[Plugin] Sketchup Ivy

Alan Fraser

Some great improvements there...and pretty easy to customise (I doubled the float length). One issue I have on my system is that when the progress meter hits 100% I still can't see the red latent growth path. It's only visible from certain very specific angles, so I have to keep constantly orbiting to a new position to see where it's up to. I have the latest graphic drivers. It's no biggee, but I thought I'd mention it.

notareal

Interesting project. I am sure that this has more potent than just to grow a ivy.

thomthom

@alan fraser said:

Some great improvements there...and pretty easy to customise (I doubled the float length). One issue I have on my system is that when the progress meter hits 100% I still can't see the red latent growth path. It's only visible from certain very specific angles, so I have to keep constantly orbiting to a new position to see where it's up to. I have the latest graphic drivers. It's no biggee, but I thought I'd mention it.

That's probably because the tool doesn't implement the Tool.get_extent method: http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/tool.html#getExtents

@Pierreden: Beware that adding methods into the base classes risk running into conflicts with other plugins. It's the same as adding methods to the root namespace - everything is shared. Method names such as .to_v, .to_p, .all_faces could potentially be used by other plugins authors.
Even though it looks nicer to extend the base classes there always is a risk of clashes. I always advice people to void it just to be on the safe side.

Lobster

Hi,

Looks really interesting but I too have a problem on a Mac OSX 10.6.6. Sketchup 8.

There is no output in the console window showing fault after choosing/ticking in the plugin list and clicking on a surface.

The extraction of the .rar seemed fine and i have the folder and .rb file in the correct directory. I presume that the files remain in the Sketchupivy folder?

Regards

Sam

TIG

Lobster
You should a file called si.rb that is in Plugins and a folder called SketchupIvy containing other files, that folder also goes into Plugins.
If your .rar extractor has put these inside another folder then move the .rb and folder into the Plugins folder.

Lobster

Hi Tig,

Thanks for the clarification. My path is correct. I have the Sketchupivy folder and the .rb file in the plug ins folder.

Regards

Sam

Pierreden

@lobster said:

Hi Tig,

Thanks for the clarification. My path is correct. I have the Sketchupivy folder and the .rb file in the plug ins folder.

Regards

Sam

I have little experience with mac, but try to replace the tool.rb in the "SketchupIvy" folder with the attached one. Might work

tool.rb

TIG

Copy/paste this into your Ruby Console Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins")
It will give you the correct location for Plugins on your MAC.
Both the si.rb and tool's folder should be in this folder...

Pierreden

@thomthom said:

@alan fraser said:

Some great improvements there...and pretty easy to customise (I doubled the float length). One issue I have on my system is that when the progress meter hits 100% I still can't see the red latent growth path. It's only visible from certain very specific angles, so I have to keep constantly orbiting to a new position to see where it's up to. I have the latest graphic drivers. It's no biggee, but I thought I'd mention it.

That's probably because the tool doesn't implement the Tool.get_extent method: http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/tool.html#getExtents

@Pierreden: Beware that adding methods into the base classes risk running into conflicts with other plugins. It's the same as adding methods to the root namespace - everything is shared. Method names such as .to_v, .to_p, .all_faces could potentially be used by other plugins authors.
Even though it looks nicer to extend the base classes there always is a risk of clashes. I always advice people to void it just to be on the safe side.

Yeah. Im aware of this but do this mostly because my experiments and tests never leave my computer/Sketchup. Will do something about this soon.

Dave R

It is an interesting plugin. Thank you. Like Alan, I don't see the red latent growth path. Most of the time orbiting doesn't help. Also, even with branching probability set to .99 I don't get any branches. If I have units set to Fractional as I normally do I get the following in the console.

%(#FF0000)[nil
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method []' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:43:in onLButtonDown'
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:43]

TIG

To ensure that all of the model is included in the current drawn view within the Tool's class you have this method

def getExtents
    bbox=Sketchup.active_model.bounds
    bbox.add(@ip.position)if @ip and @ip.valid?
    return bbox
end

assuming that @ip is your input point etc

TIG

@dave r said:

It is an interesting plugin. Thank you. Like Alan, I don't see the red latent growth path. Most of the time orbiting doesn't help. Also, even with branching probability set to .99 I don't get any branches. If I have units set to Fractional as I normally do I get the following in the console.

%(#FF0000)[nil
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method []' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:43:in onLButtonDown'
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:43]

Line #43 in tool.rb should read something like this, so that the raytest can fail and not break things when there is no intersect...
@iv = Si::Ivy.new(intersect[0], intersect[1].last.normal) **if intersect and intersect[1]**
It should NOT be the result of 'units' settings - it's just an untrapped occurrence in the code when the raytest returns 'nil'.

Dave R

Well, you know how much I know about Ruby. Still, if I change the units to Decimal>Millimeters, the plugin works. If I change it to Fractional, it doesn't.

TIG

@dave r said:

Well, you know how much I know about Ruby. Still, if I change the units to Decimal>Millimeters, the plugin works. If I change it to Fractional, it doesn't.

BUT the error you published isn't caused by the units change ?
Do you get any other errors...
The way it's coded is quite convoluted but I see no issues with fractional sizes as these are [probably?] returned as lengths anyway ?

Oxer

Hi,
I work on Mac and i have probed to add the tool.rb to my Plugins Folder, when run the plugin this is the message in Ruby Console:

Message Ruby Console

thomthom

@Oxer: plugins should not go in your User folder. They should be under the root folder.
See this page for description: http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/loading.html

/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp [n]/SketchUp/plugins

TIG

Oxer - the tool.rb file is to go into the Ivy subfolder, NOT into Plugins directly!

Dave R

TIG, I shut down SketchUp and restarted it. It doesn't give any errors this time running in Fractional so I don't know why changing units affected the results. I didn't get any other error messages before. It still doesn't create branching and the red lines don't show up. Perhaps the author will refine the plugin further and I'll give it a try then. I've got too much other stuff to do for the moment.

Pierreden

@Dave: Uploaded a new version in the Top post. Try that one

Lobster

Hi,

Replaced the tool as suggested,

Ruby Window output on activating plug in is

Error: #<ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (0 for 1)>
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:87:in activate' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:87:in select_tool'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:87

When clicking to grow it is this

/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:15:in add' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:15:in getExtents'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:71:in refresh' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:71:in onLButtonDown'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/SketchupIvy/tool.rb:15

Regards

Sam