Section Plane

TIG

Even if you set the section-plane inside the imported component as active, when you explode the component the section-plane ceases to be active ?

thomthom

@tig said:

Even if you set the section-plane inside the imported component as active, when you explode the component the section-plane ceases to be active ?

Yes.

Pout

well there goes my idea of letting a section plane move over a period of time for each individual group/instance
back to the drawing board!

thomthom

mhm another show stopper...

Pout

For verification:

It is impossible to create a section plane through the ruby API
Its is impossible to move (transform!) a section plane through the ruby API
It is possible to delete a section plane through the ruby API (erase!)

Is this correct?

Thx!

thomthom

Aye, a SectionPlane inherits Sketchup::Drawingelement - so all the methods of Sketchup::Drawingelement and Sketchup::Entity is available.

` Sketchup::SectionPlane.ancestors

[Sketchup::SectionPlane, Sketchup::Drawingelement, Sketchup::Entity, Object, Kernel]`

The only thing is that you don't get any methods that relates to how a sectioncut function other than being able to get or set the plane.

Pout

ThomThom,

you got me a bit confused now.
I seem to be unable to move (translation) a section plane by the blue axis through API.
But since it is an entity, i should be able to do it?

thx

Pout

ok, a bit in shame I confees that I can move a section plane but only by certain axis.
I do have to do it like this though:

ent=Sketchup.active_model.selection[0] # a sketchup section plane
vector = Geom;;Vector3d.new 0,0,-3
t = Geom;;Transformation.translation vector
Sketchup.active_model.entities.transform_entities(t,ent)

ent.transform! or ent.transformation does not work

Now, let's say i have 2 groups, each with a section plane in them.
First one i want to move -3 over z-axis, the other one -1 over z-axis.
This can be done?

But auto-creation of a section plane for (and in) each group is not possible i suppose

thomthom

@pout said:

ent.transform! or ent.transformation does not work

ent.transform! and ent.transformation is not part of Sketchup::Entity or Sketchup::Drawingelement. They are part of Sketchup::Group and Sketchup::ComponentInstance.

@pout said:

Now, let's say i have 2 groups, each with a section plane in them.
First one i want to move -3 over z-axis, the other one -1 over z-axis.
This can be done?

Entities.transform_by_vectors
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/entities.html#transform_by_vectors

@pout said:

But auto-creation of a section plane for (and in) each group is not possible i suppose

"Auto-creation"?
You can only add a section plant to a model by inserting a component with a section plane and then exploding the inserted instance. Bit of a hack. But you won't be able to activate it.

Pout

ThomThom, thx for the answers!

With auto-creation I mean this:
The creation through ruby of a section plane in each of the 20 groups that are in the model.