[Plugin] VisTools v1.3.4

Dan Rathbun

@simon le bon said:

Page 2:

@unknownuser said:

Utilities](http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f) (renamed VisTools)":27wl27ao]Version 2.x is coming .....
... We are then gone back to the first post of this present thread

Simon,
I suppose you are asking the question "What happened to FreezeTools v2.0 ?"

(1) FreezeTools must be thought of as an experimental code fork of the original, that was never released.

(2) Some organizational ideas for the code were used by Dana in the VisTools v1.1 (or v1.0.1 ?) release.

I am guessing that I had made the codebase for FreezeTools much too complex, in too many files. Again (guessing,) I think Dana did not have the time to test it, but needed to update the original, and decided to keep the update as simple as possible, still in one file, and include only the most important revisions, which were the name change to VisTools, and wrapping the code within his new IntrepidBear module namespace.

And probably, that was the correct decision. (I think I got carried away, and broke the code up into far too many files. Also, I likely introduced too many changes all at once. It is better to do changes in smaller increments, for debugging, and just in case that "fork" must be rolled back if it does not work out.)

But... since VisTools still needed an update to correct the multi-model situation on Mac, I said to myself,
"Why waste the work I and others did creating the language strings for FreezeTools?"

I still have all those language hash files, so I used the language strings, but in a slightly different way. (I no longer read the file as a hash literal into a string object, and then eval() it. I just let the interpreter use the language file via the load() method.)

SO .... this really is where we should be.

Version %(#000000)[1.2.0] is just a small incremental change that adds multi-model support, and loads localized language strings for the menus, toolbar, and tooltips.

Dan Rathbun

Pushed v1.2.0 into a forked GitHub online repository at:
https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools

Dan Rathbun

UPDATE: v1.2.1

(see first post)

simon le bon

Hi Dan,

@dan rathbun said:

Simon,
I suppose you are asking the question "What happened to FreezeTools v2.0 ?"

I am too new with these tools to ask such a question: but it is an interesting reply

This have made me realize that I hadn't enough noticed that we where in the Developers' Forum
Alas, I regret but coding matter is not my cup of thea

Anyway, Thank you in advance for the future developments..

(I have some problems and things to understand with Vistools layers management but I go to [Plugin] VisToolsthread to discuss )

*simon

jolran

"Look Mom! No code outside the author's namespaces."

Looks like very tidy code. And well documented. Will study this.

Dan Rathbun

@jolran said:

"Look Mom! No code outside the author's namespaces."

Yup.. you're the first to notice my little quip.

But it is true. There is usually never a need to write normal plugin code, that evals outside your author namespace.

@jolran said:

Looks like very tidy code. And well documented. Will study this.

Yes it should serve well as good, simple plugin example.

Dan Rathbun

UPDATE v1.3.0 (see first post)

Pushed update into a forked GitHub online repository at:
https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools

Fedback via: https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools/issues

simon le bon

Hi Dan,

You surf on the lip of the wave.
After a little while of use; once we have begun to integrate its functionalities in our workflow, this tool appears as natural as a basic one !

v1.3.0 Downloaded,
Thank you ++

simon

Dan Rathbun

@simon: Are the français menu text and tooltips working correctly for you?

simon le bon

@dan rathbun said:

@simon: Are the français menu text and tooltips working correctly for you?

Everything looks perfect in the two areas

A suggestion:
May be a red icon or light to signal something is hidden or frozen as a reminder would be useful. I think that with a complex model stratified on numbered layers, things can be loosen into the hidden world easily.

+++
simon

Dan Rathbun

@simon le bon said:

@dan rathbun said:

@simon: Are the français menu text and tooltips working correctly for you?
Everything looks perfect in the two areas

Thank you for the feedback Simon!

Dan Rathbun

Issue #19: Toolbar button ordinal positions

In the old pre v1.2.x versions, the plugin commands were added to the VisTools toolbar in a hard-coded manner.

In my versions (v1.2.0 to v1.3.0,) I first loaded all the commands into a Hash, and then later iterate this @@command hash adding the commands to both the toolbar and menu.

The problem is that in Ruby v1.8.x, the order of keys returned when using an each iterator, is not ALWAYS the same order in which they were added to the hash.

Anyone notice the position of toolbar buttons changing from one session to the next ??

I may need to modify the code to be sure the buttons are always in the correct order.
ADD: Issue filed for milestone 1.3.1, and fix has been done.

Dan Rathbun

UPDATE v1.3.1

Pushed update into a forked GitHub online repository at:
https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools

Feedback via: https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools/issues

guanjin

@dan rathbun said:

UPDATE v1.3.1

Pushed update into a forked GitHub online repository at:
https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools

Feedback via: https://github.com/DanRathbun/sketchup-vistools/issues

Aviso para cargar error

未命名.jpg

Dan Rathbun

@__guanjin__:

The plugin should have just used English ...

... because I did NOT supply language files for zh-CN (Chinese Traditional), zh-TW (Chinese Taiwanese), ja (Japanese) or ko (Korean.)

%(#BF4000)[I do not know how to create UTF-8 encoded language files for these languages.
(I think they may use UTF-16 encoded characters.)]

Questions:

Are you running SketchUp in chinese ? zh-CN or zh-TW ??

At the Ruby Console, what is the result of:

Sketchup.get_locale

and:

Sketchup.get_locale()[0,2]

Anton_S

Hey Dan, the script and organization is amazingly profesional. Indeed, I need to upergrade my scripting skills now...

Dan Rathbun

Thank you Anton

Anton_S

I examined the Vis Tools.rb and find it strictly licened. What bugs me is the whole licence thing:

How do I get it? I found a link here, though I'm still not sure.
What kind of licence should I get? MIT?
Is it required to pay for the licence?

Sorry if my post is a bit of topic though

Dan Rathbun

@anton_s said:

I examined the Vis Tools.rb and find it strictly licened.

The MIT License is very NON-Strict.

Really there are only 2 requirements: that the copyright notices of the previous authors must stay in the code documentation (you add your own name if you make changes and distribute an edition of your own;) and the original License text (and it's requirements, along with it's 2 restrictions, AND ALL it's privileges,) must be passed on to any future users, or authors.

Basically.. the "MIT License" is a liberal, socialistic, community property type of license, that is meant to encourage "open source" projects that anyone can use, and improve. Since many people may put their valuable time into the product and do not want some entity "stealing" their work and turning it into a commercial product,... the license has the requirements that the contributor copyright notices and all privileges to use or modify the software, must be passed on.

@anton_s said:

How do I get it?

The license text IS distributed with the plugin in " %(#004080)[**LICENCE.txt**]", ...
and I also pasted it into the documentation headers of the " %(#004080)[Plugins/load_VisTools.rb]" extension loader and the " %(#004080)[Plugins/IntrepidBear/VisTools/VisTools.rb]" main script file.

IF you installed the rbz archive, then you have the license files.

@anton_s said:

I found a link here, though I'm still not sure.

That website has nothing to do with THIS VisTools SketchUp plugin nor it's license.
That website is a form guide that helps you decide what license to use with YOUR OWN projects, that have never before been subject to any "End-User License Agreement" (EULA), "Terms of Service" (TOS) or "Terms of Use".)

@anton_s said:

What kind of licence should I get? MIT?

The license attached to the plugin IS the MIT license.

The terms of the MIT license (as distributed with the plugin,) along with the Warranty Disclaimer / Limitations on Liabilities, apply to your use of the software as it is now; and grant you privileges (subject to those 2 restrictions,) to modify or extend the software, and distribute your own edition.

@anton_s said:

Is it required to pay for the licence?

No ... but I would not mind donations to help pay for my time, or new features.

I could have charged a fee for the updates (under the terms of the MIT license,) but chose not to, because I really did not add any new features. I just cleaned up the code mostly, and fixed a few things. The language support files were done by volunteers back when I forked off the edition that was temporarily called "FreezeTools".

I do not use the VisTools plugin much myself, because I really do not feel it Freezes things the way they are frozen in AutoCAD. But I suppose it is better than nothing.

Unless I get feedback from users who really like to use the plugin, and likely get some donations to do more work on it,... I probably will not do much more to it, other than fix any glaring bugs, that are easily fixed.

Anton_S

Thank Dan, that explains it well.