SketchUp 2014 Wishlist

OG1

My wishlist is:

1). Preventing my textures from exploding along with the group (which happens to me on many occasions!) Not sure if it does this just on smoothed surfaces, but if that's the case, then I want it to stop! lol

2). To be able to export the animation scenes along with the mesh in collada (dae) data! Why is that not possible anyways? Is there a plugin for that? I've sampled RegularPolygons Keyframe Animation Plugin, and it works like a charm, but without being able to export that animation data to collada, it's pretty much useless to me. If we did have the ability to export that data, I'd buy this plugin in a heart beat!

http://youtu.be/APfttvJzSVk

3). I also agree that Sketchup needs some sort of UV mapping. I do use Dales SketchUV. It's a brilliant plugin and I love it, but it's not perfect. I still, sometimes, get some stretching / warping with it, and each and every face gets exported instead of just one unified "map", so instead of one map, I get a gazillion different "pieces" of the one texture. (did I explain that right? O.o)

4). For Trimble to realize that Sketchup isn't just for architects anymore!
(No offense intended to all you brilliant architects)
I have been using Sketchup since @last owned it for creating content for Virtual Worlds.
Ok, so maybe they don't have to do this one. I'll settle for the other 3!

If I could just see those 3 little, teeny weeny things implemented, I'd be one happy camper AND buy the latest version of Sketchup!

thomthom

Got a sample model of that #1 issue there?

OG1

@thomthom said:

Got a sample model of that #1 issue there?

Sure. How do I put it in here?

thomthom

Click "Post a reply" and then there is an "Upload attachment" tab under the textbox.

OG1

Ok, here it is! Thanks thomthom!

Edit: removed the file now since it has been d/led. OG

thomthom

OG1

@thomthom said:

?

Didn't you download the file? I didn't want to keep it up as public as it is a WIP for a VW. Content creators will snatch any chance they can get to swipe a working mesh!

If you still wanted to see it, I can PM it to you?

DOD3R

more than one active section plane

thomthom

Yes, you can send it by PM if you don't want to share it in public. No problem.

Bryan K

Physics, physics, physics.

Doesn't have to be fancy. The previous Sketchy Physics plug-in was quite nice.

takesh h

@dod3r said:

more than one active section plane

It's not a straightforward function of SU, but you can make several cuts simultaneously active.
The first section plane is inside of a group, and then the second is outside of it.
Well, it's a "workaround", I know...

DOD3R

thanks takesh h,
I know about this possibility, but as you sad it is workaround.
Multi section planes active would be pretty useful for creating scene for layout, where i need to generate vector drawing. And having 4 layers of group or component just for section cuts is pure pain.
Basic philosophy is: I have big model, from with i need to generate some drawing through layout and in order to this process being fast i need to make the su model smaller and just show just the geometry from with the drawing should be generated.
I hope this is better explanation of what i need

D.

Anton_S

It would be nice to have entity.path function that will return an array of parent entities.
Ex:

<span class="syntaxdefault">model </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_model<br />ents </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">entities<br />ents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">][</span><span class="syntaxdefault">2</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">].</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path<br /></span><span class="syntaxcomment"># -> [#<Sketchup;;Group;0xc69a4f4>] # returns path containing parent groups/components<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">ents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">].</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path<br /></span><span class="syntaxcomment"># -> [] # return empty array, since ents[0] is top entity<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">ents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">][</span><span class="syntaxdefault">2</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">][</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">].</span><span class="syntaxdefault">path<br /></span><span class="syntaxcomment"># -> [#<Sketchup;;Group;0xc69a4f4>, #<Sketchup;;Group;0xc6428a8>] # returns path containing parent groups/components       &nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault"></span>

This follows from this topic: Finding deepest entity in pick path

tt_su

@anton_s said:

It would be nice to have entity.path function that will return an array of parent entities.

This isn't doable because an entity, say a face, might appear multiple times in a model due to components. When you have a reference to an entity you must keep track of the path from where you picked it yourself.

There is model.active_path that will give you the path of the active context if you obtained the reference for the entity there. And the PickHelper will also return a path for each possible pick solutions.

Anton_S

Ok then, what about that?

Add view.active_entities - that will return a list of entities visible in the view
Add a clear button to the standard ruby console. I don't like how developers console and ruby console+ adds extra spaces, or removes the "\n" from text, which ruins the reports.

DOD3R

i would like to control the visibility of layers of sketch-up model in layout

jeff hammond

shift key, when used with something like the move or line tool, can lock to any vector as opposed to x,y,z only

kaliphegtu

why not replace photo match by video match !!
Ex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vda2RAEuW_g

jo-ke

Wow, nice!

Anton_S

I little improvement to the UI::Toolbar would be great:

<span class="syntaxdefault">unless file_loaded</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">?(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">__FILE__</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  toolbar </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> UI</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Toolbar</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">new </span><span class="syntaxstring">"Test"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> UI</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Command</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.new(</span><span class="syntaxstring">"Test"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">{</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> UI</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">messagebox</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxstring">"Hello World"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">}<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">menu_text </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"My Command"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">small_icon </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"pause small.png"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">large_icon </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"pause large.png"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># Changing icons after calling add_item will not work<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  toolbar </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> toolbar</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">add_item cmd<br />  toolbar</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">show<br />  </span><span class="syntaxcomment"># So this won't modify the icon<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">small_icon </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"play small.png"<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  cmd</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">large_icon </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> </span><span class="syntaxstring">"play large.png"<br /><br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  file_loaded</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">__FILE__</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end</span>

This follows a very old post: Changing Command Icons of the Toolbar