[]
					if e.vertices
						faces_vertices_collection.push e
						puts(e.vertices.x.position)
					end
				end
			end
		end
	end 
end

[TIG]

Edges, Loops, Curves, Faces, etc have vertices and those vertices have a position vertices.position (i.e. a point)
points have x/y/z values vertices.position.x
DON'T muddle them up!

[honoluludesktop]

OK, so how do I get the coordinate values for each vertex on each face.vertices? I think I understand vertex.position, and face.vertices, but how do I get a collection of vertex for each vertices.

Can't be impossible, can it?

[Chris Fullmer]

look at the Face.vertices here:

http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/face.html#vertices

it says what it returns - an array of vertx objects. So to get positions for all those vertices, you need to loop through that array. Something like this:

` vert_array = my_face.vertices
position_array = []
x_position_array = []

vert_array.each do |v|
position_array << v.position
x_position_array << v.position.x
end`

[TIG]

@honoluludesktop said:

OK, so how do I get the coordinate values for each vertex on each face.vertices? I think I understand vertex.position, and face.vertices, but how do I get a collection of vertex for each vertices.
Can't be impossible, can it?

That is not logical
If you have run vertices=face.vertices you already have a collection [i.e. an array] of the face's vertices !
If you then look at each of them you can get their positions as another array,
e.g. positions=[]; vertices.each{|v|positions<< v.position}
Now you can look at each 'position' in that array (i.e. it's a point) and get the x/y/z values etc
positions.each{|p|puts p.x;puts p.y;puts p.z}

You seem to making this more complicated than it needs to be...

[honoluludesktop]

AGH!!!, Thats what happens when you don't really know what you are doing. I think I got it, again:-) puts(face_pts.position.to_a) almost at the bottom. Basically, I took a "vertices", got tne number of points by "vertices.length", then extracted each "vertex" by "This_number=vertices[0 to (length-1)]". The following runs in Web Console.

model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.entities
selection = model.selection

if model.selection.empty?
	entities = model.active_entities
else
	entities = model.selection
end

def open_comp_inst_file(comp_inst_name,model)
	comp_inst_file_name=File.basename(model.path)
	path=File.dirname(model.path)+"\\"
	out_name=comp_inst_name+".txt"
	out_path=path+out_name
	$dxf_ci_file=File.open(out_path,"w")
end

entities.each do |e|
	if e.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance
		puts("Component")
		comp_inst_name=e.definition.name
		comp_inst_collection=e.definition.entities
		#open text file for output
		#open_comp_inst_file(comp_inst_name,model)
		comp_inst_collection.each do |e|
			comp_inst_faces_collection=[]
			if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Face
				#make collection of faces
				comp_inst_faces_collection.push e
				vertices_collection=[]
				comp_inst_faces_collection.each do |e|
						if e.vertices
							#vertice collection
							vertices_collection.push e.vertices
							vertices_collection.each do |e|
								no_vert=e.length
								cnt_vert=no_vert
								puts("Vertices")
								no_vert.times do
									face_pts=(e[no_vert-cnt_vert])
									cnt_vert=cnt_vert-1
									puts("Vertex")
									puts(face_pts.position.to_a)
								end
							end
						end
				end #loop
			end #if
		end #loop
		#close text file
		#$dxf_ci_file.close
	end 
end

Here is some sample output:
%(#408000)[Start Component
Starts Vertices
Start Vertex
69.6952995222671
5.52489094225734
0.0
Start Vertex
26.421563780178
0.0
0.0
Start Vertex
0.0
34.7137089981752
0.0
Start Vertex
16.8521719619112
74.9523089386077
0.0
.
.]
Looks OK?

[Jim]

@honoluludesktop said:

AGH!!!, Thats what happens when you don't really know what you are doing.

Well, what are you doing? Try to make a precise statement of the purpose of the routine. In
English first, then Ruby.

This prints a summary of faces and vertices in the Definitions.

    model = Sketchup.active_model
    entities = model.entities
    selection = model.selection

    if model.selection.empty?
        entities = model.active_entities
    else
        entities = model.selection
    end

    instance_count = 0
    entities.each do |e|
        if e.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance
            instance_count += 1
            puts("Component; #{instance_count} #{e.definition.name}")
            face_count = 0
            e.definition.entities.each do |e|
                if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Face
                    face_count += 1
                    puts "  face; #{face_count}"
                    vertex_count = 0
                    e.vertices.each do |v|
                        vertex_count += 1
                        puts "    vertex #{vertex_count} id;#{v.object_id}  pos;#{v.position}"
                    end
                end
            end
        end
    end

Note since some faces share vertices, and all vertices are listed, some vertives will be duplicated.

Component; 2 Component#2
  face; 1
    vertex 1 id;48589944  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 0")
    vertex 2 id;48589932  pos;(0", 1.853015", 0")
    vertex 3 id;48589920  pos;(0", 1.853015", 2.160338")
    vertex 4 id;48589908  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 2.160338")
  face; 2
    vertex 1 id;48589944  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 0")
    vertex 2 id;48589692  pos;(2.160711", 0", 0")
    vertex 3 id;48589680  pos;(0", 0", 0")
    vertex 4 id;48589932  pos;(0", 1.853015", 0")
  face; 3
    vertex 1 id;48589680  pos;(0", 0", 0")
    vertex 2 id;48589692  pos;(2.160711", 0", 0")
    vertex 3 id;48589464  pos;(2.160711", 0", 2.160338")
    vertex 4 id;48589452  pos;(0", 0", 2.160338")
  face; 4
    vertex 1 id;48589932  pos;(0", 1.853015", 0")
    vertex 2 id;48589680  pos;(0", 0", 0")
    vertex 3 id;48589452  pos;(0", 0", 2.160338")
    vertex 4 id;48589920  pos;(0", 1.853015", 2.160338")
  face; 5
    vertex 1 id;48589464  pos;(2.160711", 0", 2.160338")
    vertex 2 id;48589908  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 2.160338")
    vertex 3 id;48589920  pos;(0", 1.853015", 2.160338")
    vertex 4 id;48589452  pos;(0", 0", 2.160338")
  face; 6
    vertex 1 id;48589692  pos;(2.160711", 0", 0")
    vertex 2 id;48589944  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 0")
    vertex 3 id;48589908  pos;(2.160711", 1.853015", 2.160338")
    vertex 4 id;48589464  pos;(2.160711", 0", 2.160338")

[honoluludesktop]

WOW! very compact, and fast, I will take a hard look at your code, and learn from it. Lets see how far I can get before having to post for help

Addenda: Well, I did have redundant code, and really need to learn how to format output. Would have never figured out Puts "#{e.position.x.to_f}" by myself.

[honoluludesktop]

Darn, I finished coding only to discover the "putdxf" I use for my CAD import has a bug that fails to locate multiple blocks correctly. I confirmed this by being unable to "putdxf" with the system's "getdxf". Will have to rewrite as a "command line" script. Thanks for everything, sorry I couldn't understand much of what you tried to explain to me. But, because of your help, I will get better in time