How to apply attributes through code? and how do they work?

[thomthom]

You pretty much have it there in your first post. To add attributes to an entity you use .set_attribute.

As your plugin creates the group with the box, you attach the data you want to that group.

[meeta]

Yes it all goes well without any errors to debug. But When I right-click and click 'Show Attributes' there is nothing there but this in the dialog box:::

%(#8080FF)[**Add Category...

You can create/delete categories of Attributes and add/edit and delete individual attributes within a category.
To get started, click on the Add Category... link above.

Tip: You can create standard categories by clicking here.

Add an attribute Delete Category Cancel Accept**]

Is there another way of access the attributes I applied? And say I save this box, will the attributes be saved too?

[thomthom]

I sounds like you haven't added the attributes to the correct entity then.

I take it the first post included parts of the code you used - question is: where does the entities[0] variable come from?

[meeta]

I think the different entities are stored in an array format right? I copied the exact thing from the Google API.
[url]
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/entity.html#set_attribute[/url]

[thomthom]

I really sound like you are attaching it to some random entity. Without seeing the rest of the code I can't tell you specifically what you're doing wrong - but I'm pretty sure that entities[0] does not refer to the group you want to add the attributes to.
I ask you again: where are you getting the entities variable from? What entities collection does it refer to?

When you create a group for your box. You're using the .add_group method somewhere. That method returns a reference to the group you created. This is the entity you need to attach the attribute data to.

[meeta]

here is the code i think its fine..

def draw_beam
		
		model = Sketchup.active_model
		entities = model.entities
		group = entities.add_group
		entities = group.entities
	
			pt = []
			pt[0] = [0, 0, 0]
			pt[1] = [@b, 0, 0]
			pt[2] = [@b, 0, @h]
			pt[3] = [0, 0, @h]
	   
		c_section = entities.add_face pt
		 
		@length = -@length if( c_section.normal.dot(Y_AXIS) < 0 )
		
		c_section.pushpull @length

	entity1 = entities[1]
	status = entity1.set_attribute "Dimensions", "Length", "#{@h} mm"
	status = entity1.set_attribute "Dimensions", "Width", "#{@b} mm"
	status = entity1.set_attribute "Dimensions", "Effective Length", "#{@d} mm"
    end

[thomthom]

"Well, there you're problem!"

You are assigning the attributes to a random entity inside your group.

group = entities.add_group
Here: you have your group assigned the the variable group. This is the value you want to attach your attributes to.

p.s.

entities = model.entities
group = entities.add_group

This will always create the group at the top level of the model. If the user opens a group or component when this method is run, the user might expect the group to be created in this context - but your code will not do that. model.active_entities always refer to the current context.

[meeta]

Ahh there is my mistake! I love finding mistakes..

I thought group is a method and not a variable!

[thomthom]

.add_group is a method. But it returns a variable - reference to the newly created group. http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/entities.html#add_group

You created the variable group and assigned it to the return value of .add_group.

[meeta]

@beam = Sketchup.active_model.selection[0] bbox = @beam.bounds point1 = bbox.max point2 = bbox.min b = (point1[0] - point2[0]).abs.to_mm.to_i length = (point1[1] - point2[1]).abs.to_mm.to_i h = (point1[2] - point2[2]).abs.to_mm.to_i @beam.set_attribute "Beam Information", "1. Type of Concrete", "#{@cstrength}"

Ok one problem now, I have selected active_model as either ComponentInstance or Group. When its a group I can apply the attributes with no problem! But when its a component I am not able to add the information. Is there a way I can add all this information to it? and Is there a way to apply the same attributes to all the ComponentInstances in the active_model?

[TIG]

@meeta said:

@beam = Sketchup.active_model.selection[0] bbox = @beam.bounds point1 = bbox.max point2 = bbox.min b = (point1[0] - point2[0]).abs.to_mm.to_i length = (point1[1] - point2[1]).abs.to_mm.to_i h = (point1[2] - point2[2]).abs.to_mm.to_i @beam.set_attribute "Beam Information", "1. Type of Concrete", "#{@cstrength}"

Ok one problem now, I have selected active_model as either ComponentInstance or Group. When its a group I can apply the attributes with no problem! But when its a component I am not able to add the information. Is there a way I can add all this information to it? and Is there a way to apply the same attributes to all the ComponentInstances in the active_model?

active_model IS the model NEVER anything else like a ComponentInstance or a Group.
You must specify either the ComponentInstance or the Group, and then set_attributes for them.
If you want to set_attributes for them, you must first specify them clearly...
IF the first thing in a selection is a Group you can apply attributes to it.
IF the first thing in a selection is a ComponentInstance you can apply attributes to it.
[You can even get the instance.definition of it and set_attributes for that]
I see no problems... except that you a not selecting the right type of thing to set_attributes to ?

IF @beam = Sketchup.active_model.selection[0] IS the beam then it works... BUT is it the beam first thing in the selection ? You don't tell us enough to see what the @beam = Sketchup.active_model.selection[0] might be !

[thomthom]

apply the attibs to the definition.

[meeta]

what exactly is a component definition?

[meeta]

	if (Sketchup.active_model.selection[0].typename == "Group" or Sketchup.active_model.selection[0].typename == "ComponentDefinition")
			menu.add_separator
			menu.add_item("Beam Analyser") {
	                b = Beam.new
			b.bbox
			b.prompts
.
.
.
.
.
.

def bbox 
		@beam = Sketchup.active_model.selection[0]
		bbox = @beam.bounds
		point1 = bbox.max
		point2 = bbox.min
		b = (point1[0] - point2[0]).abs.to_mm.to_i
		length = (point1[1] - point2[1]).abs.to_mm.to_i
		h = (point1[2] - point2[2]).abs.to_mm.to_i	
end	

does this make it more clear? If I choose a group, there is not problem. But if I choose a componentinstance, The attributes are applied without any problems. Unfortunately its not being applied to @beam.

[thomthom]

Would it be that your use of or instead of || makes this lines not evaluate correctly?
if (Sketchup.active_model.selection[0].typename == "Group" or Sketchup.active_model.selection[0].typename == "ComponentDefinition")

or has a lower precedence than ||
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Ruby_Operator_Precedence

[TIG]

Things [each called an Entity] that are 'visible' in a model are typically geometry [lines, faces etc], and groups and components [what is commonly called a component is actually a 'component-instance']. These groups and instances contain geometry - they can also contain sub-groups and other instances. This is a simplified picture since there's also Images, Text, Dimensions etc etc but lets keep it simple !
Within the model's 'database' there are other things you can't see but that you can use - inside 'collections' called Materials, Layers, Styles and ComponentDefinitions. Each of these will have entries like Material, Layer, Style and ComponentDefinition.

So far so good ?

When you look at the Components in the Browser you are looking into the model's database and seeing the Component-definitions available for use.

When you select [highlight] something in a model you can get its 'class' [typename etc] so with the initial examples above you have Sketchup::Edge, Sketchup::Face, Sketchup::Group and Sketchup::ComponentInstance.

Let's assume you have somehow set a variable instance=ss[i] which is a Sketchup::ComponentInstance.
You can find its definition thus definition=instance.definition

Now you can find an instance.definition but conversely you can find a definition.instances [i.e. all of that definition's instances]
Any particular definition's instance doesn't contain anything at all - it is a marker for the definition itself, so instance.definition.entities gives you a list of entities inside the definition that that instance is using...
You can even 'swap' an instance's definition for another one: instance.definition=another_definition ...