Problem adding instance of child component

ktkoh

My script is intended to add a instance of a child component outside of the parent component. The script starts as a context selection when a child component is selected. The user needs to open the parent for editing to select the component.

UI.add_context_menu_handler do |popup|

      sel = Sketchup.active_model.selection
      unless sel.empty?
        if sel.single_object?
          obj = sel[0]
          if obj.is_a?(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance) &&
          obj.parent.is_a?(Sketchup;;ComponentDefinition)
            popup.add_item(NC2SCENE) {
              #
              nested_component_command(obj)
              #
            }
          end # component test
        end # single_object?
      end # unless empty?
      
    end # add_context_menu_handler

and I have not found a method to close the parent component and then when I add an instance of the child it is added inside the parent which is not what I need. The instance needs to be added to the model outside of the parent component.

Thanks
Keith

TIG

Assuming 'obj' is an instance... using
obj.parent
will return the actual 'container' of 'obj' - which might be the model or a group/component-definition].
Use
definition=obj.definition model.entities.add_instance(definition, transformation)
to add an instance into the model itself using a 'transformation' - which you might get from the 'obj' and its 'container' instance...

Dan Rathbun

@ktkoh said:

... and I have not found a method to close the parent component ...

use: Model # close_active()

as in:
Sketchup.active_model.close_active()

ktkoh

I used the Sketchup.active_model.close_active() and it worked as advertised.

Thanks (I wish sometimes I could find these on my own)
Keith

Dan Rathbun

@ktkoh said:

(I wish sometimes I could find these on my own)

The API Method Index really helps find things.

thomthom

@ktkoh said:

I used the Sketchup.active_model.close_active() and it worked as advertised.

Note that the method is bugged and doesn't add the operation to the undo-stack - so if the user undo operations you might see some unexpected results. No workarounds atm.

ktkoh

Ok I tried the other method

c2=@model.entities.add_instance(ent_def,insert_tran)

when I first looked at the suggestion I thought that was how I added the instance in my origional code but closer inspection I noted that I was using

c2=@model.active_entities.add_instance(ent_def,insert_tran)

Once I replaced active_entities with just entities the code worked also.

Thanks
Keith