[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

Gaieus · 5 Jul 2010, 23:49

Hi hichem and welcome!

Indeed the one attached to the first post is the newest version. This plugin is a bit tricky to use (thus is is still called "Beta"). Are you sure you are doing everything right (or installed the script correctly)?

GilliganU · 6 Jul 2010, 02:53

@august said:

Hi Gillian,

The above description of how Shape Bender works provides the answer to your question:

@gilliganu said:

... It does seem curious, to me, that if the shape bender can follow arbitrary lines in 3D, why the orientation of the model matters. ...

The orientation of the model is critically important because that determines how the Source Object gets sliced up so that it can be bent. Most problems with Shape Bender seem to come from people assuming how an object "ought" to bend that unconsciously includes internal stretching/shrinking that is does not match how Shape Bender slices up the Source Object. That is how the orientation of the model matters.

Unfortunately, right now the only "manual" for Shape Bender is this discussion thread, and right now that is 532 posts in 36 pages.

That does explain a few things. My erroneous assumption was that shape bender sliced up the Source Object by planes perpendicular to the reference line. Which is only true if the Source Object is oriented appropriately. It would be nice if the required orientation was documented.

@august said:

On that topic, I was unable to duplicate your bending of the text, where part of the final "t" went off at an angle. It looks a lot like the trouble you were having with the cylinder earlier. If you can duplicate the problem, I would like to know what you did, because if I ever put that SB manual together, it would be useful to know what people have trouble with and what they are thinking when they approach this tool "cold".

I hope this helps,
August

The stretched out "t" was generated by hitting the down arrow, just after the 'proposed' bent object is displayed, and before the return key. The up arrow works fine, by swapping the ends of the reference object relative to the reference line before bending it. In this case, the text will read backwards. I can't recall what the down arrow is supposed to do, though I remember reading about it somewhere. It's not on the help menu.

It is unfortunate that many programmers don't feel the need to document their code. It makes it very difficult for others to use it. I write a fair bit of code myself and I always document it. It is often just for myself, as I often forget rarely used features a few years later. In the programmers defense, many users refuse to read documentation when it is provided. Many won't even read a single line explaining what to put in a box on a web form! An issue I've faced many times.

Gilligan

August · 6 Jul 2010, 04:02

Hi Gilligan,

My apologies, I just discovered I've been leaving out the second G in your name.

August

InterArchi · 6 Jul 2010, 18:06

@gaieus said:

Hi hichem and welcome!

Indeed the one attached to the first post is the newest version. This plugin is a bit tricky to use (thus is is still called "Beta"). Are you sure you are doing everything right (or installed the script correctly)?

Thanks brother for answering me, I guess I have fixed that out, the only problem is that I didnt copy the Jpeg files into the directory of plugins thus, the plugin didnt work properly any way thank you very much for your help,
If I need anything arround, I will call for your help, I have just discovered this forum and I'm really learning from you guys I do really appreciate your efforts

Chris Fullmer · 6 Jul 2010, 20:37

Good, glad you got it working.

The main problem with this plugin is that it was written by a no good hack of a programmer. Everytime this plugin works it surprises me. I love this plugin and I'm certainly proud of it. But it could use a major re-writing to get it to be more stable and more versatile.

Thanks for using it,

Chris

Allen Brown · 7 Jul 2010, 19:59

Hey Guys,

Sorry if this has been covered already, but I am a complete noob with SU, and have never used scripts.

First of all, I am using the free version 7.0.10247.

I first downloaded progressbar.rb. This is where my first problem starts; I unzipped it to my desktop, but I don't know what to do with it from there. Double clicking on it brings up a window asking me what program to use to open it.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Allen

Rich O Brien · 8 Jul 2010, 00:02

Hi Allen,

First off, welcome to SCF!

I noticed you're using SU 7.0.1, Google released 7.1 awhile back it's alot faster, give it a go..

As for plugins, Gaieus posted a little tutorial here

Basically all plugins are placed in your plugins folder...

Program Files>Google>Google Sketchup 7>Plugins

Allen Brown · 8 Jul 2010, 19:00

Thanks Rich. I got both the progress bar rb & the shape bender rb's copied into my plugins folder. It appears to have worked somewhat, because I have the shape bender tool on my toolbar, and under the plugin menu I have the chris fulmer tools. However, I don't see anything about the progress bar rb in the plugin menu, should I?

Anyways, I create some 3d letters, click the shape bender tool, and I would expect to see "Please select a single line..." down at the bottom of my screen, but I get nothing. It's as if it doesn't really activate. I also tried by going through the plugin menu, but I get the same behavior.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

BTW, I did try exploding the letters, then shift selecting, right click and making "Component", but still the same.

Thanks,

Allen

Chris Fullmer · 8 Jul 2010, 22:05

This loos like you probably just got some files in the wrong spot. In your base Plugins folder, there should be a file called clf_shape_bender_loader.rb and a folder called clf_shape_bender. All other files (a bunch of icons and and file called clf_shape_bender.rb) should all be inside the clf_shape_bender folder.

If you feel like you have the files in the right spot, then you need to open the Ruby Console in the "Window" menu. Have that open, then try to run shape bender once. It will probably write a bunch of errors to the console. copy (ctrl-c) those and paste them back here. I'll look at what the error is and we'll go from there,

Chris

InterArchi · 9 Jul 2010, 11:29

@chris fullmer said:

Good, glad you got it working.

The main problem with this plugin is that it was written by a no good hack of a programmer. Everytime this plugin works it surprises me. I love this plugin and I'm certainly proud of it. But it could use a major re-writing to get it to be more stable and more versatile.

Thanks for using it,

Chris

I have the honor to have an answer from you mister Chris, I'm now in this forum, and in the plugins world,

But I really need some help, I started to add some plugins to my Plugins repertory but I sometimes have a problem with the loader file

for exemple with the 1001Bit it didnt work please see what the error message shown by sketchup

and this is the screenshot of the those files right indside the Plugins folder

THIS IS THE ERROR MESSAGE

thomthom · 9 Jul 2010, 11:32

You've put all of 1001bits files into the plugins root folder. All but one, 1001bit_tools.rb should be in a 1001bit folder.

Allen Brown · 9 Jul 2010, 13:01

@chris fullmer said:

This loos like you probably just got some files in the wrong spot. In your base Plugins folder, there should be a file called clf_shape_bender_loader.rb and a folder called clf_shape_bender. All other files (a bunch of icons and and file called clf_shape_bender.rb) should all be inside the clf_shape_bender folder.

If you feel like you have the files in the right spot, then you need to open the Ruby Console in the "Window" menu. Have that open, then try to run shape bender once. It will probably write a bunch of errors to the console. copy (ctrl-c) those and paste them back here. I'll look at what the error is and we'll go from there,

Chris

Awesome Chris! That was it.

Thanks so much for all you do!

InterArchi · 9 Jul 2010, 13:23

@thomthom said:

You've put all of 1001bits files into the plugins root folder. All but one, 1001bit_tools.rb should be in a 1001bit folder.

Thanks Bro ..U have a heart of Gold

thelandscaper · 22 Jul 2010, 19:58

Hey, you have no idea the way you are helping me my friend!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

keep on the gooooood work.

charly2008 · 28 Jul 2010, 12:21

Hi,

Yesterday I installed the beta version 0.55 and get the following error message.

The clf main folder is containing all files. the progressbar and the shape bender loader are in the plugins folder. Can anybody help.

Charly

TIG · 28 Jul 2010, 13:02

Try replacing this file in the ../Plugins/clf_shape_bender/ sub-folder clf_shape_bender.rb - there was a potential error with the YouTube linking in part of its code [around line 1003] that got 'masked' if you have other clf tools loading it correctly before this one - this now fixes it in every case.

charly2008 · 28 Jul 2010, 13:09

Hi TIG,

thanks for your quick response it works now.

Charly

mjsnyder80 · 12 Aug 2010, 19:38

Hello out there. I'm new to the forum, but have been using sketchup for many years now. I just discovered the bender script, but am not able to get it to work. The progress bar at the bottom stops either at 1% or 5% depending ont he complexity of the group. The ruby console shows the following text:

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

As I am not a programmer, this is completely over my head. Can anyone help to get this script working?

Many thanks.

Chris Fullmer · 13 Aug 2010, 02:20

This sounds like you might be having a conflict with an old version of Component Spray plugin.

If you have component spray installed, please uninstall it and re-install the newest version. THat should fix your problem. Let me know if works or not.

Chris

mjsnyder80 · 13 Aug 2010, 19:06

That did the trick. Thank you very much. And by the way, this is an awesome plugin. Nice work, and thanks again.

Mike