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    [Plugin] Boolean helper update 08122011

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    • D Offline
      driven
      last edited by

      hi,

      I've been following this topic due to a keen interest in 3d printing, and have wanted to make a suggestion.

      I can't find the code I played around with in the past which is the basis of my suggestion,
      however Jim mentioned where it comes from in another post today, so I'll simply pass that on...http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#add_note

      the idea is just write a screen note when working at scale and remove it when back to output scale.

      I was looking into actually blocking exporting at scale, but didn't get it working.

      I haven't had time yet, but I'll do some Mac tests and let you know if there are any issues.

      john

      learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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      • liquid98L Offline
        liquid98
        last edited by

        @driven said:

        hi,

        I've been following this topic due to a keen interest in 3d printing, and have wanted to make a suggestion.

        I can't find the code I played around with in the past which is the basis of my suggestion,
        however Jim mentioned where it comes from in another post today, so I'll simply pass that on...http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#add_note

        the idea is just write a screen note when working at scale and remove it when back to output scale.

        I was looking into actually blocking exporting at scale, but didn't get it working.

        I haven't had time yet, but I'll do some Mac tests and let you know if there are any issues.

        john

        Hi John,

        I like your idea's! I know from experience that exporting a model in the wrong scale is a common mistake in 3D printing design... Not a lethal mistake, unless you order the model in the wrong size... Maybe there's something like a Read-only or immune method in Ruby, I will look for that...

        Also the idea of model-notes is a good idea. I suggest an 'X' sign for every scale-up action. So when the model is in normal state no X sign is visible. If you've triple-scaled your model there will be three X's in the left top of the screen.
        Also the X model-note provides a good feedback on the scale action, so after the scale action the script can do viewZoomExtents without loosing your sense of scale.
        I'm also curious how this script behaves on the mac, so let me know..

        Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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        • D Offline
          driven
          last edited by

          hi,

          had a short play last night, everything seems to work as designed... however, an interesting but 'odd' feature was the ability to independently scale anything selected.
          I had assumed it would only work on a 'scale all' basis and was checking a not-grouped object when I had only a single line selected.

          to my surprise it scaled the line and I played around modifying solids for far too long.

          I think this ability should be a separate feature or even a second tool.

          It could cause huge confusion when preparing models for printing, but is great fun for creating objects.

          I would suggest limiting Boolean Helper to 'auto select-all' and scale up/down at the pre-set's.

          and then a second plugin 'edge scaler' with a incremental slider at the tool-tip would be great.

          just my thoughts

          john

          learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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          • liquid98L Offline
            liquid98
            last edited by

            Hi John,

            I see! when scaling up and down a separate line or face you get all kind of weird shapes... really fast 😮

            Edge scaler is a great idea! Maybe that will be my next project... thanx for the suggestion.

            So the plugin has to select all before scaling. Thats better indeed, I'll fix that.

            What do you think about the X message-scale-feedback?

            Nice to hear it functions on Mac, too

            Liquid

            Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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            • D Offline
              driven
              last edited by

              liquid,

              the "X" factor is good... (but not the TV show)

              john

              learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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              • TIGT Offline
                TIG Moderator
                last edited by

                You don't need to 'select-all' in the code, just use model.entities.to_a as the collection of things to transform in the scale up/down - that way everything gets caught in the scaling up/down changes.

                A screen-note wouldbe useful to remind you that you have scaled... then the code can erase it when you've scaled down...

                TIG

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                • D Offline
                  d12dozr
                  last edited by

                  👍 I like where this is going!

                  3D Printing with SketchUp Book
                  http://goo.gl/f7ooYh

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                  • liquid98L Offline
                    liquid98
                    last edited by

                    @ TIG

                    yeah, "select all" is user language.

                    model.entities.to_a = programmers language 😉

                    Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                    • liquid98L Offline
                      liquid98
                      last edited by

                      Working on the feedback of the scale action (X = one time scaled up XX =two times etc.)
                      I have some variable (array) filled with X characters. Its called $xfeedback

                      To put it on screen I use:

                      @xnote = model.add_note $xfeedback.to_s, 0.01, 0.02.

                      That works. But to update it I would like to delete the screen-note entity before showing it again like this:

                      model = Sketchup.active_model entities = model.active_entities entities.erase_entities(@xnote) if @xnote

                      I know to delete something with erase_entities it has to be an array. So I tried also this:
                      entities.erase_entities(@xnote.to_a) if @xnote

                      but it's not working.

                      Code structure is like this:

                      <span class="syntaxdefault"><br />require </span><span class="syntaxstring">'sketchup.rb'<br /><br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">$xfeedback </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxstring">"X"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxstring">"X"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxstring">"X"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxstring">"X"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">]</span><span class="syntaxdefault">  </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># Test situation presuming 4 times scaled up.<br /><br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">module Test<br /><br />class Scaledown<br />    <br /><br />def initialize</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">()</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> <br />         </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># Scaling action<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">         <br />     model </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_model<br />     entities </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">entities<br />     if entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">]</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">!=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> nil<br />    <br />    l </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> $xfeedback</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">length</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">to_i </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">-</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 1  <br />    $xfeedback</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">delete_at</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">l</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    <br />     model </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_model<br />    entities </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_entities<br />    entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">erase_entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">xnote</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> if </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">xnote<br /><br />    </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">xnote </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">add_note $xfeedback</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">to_s</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 0.01</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 0.02<br /><br /><br /><br />    else <br />    nil<br />    end</span><span class="syntaxcomment">#if<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end</span><span class="syntaxcomment">#def<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end</span><span class="syntaxcomment">#class<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end</span><span class="syntaxcomment">#module             &nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault"></span>
                      

                      Please help

                      Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                      • TIGT Offline
                        TIG Moderator
                        last edited by

                        Shouldn't it be @@xnote ?
                        Anyway, something like...
                        entities.erase_entities(@xnote)
                        should work... or use [@xnote] to make it an array, if it MUST be one (?)...
                        However, this will work too
                        @xnote.text='newtext'
                        to change it ???

                        TIG

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                        • D Offline
                          driven
                          last edited by

                          may not be of any help, but

                          when you create a screen note SU creates a new Text entity (each time)

                          "#Sketchup::Text:0x1ef0a000", "#Sketchup::Text:0x1f0131a4", etc...

                          so I guess if you capture those you can delete them.

                          john

                          learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                          • liquid98L Offline
                            liquid98
                            last edited by

                            Hello friends,

                            I made some improvements to the boolean-helper plugin:

                            • it scales everything in the model
                            • it gives feedback on the total scale-factor
                            • it auto zooms to the model-extents.

                            But I need some help:

                            When the model is scaled up, feedback is generated in the form of a sketchup::text
                            entity. My problem: when the the model is deleted (not select all), the text entity remains on the screen ( entities[0]) while there is no model.

                            So I have to monitor that.

                            How do I do that??

                            I came up with this solution:

                            <span class="syntaxdefault">if  entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">].</span><span class="syntaxdefault">class </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">==</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Text </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">&&</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">1</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">]</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">==</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> nil<br />         </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">xnote </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">]<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">         </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">notetext </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"   "<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">         </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">xnote </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">add_note </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">@@</span><span class="syntaxdefault">notetext</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 0.01</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> 0.99</span>
                            

                            But if I put this code in booleanhelper.rb it only runs when the user invokes it.
                            While it has to run all the time.

                            I've also read something about Sketchup::EntityObserver. Is that relevant in this case???

                            Thnx for your help

                            Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                            • mitcorbM Offline
                              mitcorb
                              last edited by

                              Well, for those who work in Imperial units==inches, it would be cool if you could set the scale factor to overcome the small faces problem but type in the VCB the same numbers as you would if you had not scaled it. Basically, to do away with a bunch of mental math for every value. When finished, reset the scale factor to 1. There's a flaw here somewhere??

                              I take the slow, deliberate approach in my aimless wandering.

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                              • liquid98L Offline
                                liquid98
                                last edited by

                                @mitcorb said:

                                Well, for those who work in Imperial units==inches, it would be cool if you could set the scale factor to overcome the small faces problem but type in the VCB the same numbers as you would if you had not scaled it.

                                Hi mitcorb,

                                That's a nice idea, but I have no clue to achieve it..

                                Indeed, the script I'm working on scales up as much as you want and than scales everything down to scalefactor 1.
                                In scaled up state there's a screen-note reference to the actual scale-factor.

                                Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                                • TIGT Offline
                                  TIG Moderator
                                  last edited by

                                  Liquid98

                                  About the screen-text...
                                  Do you mean that it disappears if there is suddenly no other model geometry ?
                                  As soon as any new geometry is added it should reappear ??
                                  I don't see the problem ? On the rare occasions when the user has deleted the entire model [and why would they do that?] the scaling becomes irrelevant anyway, so they can just delete it ?

                                  To spot if the only thing left is your screen-text and then erase with an observer to watch for this use

                                  
                                  class OnlyScreenTextLeftEntitiesObserver < Sketchup;;EntitiesObserver
                                    def onEraseEntities(entities)
                                      return if entities[1]
                                      entities[0].erase! if entities[0].class==Sketchup;;Text and entities[0].text==$xfeedback.to_s ###??
                                    end
                                  end
                                  # Attach the observer - do this once at startup
                                  Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_observer(OnlyScreenTextLeftEntitiesObserver.new)
                                  
                                  

                                  TIG

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                                  • liquid98L Offline
                                    liquid98
                                    last edited by

                                    Hi TIG,

                                    @tig said:

                                    I don't see the problem ? On the rare occasions when the user has deleted the entire model [and why would they do that?] the scaling becomes irrelevant anyway, so they can just delete it ?

                                    I admit, that situation won't occur very often. But I only want to tackle it to learn new stuff... 😛

                                    When I put your code in a .rb file, like this:

                                    <span class="syntaxdefault">    require </span><span class="syntaxstring">'sketchup.rb'<br /><br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    class OnlyScreenTextLeftEntitiesObserver </span><span class="syntaxkeyword"><</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">EntitiesObserver<br />      def onEraseEntities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    UI</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">messagebox </span><span class="syntaxstring">"OK"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">     end<br />    end<br />  <br />   <br />    Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">add_observer</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">OnlyScreenTextLeftEntitiesObserver</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.new)</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span>
                                    

                                    and then start sketchup, create some entities and delete them,

                                    Nothing happens... Why??

                                    Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                                    • TIGT Offline
                                      TIG Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      Well if it did work every time you erased something you'd get the messagebox...
                                      The EntitesObserver is known to be buggy... if we did get it to work and erased an entity within it it'd probably crash anyway - so my snippet probably wasn't the best idea 😒
                                      How about using a selectionObserver...onBulkChange() - you select the things and then erase them and the selection changes... and then looking at model.entities if no [1] and [0] meets test erase it ...
                                      http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/selectionobserver.html

                                      TIG

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                                      • liquid98L Offline
                                        liquid98
                                        last edited by

                                        I updated the booleanhelper plugin! Please see the first post of this topic.

                                        Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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                                        • D Offline
                                          driven
                                          last edited by

                                          hi,

                                          I believe I just exposed a bug, doing another testhttp://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=38858&p=354541#p354541

                                          when I have 'auto paint tool' Mac preference set, your twee tekst and LEEEEEG message boxes pop up every time I select or delete something even though I wasn't using your tool.

                                          appears to be "Sketchup::SelectionObserver" related.

                                          I'd rather use this then that, but I'd like the option of both...

                                          cheers

                                          john

                                          learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                                          • liquid98L Offline
                                            liquid98
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi John,

                                            Just download and install latest version -see first post of this topic.

                                            Good luck!

                                            Things that flourish fall into decay. This is not-Tao, And what is not-Tao soon ends ~ Lao tse

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