[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

August · 18 May 2010, 00:01

@judy nielsen said:

... Attached is a sample file.

I have opened your file and at first I thought there is an extra edge at the top near edge of your rectangle group, outside the group. But it turns out that you have two identical groups on top of each other.

But that shouldn't matter. Either you have just one of those selected when you activate the tool or the tool should give you an error message.

After activating the tool you get a cursor with a horizontal line and a prompt at the bottom of the window telling you to select the Guide Line. After you select the Guide Line, the cursor changes to have a bent line and the Start and End of the Guide Line are identified.

Click the Target Curve and the tool computes for a little while and then shows you the mapping of it's proposed bend. Sometimes this is not right. The arrow keys let you change mapping modes.

There are some important points to notice in this this mapping:

The number of segments that the Source Group is devided into is the number of segments of the Target Curve.
The distance between the Guide Line and the Source Group will be the same as the distance between the Target Curve and the Result Group.
The mapping from the Guide Line to the Source Group is done perpendicular to the Red axis.

Press Enter to accept the Proposed Bend.

You said you were trying to create multiple bends in tubing. (I presume the various Follow Me tools, the original SU version and the Ruby enhancements, are not working for you for some reason.) Here is what happens if the Guide Line is shorter than the Source Group:

I think that's a very tubing-like bend.

If the Guide Line is longer than the Source Group, you get this kind of thing:

I have used this when I was wrapping text around a circle to allow a little space between words.

This was all done in your model file. I didn't even remove the extra component.

If this is not working for you, please let us know EXACTLY what is happening for you. Can you get the error message as in the second image above?

I hope this helps,
August

Judy Nielsen · 18 May 2010, 12:40

Thanks for the response. I am not getting the error message in the second step nor am I getting the cursor with a horizontal line and a prompt at the bottom of the window telling me to select the Guide Line. All I get after selecting the component to bent is the cursor pointer. I can't select any thing. I have to reselect the selection tool to get out of shape bender. Are you working on a Mac or pc? I am working on a Mac.
Thanks

Judy

@august said:

@judy nielsen said:

... Attached is a sample file.

I have opened your file and at first I thought there is an extra edge at the top near edge of your rectangle group, outside the group. But it turns out that you have two identical groups on top of each other.

[attachment=6:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 00.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]

But that shouldn't matter. Either you have just one of those selected when you activate the tool or the tool should give you an error message.

[attachment=5:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 01.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]

After activating the tool you get a cursor with a horizontal line and a prompt at the bottom of the window telling you to select the Guide Line. After you select the Guide Line, the cursor changes to have a bent line and the Start and End of the Guide Line are identified.

[attachment=4:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 02.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]

Click the Target Curve and the tool computes for a little while and then shows you the mapping of it's proposed bend. Sometimes this is not right. The arrow keys let you change mapping modes.

[attachment=3:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 03.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]

There are some important points to notice in this this mapping:

The number of segments that the Source Group is devided into is the number of segments of the Target Curve.

The distance between the Guide Line and the Source Group will be the same as the distance between the Target Curve and the Result Group.

The mapping from the Guide Line to the Source Group is done perpendicular to the Red axis.

Press Enter to accept the Proposed Bend.

[attachment=2:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 04.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]

You said you were trying to create multiple bends in tubing. (I presume the various Follow Me tools, the original SU version and the Ruby enhancements, are not working for you for some reason.) Here is what happens if the Guide Line is shorter than the Source Group:

[attachment=1:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 05.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]
I think that's a very tubing-like bend.

If the Guide Line is longer than the Source Group, you get this kind of thing:

[attachment=0:2f1c1pv9]Judy Bender_sample 06.PNG[/attachment:2f1c1pv9]
I have used this when I was wrapping text around a circle to allow a little space between words.

This was all done in your model file. I didn't even remove the extra component.

If this is not working for you, please let us know EXACTLY what is happening for you. Can you get the error message as in the second image above?

I hope this helps,
August

August · 18 May 2010, 20:59

@judy nielsen said:

I am not getting the error message in the second step

Let's start there. If you can't get there, the tool is not working.

Do you have the Shape Bender button in your Toolbar?

If not, the script is not loading properly and we need to go back to the script installation.

If you do have the tool button, try clicking it with nothing selected. Do you get the error message?

Try deliberately selecting two objects, then click the tool button. Do you get the error message?

If you have the tool button but cannot get error messages, something is wrong.

Sorry this is a slow process, but I cannot look over your shoulder. I hope it is as simple as a glitch somewhere in the sequence:
What you are doing >> What you are writing >> What I am reading >> What I am imagining

August

Paul_Marsh · 19 May 2010, 21:15

I am also having the same problem. When prompted 'Please select a single line that lies on the red axis' is simply won't let me select the line???

August · 20 May 2010, 08:05

@paul_marsh said:

... When prompted 'Please select a single line that lies on the red axis' is simply won't let me select the line???

Hi Paul,

If you are getting the prompt, I presume the script is installed properly and you have a group properly selected, and I assume there is indeed a line that you are trying to select, so I don't know what to suggest.

Over to you, Chris --- (or someone else) ---

TIG · 20 May 2010, 08:14

You should not be inside a Group/Component Edit.
Is the target a Group of Component Instance placed in the Model ?

Can you select the Line normally outside of the Tool ?
Is it a plain 'line'.
Is the target curve a 'curve'.

Why not post the simple model...

Chris Fullmer · 20 May 2010, 16:01

Yup, eaxctly all those things. Also, you can open the Ruby Console before running the plugin. It will display error messages if something is going wrong. Please copy and paste those here to this forum if you get any.

Thanks,

Chris

crsrma · 25 May 2010, 07:37

Hi there, I'm having a bit of trouble with this plugin myself. It goes so far as to select the component, the red axis line, and the curve but then it halts at the progress bar. I checked the ruby console for errors and it repeats this as I move my mouse around the screen:

Error; #<ArgumentError; comparison of Float with nil failed>
(eval);44;in `>'
(eval);44;in `update'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;538;in `exploder'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529;in `exploder'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;247;in `onLButtonUp'
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>

I'm on WinXP with Sketchup 7.1 and made sure to update progressbar.rb as well.

Chris Fullmer · 25 May 2010, 08:52

I think that might the be the component spray issue. If you have component spray plugin installed, please go and re-download it. There is a newer version that hopefully fix the problem. You can search for it, or just scan through the last few pages. I think it was linked to recently in this thread,

Chris

crsrma · 25 May 2010, 11:09

Oh, sorry if that was covered already, that did fix it. Thanks, it's working great now, bending walls like magic.

Chris Fullmer · 25 May 2010, 15:35

Not a roblem, glad it worked! I like when it is something that I know ow to fix, as opposed to the people who turn every once in a while with something I'm completely confounded by

Chris

denZ · 2 Jun 2010, 08:51

why i cant use shape bender?
is it work on mac?
when i select the component, there is no "start" and "end" on my component

Chris Fullmer · 2 Jun 2010, 17:01

Yes, it works on a Mac as far as I know.

Select a component, then run the plugin. Then select the lines, then you get the start and end nots. Make sure you've watched the videos at the start of the thread, then come back and ask more questions if it is not working. Please also post the model you are testing it on.

Chris

brookefox · 15 Jun 2010, 22:22

An appropriate use came my way: adding a metal cover to a cistern.

Thank you, Chris.

Well, live and learn. In this case, mapping a shape which should be precisely shaped and sized, to a circle, would be better done (by me) via copy array than with the bender, as it is easier and more precise. But I bet you can't tell which is which in the jpg. You could in the skp.

(The first try as shown in the first image has been removed; tries 2 and 3 are shown in image 3.)

antli · 18 Jun 2010, 05:28

I just download and try this, perfect & bravo, it help really a lot, a million thanks to Chris.

abspandey · 19 Jun 2010, 05:38

Hi Chris,
The plugin seems great but when i select the target curve, my progress bar gets shows >..............1%END@ ? ( 1 of 5 )searching for objects to explode.

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks
Abi

AlEstenos · 23 Jun 2010, 19:32

I am having problems downloading this plug-in. Every time I hit download my computer saves a file called file.php. As far as I know it should be a ZIP or a .rb file is that correct? Please let me know what to do... Thanks a lot

August · 24 Jun 2010, 02:46

@alestenos said:

... Every time I hit download my computer saves a file called file.php. ...

There are three places in the first post by which you can download the file:

two large size lines that say "Download Shape Bender"
an attachment to the post for a zip file.

Which are you using and what are you doing? Are you just clicking on the link or are you right-clicking and selecting "Save link as..." or whatever your browser says for a download choice?

Both of the text links go to this URL:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?mode=view&id=47534
and the attachment goes to this URL:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?id=47534

That is indeed a file.php, but your browser is supposed to interpret that specially. Obviously it is not.

What ever you are doing, right-clicking or left-clicking, have you tried doing the other?

I hope this helps,
August

Chris Fullmer · 24 Jun 2010, 04:06

Other people have had this same complaint. I think it has to do with something in their browser maybe? Perhaps an old version of Internet Explorer? I do not know. But it should not be downloading a .php file for sure. It should be downloading the zip file. So you might try it from a different broswer.

Chris

sketchersi · 24 Jun 2010, 20:34

I am a new user. I followed the instructions and tried running the script. I got the following error.

Error: #<TypeError: no implicit conversion from nil to integer>
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168:in set_cursor' C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168:in onSetCursor'
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:176:in `onMouseMove'
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168

Can you help. Thanks.