[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

Corb · 8 Oct 2011, 17:11

This plugin is just great !
I am using it to make a curved structural cage in front of a building.
A bit like Prada building in Tokyo, by HdeM, but the cage is separated from the facade.
It does not work always on very complex shapes but it's incredibly useful !!!
Many thanks indeed !

Chris Fullmer · 8 Oct 2011, 18:51

Woohoo! I love it when it works, thanks for sharing!

Chris

kagazwala · 14 Oct 2011, 08:03

Hello Everyone!!!

I have a little problem.

I select a Group shape then clicked the shape bender icon.
Selected a straight line along the red axis of the same size as the group.
Selected the curved path.

Wallah !!! it bent the shape as desired.

But now when I press Enter Key to commit changes everything goes back to point 0. nothing happens

What am I doing wrong.

Please help

Regards
Kagazwala

TIG · 14 Oct 2011, 10:13

Press ENTER to confirm the bending.
Do you get any errors in the Ruby Console ?

davidbone · 24 Oct 2011, 21:18

Great plugin, I used it on a couple of my Star Trek models to bend the writing for the saucer

Maker · 26 Oct 2011, 13:51

I have troubles with bolt modeling tutorial.
See the screen shot below:

Distribution occurs with error
It does not create all the required surfaces.

esther_febriana · 27 Oct 2011, 04:11

hi,
i want to install, but cant open the .rb file.
please help me how to install it

THannksssS

fightingfishcustoms · 27 Oct 2011, 07:01

it's not working for me, i did the steps but i got stuck in step 2(where you select the straight line), the cursor does not change and i can't click on anything? what am i doing wrong? thanks

Dave R · 27 Oct 2011, 12:58

@esther_febriana said:

hi,
i want to install, but cant open the .rb file.
please help me how to install it

THannksssS

You don't need to open the .rb file. You need to extrct the ZIP file to the plugins directory. See the sticky post in the Plugins forum on installing zipped plugins.

Dave R · 27 Oct 2011, 13:01

@fightingfishcustoms said:

it's not working for me, i did the steps but i got stuck in step 2(where you select the straight line), the cursor does not change and i can't click on anything? what am i doing wrong? thanks

It could be pretty much anything. You don't give us enough info to help you. Post the SKP file so we can see what you are trying to do.

Dave R · 27 Oct 2011, 13:02

@maker said:

I have troubles with bolt modeling tutorial.
See the screen shot below:

Distribution occurs with error

It does not create all the required surfaces.

Do you hit Enter/Return after you get to the second screen shot? Post the SKP so we can see what's going on.

TIG · 27 Oct 2011, 13:19

@esther_febriana said:

hi,
i want to install, but cant open the .rb file.
please help me how to install it
THannksssS
You don't 'open' a .rb file you put it into the Plugins folder, restart Sketchup and follow the instruction on how to use it. It's an Extension so it needs activating from Preferences, it's toolbar then needs activating from View > Toolbars; then pick a group or component and follow the instructions about picking a premade line and curve - good luck

TIG · 27 Oct 2011, 13:20

Maker - if the bent form will involve facets that are very small it will fail - scale up, bend, then scale down...

Chris Fullmer · 27 Oct 2011, 15:40

I agree with everything TIG and Dave said.

@Maker - sounds like you just need to scale everything up by 100 times. SU does not like small faces

@Fightingfish - That is generally an installation error. Just extract it to you plugins folder and it will install it with the right folder structure.

@Esther - Yup, like they said. You should read up on how to install a SketchUp plugin. Its a matter of putting the files and folders into the plugins folder. Then SketchUp will load the plugin the next time you open SketchUp.

Good luck folks. Was there a tutorial posted somewhere that included shapebender? 3 people in a day or 2 seems like a lot.

deprezzar · 28 Oct 2011, 18:28

thanks!!!

LannorMov · 1 Nov 2011, 22:13

Gracias Cris, le voy a sacar el jugo a este plug.

LannorMov · 1 Nov 2011, 22:41

@chris fullmer said:

woohoo, we're getting somewhere.

You didn't install it right.

Chris, Te cuento que a mi también me ha dado problemas con la selección de la línea, pero lo que hago es explotar el grupo o componente y le vuelvo a dar "crear grupo o componente" y luego me funciona muy bien.
Chris, I tell you that I too have been problems with the selection of the line, but what I do is to exploit the group or component and it keeps coming back "create group or component" and then I work very well.(excuse my English)

stillhouse · 12 Dec 2011, 05:04

Struggling to get shapebender to work on Sketch-up 8 for windows 7.
I have downloaded both shape bender and progressbar and have put them in my sketchup plugins folder.
I draw a line on the red axis
I extrude a bar next to it and make it a group
I make a curved line a little ways away
I select the bar and go under plugins and select shape bender. It asks me to select the line on the red axis but I can't select it.
Any help would be great. I love this plugin and I have used it in the past on my old mac, and would love to get this going on my new pc.
Cheers,
BW

Chris Fullmer · 12 Dec 2011, 05:13

This sounds like an installation error. You should have clf_shape_bender_loader.rb in the plugins folder, and then clf_shape_bender.rb and all the shapebender icons should live in a subfolder called clf_shape_bender.

If that doesn't help, open the Ruby Console (in the windows menu). Then try to run shape bender and see what errors it gives.

Let me know how it goes,

Chris

tsunamile · 15 Dec 2011, 15:42

Hi Chris Fullmer.
I did same everything you said..., but i can use this plugin; when i run sketchup... a load error appear!
I use sketchup 8, win Xp sp2 32bit.
Help me fix it..
Thank's.