[Plugin][WIP][OpenSource] Bezier Surface

[thomthom]

@jolran said:

Wow, performance seems very quick.
May I ask, is it all Ruby?

At the moment, yes. Though I expect that eventually some will need to be ported to C - like I did with Vertex Tools. But the biggest bottleneck is SketchUp itself - in that adding geometry gets slower the more geometry is already in the model.

[iichiversii]

Take your time TT, looking forward to the release, it will be an addition to vertex tools, keep up the great work

[jolran]

@unknownuser said:

But the biggest bottleneck is SketchUp itself - in that adding geometry gets slower the more geometry is already in the model

You mean the total amount of edges-faces in model or the subdividing procedure?

But still, all Ruby you say. That looks like you got some nice realtime response, thought you pulled some C extension on it already.

Hope you find time to do some more tutorials on C-extensions later then

[cuttingedge]

This should be at the very core of Sketchup's future release.. Amazing tool. Your'e brilliant Thomas!..I believe you could author a toolset like T-spline!

[thomthom]

@jolran said:

You mean the total amount of edges-faces in model or the subdividing procedure?

Yea, as SketchUp adds geometry it will check the added geometry for intersections and merging. Meaning that for every entity you add it will loop over every other entity. So it's not even a linear degradation of performance - it's just get horribly slow quickly.

@jolran said:

But still, all Ruby you say. That looks like you got some nice realtime response, thought you pulled some C extension on it already.

At the moment it's ok for the tests I do. I mean, it's not the biggest test models because I haven't made the tools to create anything useful. But once the tools are taking into place I need to focus on performance and the calculation of the bezier curves will most likely need to be ported to C.
At the moment I reduce the subdivisions when the tools are editing the mesh, for a faster response. But I might try to just draw virtual mesh with OpenGL draw commands, like I played around with in my Catmull-clart subdivision experiment: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=333&t=47691&p=427968#p427968
Problem with that is there is no shading of the polygons, so you lose some feeling of the surface since it's just flat shading. Not sure how to do that in the end - kindof hopes for some amazing new feature in SketchUp that will make this easier.

@jolran said:

Hope you find time to do some more tutorials on C-extensions later then

I have some projects that need C Extensions, and usually when I venture off into unknown territories I need to write stuff down so I remember it. Tutorials, guides or blog posts are great for this. It forces you to think about what you think you know.

[thomthom]

@cuttingedge said:

I believe you could author a toolset like T-spline!

I don't know about that, least not yet. I'm struggling with the math of plain ol' bezier patches. T-Splines is some very clever stuff.

[jchau2007]

TT,
Please update us as to where you are at with the Bezier Surfae tool development. We are all waiting on this one for a long time. Well let say you are crossing over two franchises, from Google to now Trimble.

thanks,
James

[thomthom]

Yea, it's been taking a long time. It's been a much bigger project than I'd imagined.

I've done, what I think, is most of the core. I've begun to work on the tools to manipulate the meshes now.

[dmatho]

Where's the "Super Like" button?

[simon le bon]

@thomthom said:

Yea, it's been taking a long time. It's been a much bigger project than I'd imagined.

I've done, what I think, is most of the core. I've begun to work on the tools to manipulate the meshes now.

"Courage" Thom! this is going to be a wonderful tool, an indispensable one. May be your "Chef d'oeuvre".

++simon

[thomthom]

I think it's best if I aim for a more basic first release - then do more continuous smaller updates evolving it.

[interior_design]

Many thanks Mr. Thomas for the great efforts in providing very useful plugines for SU. I really aspire to have this plugin into geometry application of SU very soon. I know it is a big project that you didn't imagine it would take that much of time, but at least you got an idea now about the remaining percentage of completing this project.

Regards,

[thomthom]

Bezier Surface is now free and open source!
http://www.thomthom.net/thoughts/2014/11/bezier-surface-for-sketchup-is-now-open-source/

[pbacot]

Woohoo! (where is everyone?). Thanks TT!

[unclex]

It's really nice!!!!!!!!
But unfortunately， I can only drug out the Purple Grid， cannot double clicked and continued， just showing
Bezier Surface Updating.....
win8.1x64 @SU2015x64 & SU2013， both happened
Should be there any bugs with others plugins？

[thomthom]

@unclex said:

But unfortunately， I can only drug out the Purple Grid， cannot double clicked and continued， just showing
Bezier Surface Updating.....

Can you share example model or screenshot?
Any errors in the Ruby Console?

[jeff hammond]

what the? this thing is cool

a question..
is there a way to control the segmentation yet? like, max angle = 5º (or whatever) and anything steeper will break down to two (or more) segments until the maximum mesh angle has been achieved?

[Rich O Brien]

@jeff

type subdivisions in the VCB

[jeff hammond]

@rich o brien said:

@jeff

type subdivisions in the VCB

got it. thanks

[Rich O Brien]

Ur more than welcome.

I imagine you'll get lots of mileage outta this?