Help needed to test cabinet plugin

Frankn

Hi,

I'm working on a plugin that creates kitchen cabinets and I was wondering if anyone would like to test it out for me and give me their comments as to what could be added , changed or improved. I'm no ruby plugin expert, this is my first attemp at making a plugin so it's more of a learning exercise and it's not complete but it does what I need it to do so far.

So any takers?

Thanks,
Frank

driven

hi Frankn,

move this post and put the plugin in the developers forum [version it alpha v0.1 or similar]

outline what it does
your goals etc...

the gurus can give you loads of help.

I would have already given it spin if it was here to download... but I'm no guru, could tell you what doesn't work on a mac though...

when it's all working, you can put it in plugins and announce it in 'woodworkers'

john

Frankn

Thanks John,

I've asked for help a few times in the developers forum and those guys are great with the help they offer. I'll post the plugin there also get they're feedback but again this is a first for me and I don't want to be a bother to those guys with something which seems so basic to some of the stuff they do.

Here's the plugin, sorry I thought I had attached it... like I said this is just for fun and not all the options/funstions are working yet but I'd really like to get some feedback from fellow woodworkers.

So please go ahead and tell me what you think and features you think would be helpful or need to be changed improved. And also some of the terminology is probably not the best so feel free to give me suggestions/corrections. This was never meant for others and uses building technique I use to go along with the sheet stock I use for building cabinets, which is 30 x 60 Russian Birch plywood.

Thanks in advance
Frank

Frankn

Just noticed after replying that this has been moved to the developer forum... thanks to whoever did that.

Note to the guru developers in here... please be getntle with me... but I do look forward to your input.

This is an alpha or beta or whatever non finsihed version and is just a fun/past time thing for me but any improvements I can make or anything I can learn that I'm doing wrong is welcomed.

Thanks in advance,
Frank

Dan Rathbun

A few points:

1) put the file in the FIRST post of this thread, add a version # at the end of the title:

"[Plugin:WIP] Cabinet Creator : version 0.0.1", and when updating:

Make sure any update is reflected in the version number in the file's info block* remove the old file and replace the file, always in the FIRST post* and edit the topic title to change the version number

(Jim's "sniffer" will notice the change in the topic title.)

2) Use a more detailed info block at the begin of the file with # chars

Some times there are problems with =begin ... =end blocks.

The first horizontal rule should begin " #{" and the last begin " #}" so that the block can be folded by editors like Notepad++. ( =begin ... =end blocks cannot be autofolded, that I know of.)* Otherwise, always put a space between a # and a - char that begin lines, ( doc generators use #-- and #++ as swicthes.)
Here's text you can cut and paste (and make a little rb template with this at the beginning for any project):

#{---------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Copyright 2011 Frank Nasso,  All Rights Reserved.
#
# TERMS;  You may not alter, publish, market, distribute, give, transfer,
#         sell or sublicense the Scripts or any part of this Script.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
# WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
#
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Name        ; Cabinet Creator
# Based On    ; n/a
# Type        ; Tool
# Author      ; Frank Nasso
# Email       ; 
# Website     ; 
# Blog        ; n/a
#
# Maintenance ; Please report all bugs or strange behavior to 
#
# Version     ; 0.0.1
#
# Menu Items  ; Plugins -> Cabinet Maker (FrankNasso)
#
# Toolbar     ; 
#
# Context-Menu; 
#
# Description ;  
#
# To Install  ; 
#
#}----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3) For cross-platform use, try to remember to save your files with UNIX line ends (works on both Mac and Windows,) AND the encoding must be ANSI for the Ruby interpreter. (*But data files can be UTF8 if needed.)

4) Look at TheDro's Voxelize plugin, for how to encapsulate your plugin's code inside YOUR "author" module namespace ( module FrankNasso is fine,) and within it's specific plugin submodule ( module FrankNasso::CabinetCreator is fine.) He was at the same place you are, when I helped him get his plugin properly organized, so it serves as a good example.

5) Wrap your plugin(s) inside an author "filespace", ie, a "FrankNasso" subdir of the "Plugins" dir, and each of your plugins inside a subdir of your author dir, ie: a "Plugins/FrankNasso/CabinetCreator/createcab.rb"

6) Make a extension registration script to go in the "Plugins" folder (use a "_ext" suffix,) like so "FrankNasso_Cabinet_Creator_ext.rb"

see [Code] SketchupExtension and rbs rubies for more info on creating an extension registration script.

7) Package it all together into a rbz zipped archive, with the proper dir structure (from the plugins dir, not the roor dir.)

ktkoh

Tested your cabinet plug-in and was impressed. However I was trying to design a base cabinet with 2 drawers at the top and then doors on the lower part of the cabinet. What I got was a 30" tall base cabinet with 2 doors and then 2 drawers on top of the base cabinet with a total height of about 50". Also when I specified drawers I was not asked anything about size. I'm sure there are too many options to please all cabinet designs but I would think this would be able to get a kitchen design started and the individual could add/change some details with less work than starting from scratch.

Keith

Frankn

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the input.

As stated some features aren't working yet... as you found out right now you can't mix and match doors and drawers.

Which in turn is why you're not asked anything about drawer size... when adding drawers to base cabinets they automatically divided equally in the size of the cabinet entered. Ecepth when selecting 3 drawers then the top is smaller then the bottom 2... I'll be adding the option to have 3 equally sized drawers.

Like I said this was for personal use with the way I build cabinets so I understand that some deatures seem limited... but I figured it was hard enough to get what I wanted without adding options I would never use. But I'm kinda getting the hang of this and add different features as I go along and have the time. So far it's proven very useful in getting exact measurements for things like stile and rails which I use to have to calculate individually for different cabinets, now it's all done automatically which to me is a huge time saver.

As per Dan's suggestions I'm working 'standardizing' the pluggin and when I'm done with that I'll start a new thread dedicated to the plugin with updated. I guess till then this thread can be used for suggestions.

Frank

@ktkoh said:

Tested your cabinet plug-in and was impressed. However I was trying to design a base cabinet with 2 drawers at the top and then doors on the lower part of the cabinet. What I got was a 30" tall base cabinet with 2 doors and then 2 drawers on top of the base cabinet with a total height of about 50". Also when I specified drawers I was not asked anything about size. I'm sure there are too many options to please all cabinet designs but I would think this would be able to get a kitchen design started and the individual could add/change some details with less work than starting from scratch.

Keith