Select Visible geometry

Al Hart

OK - here is Al again, trying to see if someone has already written something before we try to write it.

A client asks:

Is there a way for sketch-up to only process what is visible

I explained:

We don't have anything like that yet.

We have avoided it, because sometimes "invisible" items are included in reflections or shadows, lighting, or might add indirect, lighting.

Also, by "invisible", we would mean - not visible on the screen in wire frame mode - we would not mean "behind a wall", behind glass, in a recessed ceiling, etc."

Still, it might be a nice feature. Does anyone have a ruby which selects or identifies visible, (top level), geometry only that he could use to select "visible" items, (and then use our "process selected items only" features?

honoluludesktop

Al, There is a snippet developed and posted here by Chris F. that scans the SketchUp window one pixel at a time, and identifies the face at that location. Not 100% accurate, but perhaps you can start with that?

Al Hart

Ah I wish I had that elusive link to Chris's script or the thread that mentions it.

I tried searching for "one pixel" and for "invisible" but I didn't find it.

Al Hart

@honoluludesktop said:

Al, There is a snippet developed and posted here by Chris F. that scans the SketchUp window one pixel at a time, and identifies the face at that location. Not 100% accurate, but perhaps you can start with that?

Thanks for the idea. This is probably what the client really wanted - only those faces which we actually visible on the screen.

I was looking for the opposite - the components or other geometry whose bounding box contains, or intersects the screen.

Both might be handy

honoluludesktop

If locating the faces is sufficient, you can start with my code here. Just noticed that there is a link to Chris's post too.