Valiarchitects - plugins

chuck vali

Seem to be getting nothing but bug splats when trying to use the instant roof plugin. I'm on version 8 pro. Am I missing something here?

Thanks

I don't know it this is the issue in your case, but it's very important to close the 'Outliner' window prior to running Instant Roof. If not, the script will crash.

Another possible reason for a crash is when the geometry in the model is slightly off, say out-of-square by a small fraction of a degree. This can happen when geometry is imported from another cad program. Not likely if geometry is drawn in SketchUp.

View this tutorial on Instant Roof http://www.valiarchitects.com/tutorials/some-simple-roofs
More advance tutorials at: http://www.valiarchitects.com/sketchup_scripts/tutorials
Thanks for giving the plugin a try,
Chuck

rpaul

Hi Chuck

I thought it might be a good idea to ask you a question here as it may help others using this plugin. I'm using the pro version, and need some help. I'm trying to create an open beam trellis, with the rafters at 2' oc. The trellis as created does not correctly place the rafters directly opposite each other at the ridge where they should be, but instead offsets their placement somewhat haphazardly. I would think that the rafter spacing should be derived by establishing the centerlines of the structure, both x and y, and then calculating the rafter spacing from there.

Is there a way to adjust this, other than manually?

Ron

manamana

I'm having some trouble with instant road.

crunches for a few hours and then says it can't triangulate the mesh, reduce max road length. I've gone down to 5' and it still bonks out. Anyone have any ideas?

roadfail.skp

chuck vali

@manamana said:

I'm having some trouble with instant road.

crunches for a few hours and then says it can't triangulate the mesh, reduce max road length. I've gone down to 5' and it still bonks out. Anyone have any ideas?

[attachment=1:3iccghc2]roadfail.skp[/attachment:3iccghc2]

The script says to be patient. But more than a few minutes is too much patience.

Please accept my apologies. Looped roads are not allowed in InstantRoad. I thought I had this documented: but realize I only mentioned this in the "road from centerline" method docs.

So for this model, I cut the outline into 2 separate groups and generated the road sections separately. Each road section took around a minute on my machine. I then filled in the missing sections manually (in red).

BTW, the terrain had some extra lines in the area of the road that I erased before executing.

It isn't the issue here, but I'd like to stress that it's important to have a virgin group when using InstantRoad. This means: if you scale; make a copy of; or rotate the group, you need to explode and regroup prior to running the script. Otherwise strange things may happen.

Chuck
[attachment=0:3iccghc2]roadfail doesnt allow closed loops.skp[/attachment:3iccghc2]

roadfail doesnt allow closed loops.skp

darth666

@jaxcoffee said:

Seem to be getting nothing but bug splats when trying to use the instant roof plugin. I'm on version 8 pro. Am I missing something here?

Thanks

same here... if I choose to create new roof (not predefined) sketchup crashes. All defined roofs work until I choose options to edit slope...or hips...during roof creation, then sketchup crashes.

SK8PRO, Windows 7

chuck vali

@rpaul said:

Hi Chuck

Is there a way to adjust this, other than manually?

Ron[attachment=0:36sostdm]Trellis.jpg[/attachment:36sostdm]

When writing the script, I simplified a few things to make it easier for me to write it: one was to work on each eave section independently and place rafter tails from right on that section. This hugely simplified the script for dealing with multi-level buildings, but created some issues as you show with this trellis.

The result is that, in a simple symmetrical building, such as this trellis, the opposite sides are rotated copies, rather than mirrored.

Unfortunately, the only way to obtain mirrored rafters is to erase 2 of the sides and mirror the remaining 2 sides. In a similar way, if rafters tails aren't exactly lined up either side of a gable roof, the offending rafters must be selected and moved over.

I'm considering changing the script name to "Sort_Of_Instant_Roof"

Chuck

chuck vali

@darth666 said:

@jaxcoffee said:

Seem to be getting nothing but bug splats when trying to use the instant roof plugin. I'm on version 8 pro. Am I missing something here?

Thanks

same here... if I choose to create new roof (not predefined) sketchup crashes. All defined roofs work until I choose options to edit slope...or hips...during roof creation, then sketchup crashes.

SK8PRO, Windows 7

I've found a conflict with OpenStudio, which needs to be unchecked in preferences, and sketchUp restarted for InstantRoof to work. (I made a custom work-around for OpenStudio - which I can make available - but I had to disable the single undo feature to get it to work)

I also understand that there is a conflict with lightUp as well. But I haven't traced that problem yet.

If you don't have either of these other plugins, could you temporarily rename your "Plugins" folder to something else like "Plugins1", then create a new "Plugins" folder, place only InstantRoof in that folder,and restart SketchUp. If the script works then we'll know it's a conflict with some other plugin.

Chuck

Bob James

@chuck vali said:

If you don't have either of these other plugins, could you temporarily rename your "Plugins" folder to something else like "Plugins1", then create a new "Plugins" folder, place only InstantRoof in that folder,and restart SketchUp. If the script works then we'll know it's a conflict with some other plugin.

Chuck

As I recall it, there is a set of plugins that mustbe in the plugins folder: I don't believe you can, in this case, have only InstantRoof by itself.
Sorry that I don't recall the required minimum set.

jaxcoffee

@bob james said:

@chuck vali said:

If you don't have either of these other plugins, could you temporarily rename your "Plugins" folder to something else like "Plugins1", then create a new "Plugins" folder, place only InstantRoof in that folder,and restart SketchUp. If the script works then we'll know it's a conflict with some other plugin.

Chuck

As I recall it, there is a set of plugins that mustbe in the plugins folder: I don't believe you can, in this case, have only InstantRoof by itself.
Sorry that I don't recall the required minimum set.

I actually did what Chuck is instructing to do to find out the conflict with LightUp. So you can have only one plugin in the plugins folder and have SketchUp work.

pilou

@unknownuser said:

So you can have only one plugin in the plugins folder and have SketchUp work.

Even no plugins

brookefox

Solo, To me, this one is a very nice render. Pleasantly and pretty realistically unkempt, and comfortable, attractive.

(The micro ani is helpful also.)

darth666

@chuck vali said:

@darth666 said:

@jaxcoffee said:

Seem to be getting nothing but bug splats when trying to use the instant roof plugin. I'm on version 8 pro. Am I missing something here?

Thanks

same here... if I choose to create new roof (not predefined) sketchup crashes. All defined roofs work until I choose options to edit slope...or hips...during roof creation, then sketchup crashes.

SK8PRO, Windows 7

I've found a conflict with OpenStudio, which needs to be unchecked in preferences, and sketchUp restarted for InstantRoof to work. (I made a custom work-around for OpenStudio - which I can make available - but I had to disable the single undo feature to get it to work)

I also understand that there is a conflict with lightUp as well. But I haven't traced that problem yet.

If you don't have either of these other plugins, could you temporarily rename your "Plugins" folder to something else like "Plugins1", then create a new "Plugins" folder, place only InstantRoof in that folder,and restart SketchUp. If the script works then we'll know it's a conflict with some other plugin.

Chuck

I've checked all my plugins and I found one that caused crashes - it was "sunposition.rb". I've removed it and "Instant roof" is working great now

honoluludesktop

Very nice set of plugins.

Bob James

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

So you can have only one plugin in the plugins folder and have SketchUp work.

Even no plugins

Krisidious

I'm getting a crash in SU8 Pro when trying to Make Roof...

no sunposition.rb

chuck vali

@krisidious said:

I'm getting a crash in SU8 Pro when trying to Make Roof...

no sunposition.rb

Does it only crash with a particular roof or just doesn't work at all? One person had drawn an outline in another cad program and imported it into SketchUp. Instant Roof would crash trying to make a hexagonal portion of the roof. When I redrew the same geometry in SketchUp the roof worked fine.

If it just crashes on any outline, then I suspect a conflict with another script. The only conflicts I am aware of are LightUp (I couldn't get it to crash when I tried it on my machine), sunposition.rb, and OpenStudo. (Only the encrypted version of Instant Roof (.rbs) would crash with Open Studio, not my unencrypted source code (.rb) )

I would really like to find out what the issue is. Would you mind temporarily renaming your "Plugins" folder and putting just the InstantRoofPro.rbs and InstantRoofProS.rb in a separate "Plugins" folder to find out if it's a conflict with another plugin?

Chuck

pbacot

Hi,

I wish to add one comment. Well two. These are great tools all around!
But it seems that this roof tool, like others I have tried, uses the eave as the line for the starting plane. I don't know if it is difficult--this coding is wizardry to me--but I wish roof tools would use the plate line, which seems (to me) the logical reference point once the size of rafters and bearing details are defined.

Thanks, Chuck, for these tools and your helpful responses.

Peter

utiler

@pbacot said:

Hi,

I wish to add one comment. Well two. These are great tools all around!
But it seems that this roof tool, like others I have tried, uses the eave as the line for the starting plane. I don't know if it is difficult--this coding is wizardry to me--but I wish roof tools would use the plate line, which seems (to me) the logical reference point once the size of rafters and bearing details are defined.

Thanks, Chuck, for these tools and your helpful responses.

Peter

Peter, that is a frustration I have also for many plugins / programs!!!! I wish one day for a program to write functions considering the known factors and variables when built.....

chuck vali

@pbacot said:

Hi,

I wish to add one comment. Well two. These are great tools all around!
But it seems that this roof tool, like others I have tried, uses the eave as the line for the starting plane. I don't know if it is difficult--this coding is wizardry to me--but I wish roof tools would use the plate line, which seems (to me) the logical reference point once the size of rafters and bearing details are defined.

Thanks, Chuck, for these tools and your helpful responses.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks, I'm happy that you like my plugins!

It would not have been difficult to use plate height as the reference - and I did consider it. I decided against it because - as I see it -there isn't a fixed relationship between plate height and the exterior building skins.

Here was my reasoning:
If a roof is conventional stick framed the rafter will have a seat cut, if trusses there is no seat cut, and if, as with most of the projects I work on, the trusses are metal, with false rafter tails, there is often an extended truss heel. Each of these conditions, along with different eave and exterior wall finish material thicknesses will result in a different relationship between the plate height - which is a structural datum -and intersection of the outer skins of these finishes - which is what my script works with.

If I want an accurate roof height, I could draw a section of the eave showing the structural conditions and material thicknesses, then determine the height of the point where the exterior wall finish intersects the underside of eave finish, create geometry using this height and then run the script. Had I built assumptions into the script about where the plate height was in all this, I think the above process would be more cumbersome because my assumptions would have to be accounted for where they didn't correctly apply.

On the other hand, my intention was to make a schematic design tool that creates a somewhat convincing roof - if you don't zoom in too close. So I anticipated that users would have only a general idea of the structural members and use approximate wall heights. I would be very happy if anyone successfully uses the script for DD or CD level documents, but I'm afraid they will probably have to do some manual tweaking.

Chuck

pbacot

Good points, Chuck. You'd have to have an interface accounting for all the feasible rafter or truss designs. The user can work out the eave height by calculation or CAD which is what we do anyway. Thanks for the reply.

Peter