Populating components based on csv file

[Sketchy2]

Good morning, I was curious if anyone has seen a ruby script that will add components to specified areas based on values from a spreadsheet file or CSV file? I am working on making a model of a warehouse, and would like to dynamically populate inventory in the racks/shelves based on the data from a one of those files. If this is something Sketchup can perform natively, then can anyone provide a link to a tutorial showing the steps involved? As always thank you for your help.

P.S. I have looked at the ruby script cloud, but have not had a chance to try it out. I am not sure if it allows for users to choose their own component to use when it makes the "cloud".

[Jim]

Barring any unmentioned requirements, it would not be a terribly difficult script to write.

What is the format of the CSV file?

[Jim]

Here's a very minimal example of reading a CSV file, and placing a component instance in the model. This is just an example obviously, not tested code as I don't know what your real data is.

IO.foreach("filename.csv") do |line|
  line.strip!
  next if line.empty?
  component_name = line.shift
  x, y, z = line.split(",").map{|e| e.to_f}
  tr = Geom;;Transformation.new([x, y, z])
  defn = Sketchup.active_model.definitions.load("path/to/" + component_name)
  Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_instance(defn, tr)
end

[Sketchy2]

Thank you for the reply Jim. I haven't decided on which data would be needed, since I was not sure how to approach defining different areas where the products will be located. Any advise on that? I would like to start with five aisles. Some of the racks will be able to hold six palletized items, and others will hold eight palletized items per section of rack. I would like to alot an area to use for each product. Once the racks are filled, I would like to populate the floor area, between the racks, with the same product but stacked in varying configurations from one product to another. I would probably make a component for these groups of pallets. Excel is my guru program, so I would not have any difficulty putting the data into any order needed. Is this what you meant by format, or were you asking what I plan to use as the delimiter? If you were refering to the delimiter, then probably a comma.

I have thought about using our item numbers as the name for the components. I thought that might be a way to link the data to Sketchup. I know I can provide a full pallet number for each item. I am not sure how much work this is going to require, but I do not mind. It would be worth the time to be able to provide a way for others to visually see the ammount of inventory versus empty space available. If needed, I can post pictures/video of our setup as a visual aid. Thank you again Jim.