[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

Chris Fullmer · 26 Feb 2010, 05:25

It bends in however many segments are in the curve line. So if you want a fine detail in the bend, your curve needs to have finer detail. I made it this way so that the bending always matches up the curve that you are trying to fit to. It is more useful this way for bending a shape to an existing curves - like curving a logo onto a curved existing wall.

So jsut try adding segments to your curve,

Chris

arjunmax09 · 26 Feb 2010, 06:14

oh is see..!!! Thanks Chris..

arjunmax09 · 27 Feb 2010, 12:14

@august said:

Hi arjunmax09,

@arjunmax09 said:

... is there a way to increase the segments of the bended object?...

If that's clear, great. If that's confusing, try thinking of it this way:

It works as if the Shape Bender picks up the object and the guide line at the same time and then bends, stretches, or shrinks the guide line to fit the target curve, bending, stretching, or shrinking the object along with whatever it does to get the guide line to fit onto the target curve. Depending on the shape of the target curve, the size of the bending object, and the distance between the guide line and the bending object, some parts of the object may be compressed while other parts may be stretched. But regardless of stretching or compressing of the object, one segment of the bent guide line is created for each segment of the target curve.

I hope this helps,
August

Thanks a lot Mr. August!! I must say that was a really a complete crash course in "SHAPE BENDING USING SHAPE BENDER - EVERY CONCEPT EXPLAINED Thank you very much!!

Chris Fullmer · 27 Feb 2010, 16:34

Yes Thanks August. I find that this plugin works better the more you understand what it is doing behind the scenes. It becomes easier to get predictable results if you know how the plugin works, and how it tried to process the given shapes.

Chris

August · 27 Feb 2010, 23:19

@chris fullmer said:

Yes, Thanks August.
You're Welcome. Being able to make that kind of difference is a big part of why I got into Technical Writing.

@unknownuser said:

I find that this plugin works better the more you understand what it is doing behind the scenes.
I find that's true for a lot of things, and it's part of my personal philosphy about writing instructions and explanations.

Chris, have you or anyone else done any more of a tutorial on this than your video at the beginning of this thread? This has become one of those plugins that, for me, has become an indespensible part of what makes Sketchup magical and I'm thinking of puting it on my to-do list.

I had just been using Shape Bender the day before "arjunmax09" asked his question, so how I think about how the tool works was very fresh in my mind. I've attached an image of the logo I used Shape Bender on.

August

Chris Fullmer · 27 Feb 2010, 23:38

Yeah, Simon le Bon put together a fairly comprehensive (and very dense) thread about how he has used shape bender. I think I jumped in a little helped hammer out some of the technical intricacies and quirks in the code (of which there are plenty).

The thread I am thinking of is in the tutorial section, and he was making a wine jug? or a woven basekt? boy, now I don't recall exactly. Plus there is probably more info towards the start of this thread too.

A fairly simple, yet accurate and comprehensive tutorial on this plugin would be greatly appreciated. So a HUGE thanks in advance if you ever get around to it.

Chris

arjunmax09 · 28 Feb 2010, 05:17

@chris fullmer said:

Just go download the newest version of component spray here:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=11746

And install it. Shape bender will still work, and component spray will work too. It is a very good script,

Chris

I downloaded the latest component spray from the above link... and unzipped its ruby script in my plugins folder... but it still interferes with the ShapeBender Tool. If I remove the compo_spray.rb file from my plugins folder the shape bender works fine. What should I do now??

Chris Fullmer · 28 Feb 2010, 05:48

Hmmm, that is very odd. I have not heard of that before. MAke sure that when you download it and open it, you are not opening an old cached version of the file or something...?

arjunmax09 · 28 Feb 2010, 07:32

no i am not downloading any cached version... internet explorer windows pops up "do you want to save this file??>yes>save in my documents>that's it....

Chris Fullmer · 28 Feb 2010, 07:44

ok, I'll download it and try it and see what I get. I won't be able to do it for probably a few days though.

arjunmax09 · 28 Feb 2010, 13:23

@chris fullmer said:

ok, I'll download it and try it and see what I get. I won't be able to do it for probably a few days though.

okay...

broomstick · 4 Mar 2010, 00:44

using windows 7, sketchup pro 7

I am trying the plugin but it freezes and does nothing

I get a message in the status bar:

->--------------- 5%. End @ ? (1 of 5) Searching for objects to explode.

What am I doing wrong?

Chris Fullmer · 4 Mar 2010, 02:37

Component Sporay is interfering. You will need to remove it for now. THere was a component Spray update a while ago that cleared up this issue, but it appears that the update might not be working right anymore. So for now, just remove it if you need to use ANY script that uses the progressbar plugin.

Chris

arjunmax09 · 4 Mar 2010, 04:59

Thanks chris... wonder how plugins... lose their foolproof performance in few months!!!!

Chris Fullmer · 4 Mar 2010, 05:21

ok, I just went back and tested the component spray myself. It is indeed broken again. I'll have to contact Didier about it (I hate bugging him because he's very busy, but his script is breaking the progressbar!).

So you should be seeing that any script that uses progressbar (some of my other scripts, and most notably make_faces from smustard) are all broken because of component spray.

For now there is no simple work around. You just have to remove component spray from your plugins folder if you want to use shape bender or make_faces, or any script that uses progressbar. And then put component spray back if you want to use it and restart sketchup so it loads (or type load 'compo_spray.rb' into the ruby console after you put it back in the plugins folder if you do not want to restart sketchup). But once its loaded, it will break progressbar until you restart SketchUp.

And for the 1 of 5 error, that might actually be something else. That could be that you have complex geometry and it takes a lot of processing to bend it so it is thinking. OR it could also be that you have lots of sub groups in your component and it is trying to find them all (which it is VERY slow at because I did a poor job writing that part of the script). So I woulod recommend trying a very cimple object like a box first. If that bends then you know it is working. And complex objects take a lot of time. I bent a very detailed corvette once into an s-curve. It took a few hours, but it worked (well the mesh had issues, it was not completely clean, but it did bend it pretty well).

Good luck,

Chris

arjunmax09 · 4 Mar 2010, 08:41

whoa!!! first time ever in my life i've heard that plugins can damage other pluginss.... man...now i understand... once my mirror plugin got corrupt... had to reinstall sketchup all over again... contacted other members to fix the problem but no one was able to ... .maybe that time also the mirror plugin got damaged by some other messy plugin.... anyway.. its fixed now....

arjunmax09 · 4 Mar 2010, 08:44

whoa!!! first time ever in my life i've heard that plugins can damage other pluginss.... man...now i understand... once my mirror plugin got corrupt... had to reinstall sketchup all over again... contacted other members to fix the problem but no one was able to ... .maybe that time also the mirror plugin got damaged by some other messy plugin.... anyway.. its fixed now....

@chris fullmer said:

ok, I just went back and tested the component spray myself. And for the 1 of 5 error, that might actually be something else. That could be that you have complex geometry and it takes a lot of processing to bend it so it is thinking. OR it could also be that you have lots of sub groups in your component and it is trying to find them all (which it is VERY slow at because I did a poor job writing that part of the script). So I woulod recommend trying a very cimple object like a box first. If that bends then you know it is working. And complex objects take a lot of time. I bent a very detailed corvette once into an s-curve. It took a few hours, but it worked (well the mesh had issues, it was not completely clean, but it did bend it pretty well).
Chris

hey chris... how many hours did it take to bend...any idea..??? can you just paste the pic of the corvette here so maybe we can get a tentative timing idea about the shape that we're tryin' to bend

Chris Fullmer · 4 Mar 2010, 16:30

Heh, I don't have a picture of it anymore. I should redo it and time it. But it took about 2 hours I think.

And plugins don't really damage other plugins exactly, but they can interefere with other plugins. What happened is that Didier used some code from progressbar in his component Spray plugin. But he did it in such a way that it messes up the original progressbar methods that are loaded inside of SketchUp. So if his plugin is loaded, progressbar does not behave the way Todd wrote it, it behaves the way Didier changed it. But everyone that uses progressbar writes their plugins to wokr the way Todd intended - which fails if component spray is installed.

Didier did some cool stuff, he just implemented it poorly so that it clashes with the original code. BUt it does not actually damage any other file.

Chris

arjunmax09 · 4 Mar 2010, 19:02

i see... happy to know... no boxing match is goin' on 'tween plugins he he

jakinodesign01 · 6 Mar 2010, 02:43

where can i download a copy of the shape bender or fredo scale plug ins?