[Plugin]T2H_BuildingStructureTools2.2.4 in20141207

paddyclown

just a word: thankyou !

well done guys, a nifty tool is born... maybe you should get together with Goh who does the 1001bit tools ? Between you you may just turn SU into the only fun BIM program out there

all the best...

TIG

@unknownuser said:

Is there anyway to add beam sizes to this?

In the folder 'building_structure_tool' there are two CSV files:

default_pflist.csv contains the steel sizes and standard sizes of other things used in the tool
You can edit those in plain text editor - e.g. around line #151
##STEEL_BEAM,“Sœ¬—À,,,,,,
b15,H-150x75x5x7,,,,matSTEEL,BLACK,BLACK
b19,H-198x99x4.5x7,,,,matSTEEL,BLACK,BLACK

This 'b15' is one country's standard 'code', and the 4 relevant sizes in 'mm', 'material' etc... but you can add your own - just ensure that the ',' count is the same...

You could also add other things like additional items at the end...

Also default_pipelist.csv contains 'tube' code/sizes.

Bob James

@tig said:

This 'b15' is one country's standard 'code'

Does anyone have a "Rosetta Stone" to convert these codes into USA codes?

watkins

Don't forget this:

http://www.cad-addict.com/2009/07/sketchup-plugins-engineering-toolbox.html

and this:

http://sketchup.engineeringtoolbox.com/flange-beams-columns-to_10.html

There is also beamtool.rb and Steels.rb which can be found here http://rld.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugins_list_az.php

Regards,
Bob

TIG

@bob james said:

@tig said:

This 'b15' is one country's standard 'code'

Does anyone have a "Rosetta Stone" to convert these codes into USA codes?

try this http://www.structural-drafting-net-expert.com/steel-beam.html ?
My old SteelSections includes most UK/EU sizes... in the txt file...

watkins

Dear TIG,

Where would one find 'ye olde SteelSection.rb'?

Regards,
Bob

TIG

@watkins said:

...Where would one find 'ye olde SteelSection.rb'?...
Try here http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=412 [all all good scripts go in the twilight of their years.........]

watkins

Ah, didn't realise that Steels was the same as SteelSection.

Thanks, Bob

Dave R

It would appear that this plugin causes the old grayed out menu items. I haven't seen that for awhile but it happened after I installed this one. I've deleted it and I have no problem.

tak2hata

Thanks about the info of world steel beam tables.
I will read it later.
Earthquake hit me now!
Very Terrible.

TIG

@dave r said:

It would appear that this plugin causes the old grayed out menu items. I haven't seen that for a while but it happened after I installed this one. I've deleted it and I have no problem.

This new tool does add 14 additional commands, which might just tip you over the mythical limit and then causes gray-outs...
It needs those for the Toolbar, but since it doesn't use context-menus it's weird as that is the usual connection...
You don't need to uninstall the tool completely, you can simply rename 'building_structure_tool.rb' as 'building_structure_tool.rb.txt' so it isn't auto-loaded at startup; then later if you want the tool's functions you can type load "building_structure_tool.rb.txt" in the Ruby Console and it's loaded for the rest of that session...
Do you have 'ContextMenuOptimizer' by AlexM, which tries to optimize 'commands' to reduce 'gray-outs'?

Dave R

Hi TIG,

I know I could have renamed it but I still have the ZIP file. I don't have AlexM's ContextMenuOptimizer but I'll look for it. The greyed out menu thing was a big issue before with TOS or something else but the plugin was updated and the problem seemed to have gone away. I don't remember what the changes was to the specific plugin, though.

TIG

@dave r said:

Hi TIG,
I know I could have renamed it but I still have the ZIP file. I don't have AlexM's ContextMenuOptimizer but I'll look for it. The grayed out menu thing was a big issue before with TOS or something else but the plugin was updated and the problem seemed to have gone away. I don't remember what the changes was to the specific plugin, though.

The 'ContextMenuOptimizer' is available here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=252413#p252413
There is a 'theoretical' limit of ~1000 commands being active before the context-menu 'breaks'.
The optimizer tries to 'flush' unused commands so this is avoided...
Unfortunately you have to have a 'command' made if you are to use a toolbar, so the more tools that you have that use toolbars the nearer you will get to the limit and then get possible gray-outs.
The earlier problem with some of Fredo's tools [and a few others] was that they remade a new command every time you used the context-menu, and thereby it quickly used up the available command slots as the old command was still remembered too... and the dreaded gray-outs ensued...
These issues were addressed in the tools' code, and one command is now initially defined and reused as needed, so as long as you've updated all of Fredo's tools etc then that particular problem has gone.
However, I still get occasional gray-outs on context-menus when I have a lot of tools loading commands during tests etc, so it is possible to exceed this limit even with the optimizer running and when all tools themselves have been optimized...
Remember that most context-menu items will remain available on the end of the Edit Menu, so you can usually do the required actions that way if the gray-out happens - but if all else fails you must save and restart

Dave R

Thanks TIG. Installing it now.

TIG

Incidentally I have found that the one script that tips we over the edge is thomthom's selection_toys ad that adds dozens of new commands under three submenus in the context-menu. If I stop this loading I get no gray-outs

thomthom

@tig said:

Incidentally I have found that the one script that tips we over the edge is thomthom's selection_toys ad that adds dozens of new commands under three submenus in the context-menu. If I stop this loading I get no gray-outs

It does add a few Command objects - but it's not leaking them. (I've checked.)
However, it does appear that SketchUp has a limit to Command objects regardless - so if you have many plugins installed you may experience greyed out menus.
If you load just Selection Toys it does not grey out. If you remove a few other plugins you'll not get the grey outs. The only thing is that Selection Toys adds a few items which fills up the limit more than others.

TIG

Thomas
I wasn't suggesting that your tool was faulty - it just adds lots of commands that use up the available 'slots'.
It would be good if Google could resolve this issue as we are currently hitting a wall with the number of plugins we can load at once if they have commands set ?
You don't need commands to have an item display in the context-menu, unlike a toolbar that has to have a command, but a command does allow 'validation_proc' etc... BUT if you disable selection_toys in the context-menu it still tips the commands over the limit and grays-out - it seems it's the commands total not the number used in the context-menu itself! The only way is to stop it is to stop it loading completely - OR if I want its functionality then I need stop some other tools loading that make numerous commands themselves. Which brings us back to this thread - these tools will cause gray-outs if you have many commands getting made by tools, so one way to temporarily disable some - selection_tools is a soft target as you can remove many commands with one disablement!
It's a pity we can't dynamically load/unload commands without restarting Sketchup...

thomthom

Yea - the design of Selection Toys UI manager is troublesome with the current Command limitations. For version 3 it'll be completely different, but that's not an update that'll be coming in the immediate future.

baldaman

Dear TAK2HATA
It is a great pain to see your country so violently damaged.
Here in Paris we keep looking toward japan and pray for all japanese people.
United, we shall overcome!

tulacong

thank you