Info about add_note method

Didier Bur

Hi all,
I spent today about an hour to find out why this didn't work:

note=Sketchup.active_model.add_note("Hello World",0.01,0.02)

I finally found that (good thing to know) 'add_note' doesnt display the note when added to an empty model. The object exists but it doesn't appear on screen. Draw a line or something and it pops up

TIG

Screen-text doesn't display unless there's something placed in the model - as you discovered - it's a long-standing bug.
Adding a cpoint at the origin will force it to show.
Screen-text also disappears if you erase all geometry placed in the model - although again, it is still there if you add some new stuff, it reappears...

thomthom

Known bug - but I thought it was mentioned in the docs... ...must have dreamt...

Dan Rathbun

I think I put a bug note at the bottom of the API page... yur not dreaming.

TIG

Here it is

thomthom

Anyone experiences that the notes moves about?

Seems that if you use model.add_note when you are inside a group or component the note is added to that context and will shift about on the screen when orbiting.

Dan Rathbun

Well that method is a wrapper method (so it makes sense.)

It creates a Sketchup::Text object with leader set to hidden, and always face camera to true.
And I think it goes on the current layer.

So you may want to just want to use: model.entities.add_text

API Doc Error: Model.add_note() returns a Sketchup::Text instance object.
There is no Note object in the API.

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

It creates a Sketchup::Text object with leader set to hidden, and always face camera to true.
And I think it goes on the current layer.

So you may want to just want to use: model.entities.add_text

How? I looked at add_text, but it appear to only accept a 3D point - not a 2D screen point.

Dan Rathbun

You are correct. Strike what I said.

There is some unexposed setting. (vector and point are set to nil when you use Model.add_note, but we cannot pass nil to the setter methods of Text objects.)

A note has the model as .parent, but when you do that in a component edit context, it gets the ComponentDefinition as it's parent.

Any way to move it out of the definition's entities collection, and into the model's ??

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

Any way to move it out of the definition's entities collection, and into the model's ??

Group it (group1), add instance of group in model.entities (group2), explode group2, erase group1 ?

Dirty hack - but better than closing the open group/component. I'll try.

TIG

If you are adding the note in code then undo the edit context back to the model entities before adding it ?

model=Sketchup.active_model
###
model.close_active while model.active_path
### NOW add 'note' in the current entities - which are now the model's

thomthom

@thomthom said:

Group it (group1), add instance of group in model.entities (group2), explode group2, erase group1 ?

It did add a Sketchup::Text entity to model.entities, but it is not visible. :s

@tig said:

If you are adding the note in code then undo the edit context back to the model entities before adding it ?

That's what I'm doing now. But it's not a good solution because:

It takes the user out of the current context.
model.close_active is bugged - it doesn't add the event to the undo stack so then you undo the operation geometry gets shifted incorrectly because the change of context transformation is not accounted for.

Dan Rathbun

A bug, for sure.

I thot about:


n = model.add_note("Note text.",xf,yf)
inst2 = model.entities.add_instance(inst1.parent,inst1.transformation)
eg = inst2.explode
del = eg.find_all {|e|
  !e.is_a?(Sketchup;;Text) ||
  ( e.is_a?(Sketchup;;Text) &&
    e.point=nil && e.vector=nil )  
}
txt = eg - del
eg = nil
model.entities.erase_entities(del)
n.erase!

TIG

Because the 'note' is always [?] being added to the 'active_entities' it's safe for us to group it immediately.
note=model.add_note("NOTE", xf, yf) gp=note.parent.entities.add_group(note) gi=model.entities.add_instance(gp.entities.parent, gp.transformation) gp.erase! gi.explode

As I'm typing this untested... we might need to work on the add_instance transformation[s] bit

thomthom

@tig said:

Because the 'note' is always [?] being added to the 'active_entities' it's safe for us to group it immediately.
note=model.add_note("NOTE", xf, yf) gp=note.parent.entities.add_group(note) gi=model.entities.add_instance(gp.entities.parent, gp.transformation) gp.erase! gi.explode

As I'm typing this untested... we might need to work on the add_instance transformation[s] bit

That's what I tried:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=36940&view=unread#p431675

It failed:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=36940&view=unread#p431678

renderiza

Can the text and the position of this note be animated?
For example can I make a timer with this?

TIG

@thomthom said:

That's what I tried:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=36940&view=unread#p431675
It failed:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=36940&view=unread#p431678
Is it because the transformation needs sorting ?
Unfortunately, I think that if you group any 'screen-text' and then explode it it loses its screen-text-ness

Dan Rathbun

The native MoveTool can move the note.