[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta
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Hi Jessi, welcome. The plugin is at the bottom of the very first post in this thread. That is how most plugins work on this forum. So go to the first post anmd download the zip file. Unzip the contents into your sketchup plugins folder. You will also need to install progressbar from http://www.smustard.com
Chris
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@chris fullmer said:
The plugin is at the bottom of the very first post in this thread. That is how most plugins work on this forum.
This takes a little getting used to and is one of the very cool things about the software that SCF uses for the forum -- you can go back and edit a post to update it, correct typos, add that little bit that you remembered just as you clicked "Submit", etc. Every other forum that I spend any time with at all, once it's posted, it's posted, the most you can do is delete and repost.
I hope this helps,
August -
@chris fullmer said:
... 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 [Didier's] plugin is loaded, progressbar does not behave the way Todd wrote it, it behaves the way Didier [accidentally] changed it. ...
It might help your understanding to have a little more behind-the-scenes, under-the-hood perspective.
The most likely cause of the problem is a variable name conflict. When someone adapts code for a different purpose, usually they change all the function and variable names to ensure that their new code uses unique names. The most likely cause of the problem is that somewhere in the block of code there was a variable or two that Didier missed and didn't rename, and possibly Todd's code has some presumptions where he uses the same name and is assuming that if that variable already exists, it means that his code created it and therefore is in the middle of what it's doing instead of being at the beginning.
It really could be a very wide range of things. I'm just offering a suggestion to give the flavor of the problem and of how hard it could be to track down, not to point at anything specific.
The point is that when either of the scripts are loaded by themselves, there is no problem, it's only when they are both installed that they trip over each other.
I hope this helps,
August -
@chris fullmer said:
'' So if his [Didier's] plugin is loaded, progressbar does not behave the way Todd wrote it, it behaves the way Didier [accidentally] changed it. ...
@august said:
''The most likely cause of the problem is a variable name conflict. AugustCat among the pidgins here,
as you may be aware, I've had problems with ShapeBender and VWS clashing on the Mac, so (considering this CompoSpray discussion) I ran both through my editor looking for the words 'ProgressBar' and it was indeed in 7 of the VWS rubies, and as it does not require"ProgressBar.rb" I renamed all to vwsProgressBar and the problems have disappeared...
I then got to thinking that I have CompoSpray installed through SCFPowerToolbar but haven't had any problems from it, so I did a test, and it 'CS' wasn't working??? I don't actually have it as a separate ruby and it's encoded and called "cd_power_m.rb" which fails to load due to a line code error on the Mac, so can't hurt anything....
to make long story, longer. I removed all references to "cd_power_m.rb" from SCFPB and download CompoSpray and installed it, and now all of them work together properly...
maybe others have two copies of CompoSpray, the SCFTB one of which has a code error??
hope that helps someone....
john
NB. pidgin |ˈpijən| noun [often as adj. ]
a grammatically simplified form of a language, used for communication between people not sharing a common language. -
Hehe, man that sounds confusing. But it is probably accurate soemhow. Todd had looked over Didier's code and found the error. Didied fixed it at some point. But I think that he might have released a new version since then and possibly reverted back to a tainted file. That is my best guess. So since that toolbar you have installs its own version of CompSpray it probably grabbed a version before Didier added his neat timer interrupt (which is the thing that breaks progressbar in his script).
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And could anyone provide a step by step instructions to this plugin.
So far
I have a group which has a straight circlular springy tube. I have a seperate line path of multiple bends for piping.
For some reason It just wont work.
Oh by the way if you change the AXIS make sure you reset it before using this plugin. Otherwise all you will get is "please select line on red axis"
Version SU 7.1
Anyone got any ideas
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Hi there,
Right in Chris's first post of this script there is a video.
Cheers,
Jeff
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For some reason it doesnt work... Maybe something is wrong with the shape.
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ok its all working now. Thanks
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@jamma-pcb said:
For some reason it doesnt work... Maybe something is wrong with the shape.
some pointers,
draw your line the same length as your arc line
move your group so the line is centroid to it, edit group with move/copy and scale to match line length, remove at least one end, exposing the line
rotate your arc line (or copies) until it lies on the red plane and has both ends are parallel to the blue plane
off plane and off parallel will give less accurate 'real material' bends, but you may want that, so play around with copies of the arc line
john
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Hey,
I'm having some trouble with the selection of the line lying on the red axis, following the selection of the grouped shape to be bent. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
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Well it sounds like you've got the basic idea. Probably the best thing to do at this point is to upload a small model that shows what you're trying to do and I'll take a look at it to see what might need to change.
Chris
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@driven said:
draw your line the same length as your arc line
Not necessary, but you do need to allow in your planning for the fact that your guide line will be stretched or shrunk to match the target line, and your shape along with it.
@unknownuser said:
move your group so the line is centroid to it, edit group with move/copy and scale to match line length, remove at least one end, exposing the line
Not necessary, and may not be what you want. If the guide line is centered, some parts of the shape will be compressed and some stretched, depending on what side of the guide line they start out on, but the guide line can be some distance from the shape. You just have to visualize the results properly so that you are not surprised.
@unknownuser said:
rotate your arc line (or copies) until it lies on the red plane and has both ends are parallel to the blue plane
Neither part is necessary.
See the attached image for a Target line that is in the Blue-Green plane with a guide line that is parallel to the Red axis, perpendicular to the plane of the Target line.
@unknownuser said:
off plane and off parallel will give less accurate 'real material' bends, ...
I agree that to simulate bending of a solid material you may want to follow the rules you outlined like having the Guide Line and Target Line the same length and for the Guide Line to be centroid to the shape.
But for a wide variety of problems that Shape Bender solves, and for an even wider variety of ways to play with it, it has nothing to do with trying to simulate bending a solid material.
I hope this helps,
August
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Hi All:
I am trying to use Shape Bender to bend 2 flanges on a metal bracket that joins an engine mount to a wooden fuselage of an airplane.
I have drawn the bracket as shown on the plans (attached). The bracket has 2 'ears' on the top and bottom of the bracket that are bent 90 degrees to wrap around the front end of the fuselage. I want to just bend the 'ear' parts, and not the larger rounded portion of the bracket which is the attachment point for the engine mount. I have removed the holes on the side portion of the bracket that will be used for the attachment to the wooden fuse sides, as I wish to place them after bending.
My concern is that in the bending process with this plug in is that the entire front of the bracket gets bent 90 degrees and not simply the 'ear' portions. Can someone show me how this might work, or is there another script that would do this better?
Thanks so much for the help!
Mark
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This is best done manually...
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Thanks TIG... I'll try that. I thought it might exceed the plug in's capability... Thanks again for the pic/explaination.
Mark
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OK... this is embarrassing: I've forgotten how to cut the tabs off... Which command will sever them at the cut line..?
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cool! I like it!!
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@ben ritter said:
Chris, I can hardly keep up with your wonderful scripts. Most importantly though, you are very much appreciated for your kindness to the SU community.
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@markemark said:
OK... this is embarrassing: I've forgotten how to cut the tabs off... Which command will sever them at the cut line..?
I thought I posted a reply to this...
Read the notes in the image..................
Make sure that you draw lines all round the tabs so they select separately.
Then select all of the tab's geometry and group it, then rotate the group etc etc...
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