[Plugin] Hatchfaces (v1.8 beta) UPDATED 15-Dec-2012

kyyu

Guys, I'm glad youre showing interrest in this plugin! I will try to do by best to improve it.
About Autocad compability.. You have to realize, 2 months ago I had no programming experience att all and
that feature sounds fairly complex. I think priority must be made to get spacing OK, and holes get filled.

You're doing good for 2 months. I started the same way, with no programming experience, about 1 & half years now. I still have alot to learn. Takes alot of time at our level, to do even simple stuff.

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

file_loaded("Hatchfaces.rb")
Hmmm, thought I did not need that. It's not loading right for you?

Concerning this line of code. It put's your plugin in a list of loaded files. That's the list your are checking when you say "unless file_loaded?("Hatchfaces.rb")". So if you don't have the loaded line, then there is no reason to check if the file has been loaded in the 1st place.

I thought Sketchup would give me a 2nd toolbar, if I loaded the plugin again. But it appears not. Maybe Sketchup won't let you have two toolbars with the same name? So I guess it didn't matter,after all, for your plugin. But, like I mentioned, then you could have left out the 1st line, also. Where it matters, is menu items. Sketchup will add a new menu item each time you reload a plugin, if you don't have those 2 lines.

And as a fyi, these two methods are in the "sketchup.rb" file. That's probably why you have the line at the very beginning: "require 'sketchup.rb'"

-Kwok

jolran

Thanks KYYU

And thank you for that explanation. You are most helpful!

sadyo

Thanks Jolran, it's really awesome plugin
Then... AutoCAD would be far away now

jolran

Hi Atelerpaar!

I did not think of that until you mentioned it now. Good suggestion That would be the behaivior one would expect. Also files would get smaller. I will try my best

I have an new idea for getting different patterns. 2d DCs with intersection. Don't know if it is possible, have to do some research. But then a library of concrete and such could be made with a webdialog and thumbnails. Needles to say, quite a project..

Any interest in that? Or are textures already sufficient as they are for that purpose?

(my personal feeling is that textures get ugly in Layout unless perfectly scaled, Richards masking-method works ok, but is not 100% flexible)

jolran

Been at it all morning. Seems not that easy to erase surrounding edges as I thought.
Outer edges are most possible, but I suspect you just want the hatched (eg45 deg or so) lines remained? Probably missing something in my code..

@unknownuser said:

Takes alot of time at our level, to do even simple stuff.

Damn right about that

But you are far ahead of me in Ruby-knowledge

Cheers Sadyo

I guess this thread is supposed to be about updates and wishes? So won't discuss too much code in here.

TIG

Do you mean erase the surround edges to the hatching ?

To do that you need to examine the hatching group's geometry before your code to finally erase all faces.
Make an empty array
edges2go=[]
then iterate the geometry
group.entities.each{|e|edges2go << if e.class==Sketchup::Edge and not e.faces[1]}
i.e. 'edges2go' is now a list of all edges in the hatching group that are on the 'perimeter' - i.e. they have only one face. We will now erase them - this will destroy their faces too so you probably never need to erase the group's faces as there won't be any left!
group.entities.erase_entities(edges2go)
All perimeter edges are erased en mass.
How are you getting on with the 'holes' issue

jolran

He he! I can't make this work. I wish it was as simple for me as it is for you

@unknownuser said:

before your code to finally erase all faces.

By that you mean after the intersection and before the erasing?

The "hole" issue is putting a hole in my brain.

TIG

The two relevant lines in the code
gents.to_a.each{|e|e.erase! if e.valid? and e.class==Sketchup::Edge and e.faces.length==0} gents.to_a.each{|e|e.erase! if e.valid? and e.class==Sketchup::Face}
The first line removes any unfaced edges.
The second removes all faces.
What you need to do between them is add these lines
edges2go=[] gents.each{|e|edges2go << if e.class==Sketchup::Edge and not e.faces[1]} gents.erase_entities(edges2go)
This will remove perimeter edges and thereby all faces anyway... So after a test you should find the original second line to erase all faces is no longer needed...

jolran

Ver 1.2 zip added at first post.

jolran

Yeeyy!!! It works now!

I had to think a little bit Where some typos(I hope I did not destroy anything )

Anyway it works. Will post update soon..

gents.to_a.each{|e|e.erase! if e.valid? and e.class==Sketchup;;Edge and e.faces.length==0}
      edges2go=[]
      gents.each{|e|edges2go << e if e.class==Sketchup;;Edge and not e.faces[1]}
      gents.erase_entities(edges2go)

Thanks to TIG this plugin gets updated once more

sergey2402

Well done! You are doing greatly desired work!
I really, really like it.

jolran

Why thank you But I really think you should thank TIG and Kyuu.

Feel free to ask for ways to improve! Or even come up with ideas

ken

Well, this is starting to look good. My suggested improvement

If you do two hatches of the same face, is it possible to get both hatches in the same group.

Thank you for your work

Ken

sergey2402

Maybe hatches should be on its own layer?

jolran

Thank you for your input guys!! Good points!

I will answer more profound tomorrow. I'm a bit in a hurry! For Now, here is a minitut or tips, as a compensation that the hole "issue" isent fixed yet.

sergey2402

TIG, kyyu, please do not leave jolran alone. You are all together make a very necessary work.

TIG

We are helping him... [sometimes in the background ]

sergey2402

@tig said:

We are helping him... [sometimes in the background ]

jolran

About added features:

To put hatches in a layers(newly created OR selected) is possible, at least create a new layer. I was thinking of adding that anyway.

@unknownuser said:

If you do two hatches of the same face, is it possible to get both hatches in the same group.

It is a good idea, looking at how the plugin works right now. But it's risky business adding geometry inside groups, and you probably have to select the created hatchgroup before running. Wich in turn will not add that much improvement in workflow?
But if you really, REALLY want that feature... It won't hurt testing..

My personal view is that I should rather investigate the possibilitie to improve the plugin with a "pattern library" instead. No promises can be made in that regard though. It seams difficult.

@unknownuser said:

TIG, kyyu, please do not leave jolran alone

TIG's been helping me a LOT! Through PM's and more, otherwise this plugin would not exist. KYuu fixed the spacing and that was mucho importante.

TIG

The layer part is easy. Add some code to make/refer to the layer
hatch_layer=model.layers.add("HATCH")
If it doesn't exist it's made...
Then after the group is made use...
group.layer=hatch_layer
Done

You could add a 'crosshatch' option to the main dialog, because most of the time that's what's wanted anyway - "Crosshatch? " >> "Yes|No" [you'd need to insert a 3rd ['','',["Yes|No"]] in inputbox moving the title over to 4th place] - default would be 'No'. If results[3]=='Yes' you'd repeat the line drawing steps within the same group entities, but at +/-90 degrees, so there would be twice as many edges overlaid etc...

How are the 'holes' going...