New to Ruby - I want to write a script to...

Dan Rathbun

Oh and BTW... batch mode processing is easier on Windows as the same document window is reused, so that their is only ever ONE model file open, at a time.

Mac SketchUp will open a new document window for EVERY file in the folder, because there is no way via the API to close model windows.

The API does NOT have a built-in interface to simulate user keystrokes (in order to dismiss modal dialogs, etc.)

You would have to use a 3rd-party utility. Some use Applescript on Mac.

Dan Rathbun

@driven said:

@dan rathbun said:

(2) Read the Terms of Use regarding using (or forbidding use of,) SketchUp in an "automated manner".

my take on this is as long as your 'offline' you are not overburdening, Trimble's services in any way, in which case you can use 'Automator.app' to sequentially open and perform actions on your files.

Yes that also makes sense to me.. but I have also had to deal with lawyers in the past, and they come from a galaxy far far away... and do not think like us mere mortals.

YES I DO know how to do it. BUT I am wary of distributing such a utility (which I have already written to about 90% done.)

keithswd

I could do it Windows (via Parallels). Or perhaps process the components within a single model:
Load component from file
Set attributes
Save component back to file
Delete component instance
Purge component
Next

I'll get reading the Newbie guides... Thanks again.

driven

hi Keith,
the first bits relatively easy. if you paste this into 'Ruby Console' and hit 'return' it will open and mod all the .skp's found. Personally I find 'shadows_face_sun' a bit odd looking...

# add your folder your path replaces this
loadFolder =  "/your/path" 

skpFiles = Dir[File.join( loadFolder, "*.skp" )]

#open the files
skpFiles.each {|f| 
Sketchup.open_file f;
# do your ruby actions
Sketchup.active_model.selection.to_a.find_all{|e|e.class==Sketchup;;ComponentInstance}.map{|i|i.definition}.each{|d|d.behavior.always_face_camera=true; d.behavior.shadows_face_sun = true}
}

once there all done, you can either use Cmd "S" to save them, and if in the correct format Cmd "W" to close...

alternatively, you could run this Applescript which will do the save and click any drop-downs that appear.
for some reason it stalls on some windows, but if you click the error box and then 'Run' again it carries on.
Run in Applescript Editor after all the skps are open...

activate application "SketchUp"
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "SketchUp"
		set winCount to count of every window
		repeat with n from 1 to winCount
			if description of window n is "standard window" then
			set thisWindow to window n
				try
					if exists (click menu item "Save" of menu "File" of menu bar 1) then
					end if
				end try
				delay 0.5
				try
					if exists (click button "Save" of sheet 1 of thisWindow) then
					end if
				end try
				delay 0.5
				try
					if exists (click button "Replace" of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of thisWindow) then
					end if
				end try
				delay 0.5
				try
					if exists (click menu item "Close" of menu "File" of menu bar 1) then
					end if
				end try
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

keithswd

Driven - Thanks so much for taking the time to write that up for me.

Unfortunately I don't think this approach will work as it seems that it opens all the files in the folder in one go? I have hundreds of files to process (although I could put them into a working folder in batches I suppose). I am going to try modifying your code to get the array of *.skp files in the folder, then sequentially load each one as a component, modify it, save it back to the folder, delete and purge the instance, and move on to the next file. It seems like that will avoid the issue of not being able to close the current model via Ruby, and will only open one component at a time.

cheers Keith

keithswd

This code appears to work on a test folder of 10 .skp files. Haven't let it loose on the main folder of 500!

model = Sketchup.active_model

# set folder and get array of filenames
loadFolder = "/Users/Keith/Illustration Library/Testfolder"
skpFiles = Dir[File.join(loadFolder, "*.skp")]


# Returns a DefinitionList
definitions = model.definitions

# iterate through files

skpFiles.each do |compFile|
	compDefinition = definitions.load compFile
	behavior = compDefinition.behavior
	behavior.always_face_camera = true
	behavior.shadows_face_sun = true
	compDefinition.save_as compFile
	definitions.purge_unused
	end

no error handling of course so it's a bit 'quick and dirty'.

Dan Rathbun

@unknownuser said:

This code appears to work on a test folder of 10 .skp files. Haven't let it loose on the main folder of 500!

no error handling of course so it's a bit 'quick and dirty'.

Yes make backups first.

And when it comes to file work trapping errors is best.

I would think that the user would be prompted to overwrite the old skp file.

You don't see a confirm MB on the Mac ?

TIG

If you make a subfolder then you can save the reformatted SKPs into there and leave the original SKPs alone...
That way you never change the original SKPs' data and don't need prompts etc...

keithswd

As the code stands it runs without any prompts at all. It processed 10 files in the folder in an instant. For my purposes I'd rather manually copy files to be processed into the folder and run the script unattended, knowing I had my own backups. It's only for me to use so I c an leave it rough and ready... Might be nice to select the folder via the file open dialog, other than that I think it serves my needs

Thanks to all for the help and encouragement.

Dan Rathbun

@unknownuser said:

Might be nice to select the folder via the file open dialog, ...

folder = UI.openpanel("Choose a skp file to set folder","*.skp")
if folder && folder = File.dirname(folder)
  # do your stuff
end

driven

@unknownuser said:

Thanks to all for the help and encouragement.

no problem Keith,
we need to encourage mac users who are prepared to dip into coding, we're in a minority,
if nothing else, there are always PC authored scripts that need a bit of ironing before they're fully mac compatible.

@dan wrote a good 'chunking' script for me to process a 3D text sampler that may be useful/adaptable for handling a 500 file array. I'll see if I can find the link.
FOUND: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=48761&p=444342&hilit=3d+text+chunk#p444342
john

PS, are you in London UK, or one of the impostors, I'm in East Dulwich?

keithswd

Ah - I was wondering what might happen if I loaded a really huge folder - actually I have a couple of thousand file to process. Not all at once though... I will check out that link when I have more time, at first glance looks a bit scary for a novice!

Yes, I really am in London UK (live in W14, work SE11)!

keithswd

Thanks Dan for the pointer to UI.openpanel, that all works fine.

Not sure if it is because I need to learn about chunking my array, but my routine stops every time after processing 33 or 34 files (it is always after 33 or 34 files) and then SU8 crashes. Given that such a small number of files are processed before the hang/crash, I am not sure the array size is the problem? When the script stops running, I am left with the last loaded component in the component list. If I try and and check its 'Face-Me' status, SU crashes.

def setcompfm

model = Sketchup.active_model
# set folder and get array of filenames
folder = UI.openpanel("Choose a skp file to set folder","*.skp")

if folder && folder = File.dirname(folder)
	skpFiles = Dir[File.join(folder, "*.skp")]
end

length = skpFiles.length

result = UI.messagebox "Process " + length.to_s + " files?", MB_YESNO

if result == 6 # Yes

# Returns a DefinitionList
definitions = model.definitions

# iterate through files
begin

	skpFiles.each do |compFile|

		compDefinition = definitions.load compFile
		behavior = compDefinition.behavior
		behavior.always_face_camera = true
		behavior.shadows_face_sun = true
		compDefinition.save_as compFile
		definitions.purge_unused

	end #end do

rescue
	puts compFile

end #end begin

end #end if

end #end def

Dan Rathbun

The folder check was meant to enclose everything... but I see you have a empty folder check (which probably cannot happen because an actual file must be selected. BUT...

change line 7 to:
return unless folder && folder = File.dirname(folder)

REMOVE the end (line 9)

If you cancel the open panel, NOW your method exits (because the result of UI.openpanel will eval falsely.)

Dan Rathbun

change the name of THAT 33rd or 34th file to ".OFF" or whatever.

Then try again. Just eliminate the bad file scenario.

keithswd

Thanks for the correction - I see my mistake now. However, the corrected syntax doesn't fix the crash. The folder selection works as it did before and populates the array with all the .skp files in the folder (about 200 for testing purposes), and my message box pops up and correctly reports the number to be processed.

However it stops on the 33rd or 34th file no matter what that file is. Each time I run the script, I move the 33/34 successfully modified files out of the folder, so I am never processing the same files twice. I don't know what might be special about the 33/34 mark, but it bails at that point.

Some kind of limit appears to be reached? Memory? I've no clue!

driven

not sure how to do it in ruby but in the osascript/applescript/bash I tend to use, if you don't add a distinct delay point, the process reaches some limit and errors. [That's what happening with the one I posted earlier]

maybe adding a puts "done" after definitions.purge_unused will allow a break before opening the next?

total stab in the dark
john

Dan Rathbun

(1) The iterator block.. use curly braces instead of do ... end
So the block can have access to external references, such as definitions

(2) Make sure the loading is done before proceeding.

(3) perhaps use undo operations ?

Try an iterator like:

  i = 0
  puts()
  #
  skpFiles.each { |compFile|
    ###
    model.operation( "Update '#{File.basename(compFile)}'", true )
    ###
    compDefinition = definitions.load compFile
    begin
      if compDefinition.internal?
        behavior = compDefinition.behavior
        behavior.always_face_camera = true
        behavior.shadows_face_sun = true
        compDefinition.save_as compFile
      else
        putc(46) # period char
        redo
      end
    rescue => e
      ###
      model.abort_operation()
      ###
      puts()
      puts "ERROR saving component file;"
      puts "  #{compFile}\n"
      puts e.message
      puts e.backtrace if $VERBOSE
      puts()
    else
      i += 1
      if i >= 10
        definitions.purge_unused
        i = 0
      end
      ###
      model.commit_operation()
      ###
    end
    # each skp file
  }
  definitions.purge_unused if definitions.length > 0

keithswd

Thanks again for your help and suggested code. As it stands it does not modify any components. I discovered this is because it seems that even when the component file is loaded successfully, compDefinition.internal? returns false. I can only imagine that this is actually testing whether the component was created within the model or loaded from a file - in which case we are getting the expected result. I commented it out and it runs but... sadly it still bombs out at around 33 components.

I really don't want to take up any more of anyone's time - this was just a little project for me to play with but it seems rather trickier than I could have forseen. But I thought you might like an update!

def setcompfm

model = Sketchup.active_model
# set folder and get array of filenames
folder = UI.openpanel("Choose a skp file to set folder","*.skp")

return unless folder && folder = File.dirname(folder)

skpFiles = Dir[File.join(folder, "*.skp")]

length = skpFiles.length

result = UI.messagebox "Process " + length.to_s + " files?", MB_YESNO

return unless result == 6 # Yes

# Returns a DefinitionList
definitions = model.definitions

# iterate through files
i = 0
  puts()
  #
  skpFiles.each { |compFile|
    ###
    model.start_operation( "Update '#{File.basename(compFile)}'", true )
    ###
    compDefinition = definitions.load compFile
    begin
      #if compDefinition.internal?
        behavior = compDefinition.behavior
        behavior.always_face_camera = true
        behavior.shadows_face_sun = true
        compDefinition.save_as compFile
      #else
      #  putc(46) # period char
      #  redo
      #end
    rescue => e
      ###
      model.abort_operation()
      ###
      puts()
      puts "ERROR saving component file;"
      puts "  #{compFile}\n"
      puts e.message
      puts e.backtrace if $VERBOSE
      puts()
    else
      i += 1
      if i >= 10
        definitions.purge_unused
        i = 0
      end
      ###
      model.commit_operation()
      ###
    end
    # each skp file
  }
  definitions.purge_unused if definitions.length > 0


end #end def

driven

Hi Keith,

I'm sitting at home recovering from having my ear cut off [and put back on] on Friday.
So, glad for the distraction...
Anyhow, heres an Automator script that has a safe test action, so won't hurt any files...
I missed a filter function, in the first...

opens each .skp in a 'pre-selected' folder in SU v2013 [should use your version if not]
opens 'Ruby Console' and 'types' some safe for testing code Sketchup.send_action('viewIso:');Sketchup.send_action('viewZoomExtents:')clicks return
'Saves' the changes
closes 'RC'
closes the .skp
loops to the next skp in folder... and repeats

You need to open SU first with an empty new drawing... this just saves hassle.
Pre-Sellect skps in a Folder.
Open the workflow in 'Automator.app' by double clicking after unzipping it.

Click Run, watch the show [I like the way it types for me, rather than just inserting it en-masse]

If your not using v2013 you'll may need replace the SketchUp.app shown with the one on your path [I know it looks right but I did a trick to avoid using v8, so just swap it if you need to, run it once to see if it fails...]

Once your happy the safe version works, edit the applescript with your SU [a 'one-liner' is probably best]

try it on a subset, if it runs those, it will run hundreds as long as you adjust the timeout [in loop field] to cover it...

Let me know if it works

john