[Plugin] 2D Tools

naveronda · 12 Dec 2012, 04:26

Has anyone had trouble with this plugin on their Mac? All others I've tried have worked perfectly but this one does not show in the Tools menu. I don't get any error messages either. It's just not there. Works great on my PC at work. Any suggestions?

Dave R · 12 Dec 2012, 09:38

It works fine for me on my Mac. When plugins don't work it is nearly always either due to incorrect installation or lack of read and write permissions for the Plugins folder and the folders inside the Plugins folder. Make sure you have set all permissions for the Plugins folder to "Read and Write" and that you've actually got the files installed correctly. Post a screen shot of your Mac's Plugins folder if you still can't get it.

TIG · 12 Dec 2012, 10:23

What Dave said.

However, before you jump into checking permissions etc...
Does it have a '2D Toolbar' to be activated ?
If so the it has been successfully installed.
I note that you say that it does not appear in your 'Tools' menu.
This is understandable, because it actually appears in the 'Draw' menu, in a submenu called '2D Tools...' - as explained in the tool's notes.
Perhaps it's as simple as you needing to look in the right place...

baluman · 2 Jan 2013, 21:11

Hello!!

This seems like a great tool. However i was having difficulties to extrude / push the 2d area made by the plugin, is it my mistake or it is impossible??
Is there any wasy way to draw on a locked 2d plane and then be able to extrude this area??

Thanks in advance

Dave R · 2 Jan 2013, 21:34

It could be any number of problems and most likely something you are doing. Without an example, it is difficult to say. If I had to guess, I'd say you didn't have any face to extrude. You could post the SKP file so we'd have some hope of helping you.

baluman · 3 Jan 2013, 08:56

Ok, i send you a blank file with different shapes made by the plugin in this link : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/82810005/2dlinesTest.skp
When i select a shape (directly or selecting one line an then "select all conected") i am unable to push/ pull. Any help is greatly appreciated. My sketchup is v. 8.0.1515.

@dave r said:

It could be any number of problems and most likely something you are doing. Without an example, it is difficult to say. If I had to guess, I'd say you didn't have any face to extrude. You could post the SKP file so we'd have some hope of helping you.

Dave R · 3 Jan 2013, 10:12

Push/Pull requires faces. You haven't made any. Drawing shapes with the 2D tools in empty space creates only the edges but no faces. If you want to draw shapes in empty space and get the faces, too, just use the native tools. Or, go back with the native Line tool and trace an edge of your shapes to get the faces to be created as I did in the attached.

2dlinesTest.skp

Matte · 15 Feb 2013, 20:43

Hi TIG,
Thanks for an AWESOME tool! How would I go about taking an ACAD Patt file and make a JPEG out of it so I could add it to your (line image) folder with the useable JPEGS. I noticed there are 15-20 images that comes with your tool.....We have over 100 "pat" files I wold like to also use.
Thanks,
Matte

TIG · 15 Feb 2013, 22:44

@Matte
There should be a subfolder of additional PATs too...
You just need to make a jpg image.
It needs to 'tile' - that is the images need to repeat when placed next to each other in X & Y.
Use an existing PAT file for clues on size and 'tiling'... lines on the right side need to match up with lines on the left side, and lines on the top side need to marry up with lines on the bottom side...
If you make some new ones, then please consider sharing them with everyone else...

TIG · 26 Mar 2013, 11:19

@topaz505 said:

Tig, I have been trying, off and on, for several months to get the hang of applying Styles to Lines. I just don't get it !
1st question: can you apply 2D Line Styles to native SU lines ?
2nd question: I assume that if you set a 2D Line Style that the next (and subsequent) 2D Lines that you draw will be in this style ?
3rd question: can you give the keystrokes to apply a new 2D Line Style to an existing line ?

ancilliary question: can you keep on changing the Style of a line ? (My experience suggests that you can only do this once - but that's probably me.)

A request: would it be possible to create a version with fewer colours and widths ?
My application is more engineering drawing than "art" drawing or architecture. I really need a few bold colours, continuous, dashed and dotted lines and a few thicknesses, (the colour menu especially is just bewildering).
PS I have read the Help file and watched the Video - many times, but the plug-in's charms are avoiding me as yet, but I hope to get there.
Thanks in advance.
You pick/select any Sketchup 'Line' and 'Style' it - it replaces the Line with a colored face group, which is then editable later as it's recognized as a Styled-Line - the original line is kept and moved onto a hidden Layer - it can't be erased as it might be needed by a face.
You assumption is wrong... all 2d-lines are just lines/edges like in SketchUp's native tools. You apply a Style to line AFTER they are created, once Styled they are editable [context-menu]...
If you want to make a shortcut key that's straightforward... Use the Preferences shortcut key and navigate to the 2dtools submenu item...
There are some tricks to using a long list...
If you want to customize the color list then you must edit the code...
I think this was already discussed for the 2dtext tool etc...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=263662#p263662
To make your own list of colors etc do something like this: use Notepad.exe to edit the file ../Plugins/2DTools/2DlinestyleTool.rb
Assuming you are 'metric'... find the line #158 reading:
widths=["1|2|4|5|8|10|20|25|30|40|50|60|70|75|80|90|100|125|150|175|200|250|300|400|450|500|600|700|750|800|900|1000|1200|1500|1800|2100|2400|2700|3000|3300|3600"]
These are in 'mm', remove the ones you don't want within the " ". It must start and end with a number and each in the list is separated by a '|' symbol.
So for a limited range of 1mm to 100mm you would use something like:
widths=["1|2|5|10|25|50|75|100"]
If you are expecting to work in 'inches' change line #156 instead.
For the colors, find lines #163..#165.
colors=[]; materials.each{|m|colors.push(m.display_name)} colors=colors+(Sketchup::Color.names.sort!) colors.uniq!; colors=colors.join("|")
IF you just want a few colors you can leave the code above unchanged, BUT then add a line immediately afterwards saying this:
colors=["Black|White|Red|Orange|Yellow|Green|Blue|Violet|Brown|Gray"]
that will redefine the 'colors-list' just to those few [always include at least 'Black' to avoid it tripping up]...

Edson · 27 Mar 2013, 12:23

TIG,

just for your information, I get repeated crashes whenever I tried to undo a 2D fillet.

regards.

TIG · 27 Mar 2013, 12:48

@edson said:

TIG,
just for your information, I get repeated crashes whenever I tried to undo a 2D fillet.
regards.
I recall something like this before...http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=431842#p431842 I get no such issues, with Undo working exactly as you might expect... and the many hundreds of other users also have no issues...
This suggests that you have installed a script that is adversely interacting with my 'innocent' tool...
Have you [recently] installed/activated something that is on the SCF Quarantine list, or perhaps one of the new BIM tools that add clumsy observers or mess with native class/methods, or several Render tools loading all at once which can interact badly, or some new fangled tool that I might not have [yet] ??

Edson · 27 Mar 2013, 13:25

I have none of the quarantined plugins installed and the only rendering plugin I have is podium. I am not sure if BuildEdge Plan qualifies as a BIM extension.

thomthom · 27 Mar 2013, 13:31

I think BuildEdge has been causing some issues...

TIG · 27 Mar 2013, 13:43

@edson said:

I have none of the quarantined plugins installed and the only rendering plugin I have is podium. I am not sure if BuildEdge Plan qualifies as a BIM extension.
It does. Indeed the link I provided was about the update of the 2dFillet tool to sidestep the BuildEdge Plan toolset messing with innocent native processes - because they wouldn't respond to fixing their mess I decided to rewrite my tool which now avoids their created issues !

So have you downloaded the very latest version of 2dTools [off the first post in this thread] - it contains the updated 2dFillet tool that will live in harmony with BuildEdge Plan [although I can't promise that BuildEdge Plan won't break something else!]

Edson · 28 Mar 2013, 11:50

@tig said:

@edson said:

I have none of the quarantined plugins installed and the only rendering plugin I have is podium. I am not sure if BuildEdge Plan qualifies as a BIM extension.
It does. Indeed the link I provided was about the update of the 2dFillet tool to sidestep the BuildEdge Plan toolset messing with innocent native processes - because they wouldn't respond to fixing their mess I decided to rewrite my tool which now avoids their created issues !

So have you downloaded the very latest version of 2dTools [off the first post in this thread] - it contains the updated 2dFillet tool that will live in harmony with BuildEdge Plan [although I can't promise that BuildEdge Plan won't break something else!]

thanks for explanation. however, I am almost sure I had the latest version of 2D Tools installed. just to be sure I downloaded and installed it. let's see how it goes now.

topaz505 · 5 Apr 2013, 10:00

Tig, I have been trying, off and on, for several months to get the hang of applying Styles to Lines. I just don't get it !
1st question: can you apply 2D Line Styles to native SU lines ?
2nd question: I assume that if you set a 2D Line Style that the next (and subsequent) 2D Lines that you draw will be in this style ?
3rd question: can you give the keystrokes to apply a new 2D Line Style to an existing line ?

ancilliary question: can you keep on changing the Style of a line ? (My experience suggests that you can only do this once - but that's probably me.)

A request: would it be possible to create a version with fewer colours and widths ?
My application is more engineering drawing than "art" drawing or architecture. I really need a few bold colours, continuous, dashed and dotted lines and a few thicknesses, (the colour menu especially is just bewildering).
PS I have read the Help file and watched the Video - many times, but the plug-in's charms are avoiding me as yet, but I hope to get there.
Thanks in advance.

Edit: Tig, Many thanks for your complete and helpful reply. Rob
PS Northumberia is great; I was there for 3 years in early '70's !

guanjin · 25 Apr 2013, 16:55

TIG：Hello
I use Chinese text annotation does not work! Other languages working properly.

TIG · 25 Apr 2013, 17:13

I have PMd you a lingvo encoded as UTF8 without BOM rather than ANSI.
Report if that works better ?

vojo · 28 Apr 2013, 02:04

First the good news:

I applaud the intent and effort of this plugin...something like this is badly needed
I appreciate how complex this must be to do

Now the bad news:

This plugin has a way to go to being useful
- line selection is intermittent at best (may take up to 10 tries to pick the lines
  (and that is even in an open area looking down from the top...no shapes near by)
- For Line style...Not sure the merit of creating 1000s of faces along a path.
  Wouldnt it be easier to take the selected lines, copy them, and offset them from
  original, and tie end points together. At least that way you dont get all the
  aliasing on curves? If you are really into 1000s of faces, then trapazoids
  or triangles would be better.
- Color selection really doesnt work....I end up ungrouping to lowest level and pick
  color from palate or whatever then regroup them. (other than black, the selected
  lines disappear.
- Since this tool doesnt line stretch like the native line tool, wouldnt make sense
  to keep/hide original line and offer the option to return to it for movement and
  such....maybe use the original line a guide the user can adjust, the resulting
  line follows the adjustment. For example, assume you make a sort of "S" line.
  With the default tools, you can move the center horizontal and left/right
  verticals tag along. Your tool breaks that connection so that user has to
  stretch /shrink (is that the idea of the "adjust" tool??)

Again...I applaud the efforts so far