WxWindows for SketchUp Dialogs

BillW

I would just like to thank Peter for his work with WxSU. Personally, I would much rather use WxSU than Webdialogs, much more flexible and entirely in Ruby and cross platform. With auto sizing, any dialog will even change to match screen resolution. You can also set a minimum dialog size for resizing.

To give some idea of the rich capabilities, find enclosed a flash video of a set of dialogs (WIP) I have been working on and a jpeg showing the main dialog.

Sketchup WxSu.swf

Build entity.JPG

Jim

Is it stable? If so, it's a go.

tomasz

I have done some progress using WxSU. Thank you Peter!

Is there a way to hide a WxSU Frame when SU program is minimized?
I cannot achieve it (Vista). I thought it should work when SU frame is specified as a parent window (WxSU.app.sketchup_frame).

I have checked that even all examples always stay visible when SU is being minimized.

Tomasz

tomasz

@billw said:

... Personally, I would much rather use WxSU than Webdialogs, much more flexible and entirely in Ruby and cross platform.

Have you used the WxFormBuilder? It would be nice to have a straight output compatible with WxSU! There is a beta which works with Python.

Tomasz

tomasz

I have found that WxSU won't close a Dialog on SU exit. It closes Frames without a problem.

I haven't figured it out how to fix it yet.

Tomasz

tomasz

I would appreciate any help with solving this strange bugsplat which appears instead of a simple ruby error message in the console.
It happens after triggering an 'evt_button'.

require("wxSU/lib/Startup")

module Test

	class MainMenu < Wx;;Frame

		def initialize()
			super(WxSU.app.sketchup_frame, -1, "Test", Wx;;DEFAULT_POSITION, Wx;;Size.new(440,260), WxSU;;CHILD_FRAME_STYLE | Wx;;FRAME_FLOAT_ON_PARENT | Wx;;FRAME_NO_TASKBAR )
			main_panel = Wx;;Panel.new(self, -1)

			button = Wx;;Button.new(main_panel, -1, "Action!", Wx;;DEFAULT_POSITION, Wx;;DEFAULT_SIZE)

			evt_button(button.get_id) {|event| button_click(event) }

		end

		def button_click(event)
			xx44 ## HERE COMES INNOCENT RUBY ERROR
		end

	end

	main_menu=MainMenu.new
	main_menu.show

end

event_bugsplat.rb

tomasz

Hi,
Has someone succeed to run wxSU on MAC SnowLeopard? I have received a report that wxSU 3.0 failed to start on that system.

It looks like it has to be compiled for SmowL in a special way.
EDIT: PC version from the ZIP file doesn't run well on MAC

I would love to see more people involved in moving this library into a decent stage of development, because I find that it is very easy to build even complicated interfaces and WxWidgets can be used when writing programs in C++, so the lessons learned in Ruby can be used in programming SU C++ extensions.

Tomasz

tomasz

PROBLEM:
Windows: The SketchUp main window is not recognised correctly when an SKP file is being opened by double-click.

FIX:
MsWindowsFrame.rb
line 60 should read:

model_name=File.basename(model_path,".skp")

was model_name=File.basename(model_path) which was including extension of a SU file.

BTW. Why Sketchup.active_model.name returns always an empty string. Shouldn't it refer to the file name??

The rb file with the fix

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

BTW. Why Sketchup.active_model.name returns always an empty string. Shouldn't it refer to the file name??

No - form the manual: http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#name


The name method retrieves the string name of the model.

Does not refer to filename. But I think it's similar to definition.name. When you import one model into another it comes in as a component - and I think this property refers to what the definition name will be.

But you have model.path instead:
http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#path

Dan Rathbun

@unknownuser said:

model_name=File.basename(model_path,".skp")

was model_name=File.basename(model_path) which was including extension of a SU file.

The Model.title method returns the basename (ie filename,) minus the file extension.

Note comparison:


model_name=File.basename(model_path,".skp")
Sketchup.active_model.title == model_name
# would return true

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

The Model.title method returns the basename (ie filename,) minus the file extension.

Uh? is that something SU implements? don't see it in the manual...

Dan Rathbun

@thomthom said:

@dan rathbun said:

The Model.title method returns the basename (ie filename,) minus the file extension.

Uh? is that something SU implements? don't see it in the manual...

Woops.. sorry omitted the link. Here is is:
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#title

thomthom

I'm going crosseyed. didn't see that. think I looked at Sketchup class when I looked...

tomasz

@dan rathbun said:

The Model.title method returns the basename (ie filename,) minus the file extension.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the method.

Dan Rathbun

@unknownuser said:

Why Sketchup.active_model.name returns always an empty string.

ANSWER: It doesn't ALWAYS return an empty String, it always returns the value of the name attribute (which is class String.)

But IF you never set the value of the name attribute, then of course it will 'seem' to always be an empty value, because it is.

The value can be set easily using the Model.name= method.

Example Code:


n = Sketchup.active_model.name
n.inspect
#>> ""
Sketchup.active_model.name="A newly set name for my model."
n.inspect
#>> "A newly set name for my model."

IF you are writing plugins for other users, you should not expect the name attribute to always be empty, and should (in your code,) allow for those times when the model has been assigned a name value (by the user or another plugin.)

ALSO, in the Outliner Window, the model will be listed by .title value, NOT by the .name attribute.

P.S.: I can't find a edit control, anywhere in the UI that allows setting the .name (or the .tags) attribute. They SHOULD be on the 'File' page of the Model Info ToolDialog, but are not. (This forces us to use the Console to set the name or write a lil' script to make an inputbox.)

Edited: meant to say ' .tags' attribute instead of '.note'; a note is just a Text class object, and not a attribute of the Model.

Malkomitch

@unknownuser said:

Have you used the WxFormBuilder? It would be nice to have a straight output compatible with WxSU! There is a beta which works with Python.

Tomasz

or you can export your design to a xrc file (xml style) and load it with xml methods from the Wx module.

xml = Wx::XmlResource.get
xml.load(your_file.xrc)

(google for "xrcise", this utility write for you the code needed to load your xrc)

Malkomitch

@unknownuser said:

I would appreciate any help with solving this strange bugsplat which appears instead of a simple ruby error message in the console.
It happens after triggering an 'evt_button'.

It looks like WxSU doesn't handle errors communication between WxRuby and Sketchup.

The best way to get rid of bugsplats is to handle exceptions by yourself, at the end of each method that uses WxSU:
That way, you display the call stack, letting you know where the bug is.


rescue => detail
   puts detail.message
   puts detail.backtrace.join("\n")

tomasz

@malkomitch said:

The best way to get rid of bugsplats is to handle exceptions by yourself, at the end of each method that uses WxSU:
That way, you display the call stack, letting you know where the bug is.

Thanks a lot for your help.
I get a bugsplat when closing SU, but it is definitely better this way.
I though that begin ... rescue ... end is required, but I am glad to hear that rescue alone is sufficient.

Writing about xml loading I must say that I prefer to write my own Ruby code based on 'initial' FormBuilder layout, as it helps me better understand WxRuby. Thanks for hint anyway!

Tomasz

Dan Rathbun

@unknownuser said:

I thought that begin ... rescue ... end is required, but I am glad to hear that rescue alone is sufficient.

That is because in module definitions, the module statement is a block statement so the word module works the same as begin (after all, the module does need an end.)


module My_Module
  # method defs
  # code goes here
rescue
  # error handling code
else
  # only do code if no exceptions
ensure
  # always do this code on exit
end # the end of the method def

The same is true for method definitions, where the def keyword 'begins' the block.


def my_method
  # code goes here
rescue
  # error handling code
else
  # only do code if no exceptions
ensure
  # always do this code
end # the end of the module

tomasz

@dan rathbun said:

That is because in module definitions, the module statement is a block statement so the word module works the same as begin (after all, the module does need an end.)

Thanks for the explanation.