Plugin Idea: Select Using Shape as Reference
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Well, the title is probably confusing, so let me explain my idea here:
imagine you have a stadium... thousands of seats, each seat is a component or group. You want to draw symbols with the seats. Maybe a logo. How to do it? Selecting each seat one by one??? It would be even worse if you wanted a pattern across all the seats in the stadium... imagine having to select 10 thousand seats to be able to change their color and make the pattern!!
imagine you have a skyscraper. Each window is a group/component. You want to select a checkered pattern, so you can change the components to another type of window.
imagine any other similar situation, where you have many, many groups/components, and you want to select them in complex shapes. And doing it one by one would take hours, not to mention the possibility of screwing up the selection and having to start it all over again.
WHAT IF we could make a selection based on a DRAWN SHAPE??
Example: you import the Coca Cola logo into sketchup. You draw the lines over the Coca Cola logo. You take those lines, make them into a group. You position that group over the universe of objects you want to select.
Now, I thought of two options... either you have to resize the lines group over the universe of objects you want to select, or maybe you could do as in Zorro... relative to view... in that case, even if your lines group is small, if its near the camera, it can be used to make a selection over a huge area in the background.
Anyway... the "lines group" (lets call it "Selector Group"?) must have closed lines... maybe the ideal would be to have faces (but then you would need to make the faces semi transparent) to see whats behind?
so, you select the "Selector Group", use the plugin, and it selects everything behind it that falls INSIDE the shape. Maybe we can have an option, so only objects COMPLETELY inside the shape are selected, or any objects touching the "selector group" shape projection
This is just a rough idea... I can think of some other uses for this plugin... I wonder if anyone else thinks the idea is interesting and worth a try?
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UM.........DO IT
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My new SuperDrape drapes colored surfaces from one group onto another's surfaces...
You want a similar tool but instead of coloring faces in the second group it colors groups/instances within it ? It'd be somewhat easier to do that SuperDrape - you need to have a grouped set of colored faces [the 'logo', say] and a grouped set of groups/instances. A raytest from the center of every 'instance' detects the material above it and repaints that 'instance'...
Is that what you mean ?? -
it sounds like he wants a selection mask. maybe it would have to be used with parallel projection?
here u could only select what u can see through the mask:
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@tig said:
My new SuperDrape drapes colored surfaces from one group onto another's surfaces...
You want a similar tool but instead of coloring faces in the second group it colors groups/instances within it ? It'd be somewhat easier to do that SuperDrape - you need to have a grouped set of colored faces [the 'logo', say] and a grouped set of groups/instances. A raytest from the center of every 'instance' detects the material above it and repaints that 'instance'...
Is that what you mean ??your plugin is awesome, but its not the same use I thought here. I thought about it when using Zorro, when depending the camera angle, the cut is different (the cut is always related to the camera angle... straight behind to infinity.
I think a "selection mask" is more like it. I dont really "want it" since I dont even really have an immediate use for it right now. But I guess it might had been of use to me in past long finished projects, as well as to other people, in the future. No hurry. And I would like to know if anyone else think it might be useful. If noone thinks its useful nor any use to it, dont waste your time with this idea.
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I think this might do what you want ? http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=360335#p360335
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