[Plugin] Simple Loft alpha 0.1b -- UPDATED May-15-09

jeff hammond

This tool is amazing. Definitely helped on some of my school projects. I do have one problem and dont know if its the tool or the system.
So I am on a mac. Leopard updated and all that.
I noticed that on starting sketchup, the red dot in the corner would indicate that the file had not yet been saved. Usually, this only happens when you actually start drawing. So, i removed all my plugins, downloaded sketchup fresh, and went back and added the plugins again one at a time. Found out that it was this tool that was causing sketchup to think that the file needed to be saved, even if nothing had been drawn. This wouldnt be a problem as i could just click "dont save," but doing that caused sketchup to crash every time.

So thats my dilemma. Does it make sense? Am i the only one with this problem?

@chris fullmer said:

That is very interesting Kyle. I'll have to look into it. Does anyone else see this?

Chris

yes, i'm getting the same thing.. i didn't notice it until it was too late for me to pinpoint which ruby was doing it so i just lived with it because i didn't want to troubleshoot my entire plugin folder ..
luckily, i came across the post and found that it is in fact simple loft causing the problem.. your other scripts are fine (at least -- perpendicular face, arc cpoint finder, and shapebender)

Chris Fullmer

Ahh, I am remembering that Macs have a thing where they initialize their model at a different point than PC's do, and this can cause problems. Perhaps I am attempting to access the model in an unstable state in this plugin.

In fact, I just checked the file, and I think I see the problem. Will someone download this script update and replace the file in the clf_simple_loft folder please? It is only replacing a single file for the script, and I think it will fix the problem.

And please make sure to put it in the clf_cimple_loft folder. It should overwrite an existing file. If it does not, you probably put it in the wrong spot.

Once we test it and see if this fixes anything, I'll update the script on the main page, and remove it from this post.

Chris

trial fix

jeff hammond

yep, that fixed it.
thank you!

Chris Fullmer

Great, thanks Jeff! I'll try to update the script tomorrow.

And go to bed! Its almost 02:00 in the morning!

Chris

ohmohm

How to Activate the loft tool?
I clicked on it and it opens the notepad.???

Chris Fullmer

You have to install it by unzipping it into your SketchUp plugins folder. The loader file goes into the plugins folder and all other files go into the sub folder, exactly how it is in the zip file.

Then it should install a SketchUp toolbar that you can use to activate the tool inside of SU.

Chris

ivreich

Hi Chris

I tried out your loft tool on my office computer and built a form with a series of b-splines. It worked fine, but when I took the model home and tried to replicate the same loft on my home computers, the face orientation became all screwy and the model folded in on itself.

I've attached my model for you to take a look at. The form coloured red is the problematic one that I built at home; the b-splines used in both forms are identical.

Thanks!

Joel

Problematic loft...

Loft Problem.jpg

tald311

This Ruby is brilliant.

hsjzyangbin

Hi Chris
I found a problem. LOFT is to implement an order to choose the non-closed line, the feasibility of improving the closed line, I want to click on five closed lines, pop-up dialog box, creating the effect shown in Figure

EscapeArtist

Issue trying to loft 3 curves:

onSelectionBulkChange46
onSelectionBulkChange96
onSelectionBulkChange142
onSelectionCleared
Error; #<ArgumentError; Cannot convert argument to Sketchup;;Point3d>
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;142;in `vector_to'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;142;in `middle_handles'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;137;in `each_index'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;137;in `middle_handles'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;87;in `onReturn'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;86;in `times'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;86;in `onReturn'
L;/Modeling/Sketchup Google/Plugins/clf_simple_loft/clf_simple_loft.rb;86

In a nutshell, I select 3 unattached curves and apply loft - nothing happens.

mspisz

Hey Chris!

Great plugin!, does exactly what I need it for in school!

Your the man!

Milo

Chris Fullmer

Great, glad it helped. It is admitedly outdated now though. Check out TIG's extrude scripts. Those are considerably more powerful!

Chris

ovandenbroek

Hi Chris and all others,

I like the concept of loft very much. In fact, it is one of the tools IMO that are making sketchup becoming a 'really' professional tool...

see the attachment of a particular shape (based on a design made earlier in 3DMAX, it's a counter).

I think you can make this only with 'loft' and not with TIG extrude tools. (?)

Okke

(PS For this kind of work I would love to have some more control over the 'bending' spline. In planview it's supposed to be a round counter, but as you can see the bending is not totaly 'circular')

Loftshape-ovdb

TIG

EEbyRails requires some 'rails' to follow - CF's Loft doesn't - it always joins the two profiles by a bezier [?] curve [and you must have equal numbers of segments in each profile and no 'loops' allowed].

To use the profiles you have shown with EEbyRails simply add some curves between them to be used as rails... then do a pair of profiles in turn with their 'rails[s]', using the second profile as the first profile in the next pair etc...

This means the railed path can be any form you like...

arch.sani

just found it out, installed and tried: Chris, this is simply fantastico!

anient

Had to join the forum simply to get a hold of this pluggin thanks sooo much

guillermorage

how do i install it

Rich O Brien

The first post in this thread has the instructions. It's the same for most plugins here. Some are zipped so they need extracting. Others are just .rb files which need to go in your plugins folder. And some are .rb with folders containing files.

All plugins go in your plugin folder.

guillermorage

Sorry, i am new in this forum, im using mac, i downloaded and its a ziped file, so i extracted and it appears a folder wich contains an rb file called:clf_simple_loft_loader.rb and another folder which contains; clf_simple_loft_small.png, clf_simple_loft.png, clf_simple_loft.rb.
I tried to move them to the plugins and then open sketchup, but nothing.

Rich O Brien

Hi,

When you extract you get this...
Simple Loft.jpg
Place both the .rb and the folder in your plugins folder. Do not take the files out of the folder as this will prevent it working.

I'm not familiar with Mac so where your plugin folder is located is a mytery