[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

TIG · 27 Apr 2010, 08:06

The 'warning sign' is a good idea...
I always have the download-link in the first post, and then I update it as the version changes; I also add the full update notes there.
Then I add a new post to the topic to bump it, explaining briefly the changes and also add a link back to the main post [right-click over the small 'square' icon below the title string called something like 'copy link location']...
That way users are told about the changes and the download is always in the same place.

Chris Fullmer · 27 Apr 2010, 15:00

Thats how I have done mine too, and I genereally like it that way. Except this particular plugin the release notes got so excessive, the first post was unbearable. So I recently stripped out all the release notes just to simplify the frst post to make it easier to find the download link. The release notes are inside the plugin if people really want to see the version history. oh and I recently updated it with a tiny minor update that I decided to not bump the thread for - maybe I should have. It was just a speed fix that made it work faster. Anyhow, all good ideas. Especially now that two days ago Aidan blogged about thisd script. I'm guessing that might start pushing more people to come check it out. Especially after the newlestter gets emailed out to everyone with the blog posts in it.

Chris

August · 27 Apr 2010, 16:45

@chris fullmer said:

ThaI'm guessing that might start pushing more people to come check it out.

All the more reason to catch people's attention at the very top of the first post so you don't get as many "I can't find it" questions.

It has to be at the top of the post, "before the fold" as Marketing folks call it, so that it is there before they do any scrolling or clicking or anything.

xrok1 · 27 Apr 2010, 17:04

too bad the link at the top of each post couldn't be used for a link to the first post (or download) its almost useless anyway to keep repeating Re: [Plugin Shape Bender Beta v0.55 UPDATED April 21, 2010] on each post. why not make it useful, at least in the plugins section of the forum.
maybe like this DOWNLOAD: Shape Bender Beta v0.55 as a link above each post instead?

PS i like the way chris puts a link in his signature but if you don't know he's the author ??

August · 27 Apr 2010, 17:29

@xrok1 said:

... its almost useless anyway to keep repeating Re: [Plugin Shape Bender Beta v0.55 UPDATED April 21, 2010] on each post. ...

Actually, that is not useless. That link is actually different on each and every post in the entire thread. If you right-click and select Copy Link you get a URL that takes you to that specific post and not just to the first post in the thread.

xrok1 · 27 Apr 2010, 17:32

i know that but it gets used a LOT less than a download link would. have you ever used it? i haven't and look at my post count.

August · 27 Apr 2010, 17:43

Yes, but not all threads here are about downloads. Most are not.

xrok1 · 27 Apr 2010, 17:50

@xrok1 said:

too bad the link at the top of each post couldn't be used for a link to the first post (or download) its almost useless anyway to keep repeating Re: [Plugin Shape Bender Beta v0.55 UPDATED April 21, 2010] on each post. why not make it useful, at least in the plugins section of the forum.
maybe like this DOWNLOAD: Shape Bender Beta v0.55 as a link above each post instead?

PS i like the way chris puts a link in his signature but if you don't know he's the author ??

August · 27 Apr 2010, 19:19

Whoops. I guess I'm guilty of skimming too.

xrok1 · 27 Apr 2010, 20:10

aren't we all.

benjamin22 · 28 Apr 2010, 01:13

Hi guys, Just wondering why my pipe is bending like this...

The circular parts of the pipe are staying vertical rather than arraying around the arc, thus crushing the pipe and flattening it out!
Also how can I get more segments into my circle to smooth it out?

Thanks a million!

xrok1 · 28 Apr 2010, 01:39

thanks ben, for a minute there i forgot this was a shape bender thread.

could you post a file? its hard to tell whats going on from the image/description.

benjamin22 · 28 Apr 2010, 01:41

Ok no worries.

New Design.skp

Chris Fullmer · 28 Apr 2010, 04:34

Hi Ben, I wrote the script with the intention that the bendy shape would be lying flat. If you just rotate the arc 90 degrees so its flat on the ground, then the bending will work as expected. Hope that helps!

Chris

August · 28 Apr 2010, 08:17

Hi Ben,

@benjamin22 said:

... The circular parts of the pipe are staying vertical rather than arraying around the arc, thus crushing the pipe and flattening it out!

Thanks for uploading the sample file.

Back in March, I showed an example of using Shape Bender with vertical curves, in this post , where I attached a picture that shows the target curve in the Green-Blue plane and not flat at all.

In that sample, the vertical faces of the original shape stay vertical, they don't fan out on the convex curves and compress on the concave curves. That's what's happening to your pipe too.

Shape Bender slices up the Original Object with vertical slices, according to how many segments there are in the Target Curve. One of the keys to predicting how it is going to work is that it will keep those slice faces vertical. It will rotate them in the Red-Green plane, but the slices will stay vertical.

The result is that for vertical curves Shape Bender projects the shape onto the curve vertically, for horizontal curves, it fans out and compresses, which is typically what you expect.

@unknownuser said:

Also how can I get more segments into my circle to smooth it out?

The number of segments in the Shape Bender Result is exactly the number of segments in your Target Curve. So you just need to draw your Target Curve with more segements. Whether you are using a Circle and cutting it or if you are starting with an Arc, when you select the tool, you can tell it the number of segments by typing a number and following it with an "s" to tell SU that the "units" for the number is segments.

Sometimes you can get away without the "s" if you have not started drawing yet, but SU can quickly decide that you are drawing at which point any number with no units will be the radius in the default units. So I always put the "s" in. I'm already typing the number anyway.

I hope this helps,
August

xrok1 · 28 Apr 2010, 14:14

rotated:
on the first one i shortened the straight line to the same length as the pipe/tube.

benjamin22 · 30 Apr 2010, 12:27

Chris, August & xrok thanks a lot! you guys are legends, very helpful. Keep up the good work, I'm in my 3rd yr of architecture and always looking to do more and more complicated things on sketchup and its good to know there is this great site to go to when I get stuck!

Cheers guys.

August · 30 Apr 2010, 19:33

@benjamin22 said:

... you guys are legends ...

I am honored and humbled that you put me in the same category as Chris and Xrox.

August

xrok1 · 30 Apr 2010, 19:39

@august said:

@benjamin22 said:

... you guys are legends ...

I am honored and humbled that you put me in the same category as Chris and Xrox.

August

ditto

mbattler · 1 May 2010, 09:09

I have down loaded the shape bender files but can not figure out how to get into the program to work. Does anyone know the steps?