[Plugin] Components manager plugin

JQL

That level management is a very good idea for nested xrefs...

inteloide

@jql said:

That level management is a very good idea for nested xrefs...

Yes ! It would be very useful for me !!
I already code the script to check if other files exist in a path with different level. (You will see, in version 1.7.0 in "options", that options are implemented but not active)

So the idea will be, when updating a component definition from a file, to check if other file exist with the same "base" but with different level. Ex :
"c:\toto\drawing.skp"
"c:\toto\drawing ind2.skp"
"c:\toto\drawing ind3.skp"

Then the plugins will update only the highest level : "c:\toto\drawing ind3.skp"
Therfore, you will be able to keep history of your component by saving it in a different level each time you modify it !

Of course the level idenitificator (" ind" here) will be changeable in options).
Also, this options can be activable or not in options too.

Just pending for me to implement the script at correct places and that's it !
I hope to complete this by Thursday (yes, tomorrow start the sales in France...and my TV is broken down...sniff )
So version 1.8.0 will have this useful function ! Just wait a bit...

New version update (1.7.0) , with following changes :
Added : New red color to distinguish file newer than definition with file older than definition
Added : New option to choose if the brightest red color means file newer or older than definition
Added : Add refresh time in window bottom when updating the list
Corrected : Number of component instances in a branch was wrong
Corrected : Restore highlightning of selected item (come back to previous script...)
Corrected : Number of instance in same style that item to avoid double item selection error
Corrected : Avoid to have unlinked components text in the same color than previous list item (CSS)
Corrected : Options were still saved in model (even if not used)

JQL

Oh I see now! What you mean by levels is revisions.

So if you save a lot of revisions or versions of the same component the latest version will be the one the plugin finds to reload. Though that is not what I thought it is, it is useful indeed!

Best regards,

JQL

greatoe

does this script work on mac version? thx

inteloide

@greatoe said:

does this script work on mac version? thx

Hello Greatoe,
not sure it work on Mac, as I don't have one, as system is different...Maybe the best is to try and tell me if it's works...
I will try later to understand how Mac file system works and update, if required.

JQL, what yours thoughts were exactly ? Maybe I can implement !

JQL

I thought you where refering to nesting levels inside Xrefed components.

Just to clarify, even if I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of Xref there might be someone else not familiar with it. A Xref is a .skp file that has been referenced as a component inside a model (TIG is also able to reference .dwg files with his Xref Manager plugin but that's not the scope of your plugin).

So imagine a model of an house that has 2 floors:

The house might be a component that you can "save as" to a file, Xrefing it.
But inside the house there might be many other components like the 2 floors, kitchen, bathrooms, closets, etc...
All of those components might be Xrefed too so you get a lot of Xrefs with other xrefs inside. This can be called nested Xrefs
With your plugin it's very easy to "reload" or "save as" multiple components at the same time;
It's also easy to choose specific components to "reload" or "save as" and it tells wich ones need to be updated, wich is excellent;
What I thought you were talking about was the ability to auto update only the components that were more deeply nested inside other components that needed an update, without having to update all components above.

Example:

Inside house component there's 1st floor component;
Inside 1st floor there's the kitchen component;
Inside kitchen there's a counter with a sink component;
All of this components are xrefed;
You changed the sink component in the file and all of this nested Xrefs are outdated;
If your plugin would be able to automatically detect that the sink component was the only component interfering with this "outdate" status, and would be able to update all only by reloading the sink component, this would be a wonderful time saver.

That was what I was thinking of, but it might be a bit complex.

Best regards and thanks again,

JQL

inteloide

Hello,

Thank you for explainations. (I'm not familiar with Xrefs)

Change wouldn't be so long, actually the plugins always upload file, even if the definition is update to date, so just by check before that file date = definition date, then issue is solved.

Also, I was thinking that plugin is also purging all definitions each time it upload a definition : this cost a lot of time too. I will also change this to purge only and updating end.

Also I will add these options :

Avoid the window to open each time you open Sketchup (in case you don't want to use it)
Add toolbar to quickly open/hide window
To avoid list updating when model is openned, in order the model to load faster (in case of big file), may be just refresh component names, but not check files dates.

I'll try to implement this for version 1.8.0

Planned updates for version 2.0.0 (you can let me know you wishes) :

Options in Html form (for better look)
Add a model/component history text input, to allow writing your model improvments and components improvments.

The idea would be to have an host window which can accept different sub-windows from different plugins. Each plugin could be loaded separately but when you have installed the host window (host plugin), every other plugins (made by me, of course) will fit in the same window (you would be able to change from one to the other by clicking an icon). Then it keep clear your workspace !
So additionnal function like "model/component history" still stay in the same window.
Good idea, no ?

inteloide

Hello,

new TV bought ! ;o)

Just update version 1.8.0, with following improvments :
Added : Revision level management option added !
Added : Option to start or not automatically the manager (default=no)
Added : Option to refresh or not the list when start automatically the manager (default=yes)
Optimized : The return of the update progress in Sketchup state bar !
Optimized : In all definitions reload, component definition are reloaded, from file, only if different from model definition.
Optimized : Simplify refreshing date display script

greatoe

@inteloide said:

@greatoe said:

does this script work on mac version? thx

Hello Greatoe,
not sure it work on Mac, as I don't have one, as system is different...Maybe the best is to try and tell me if it's works...
I will try later to understand how Mac file system works and update, if required.

JQL, what yours thoughts were exactly ? Maybe I can implement !

Hi inteloide,

No the script does not work on a Mac.

After install, as an extension or unzip, no error message, but also no menu.

Then after a restart of Sketchup, the following error window shows.

JQL

@inteloide said:

Change wouldn't be so long, actually the plugins always upload file, even if the definition is update to date, so just by check before that file date = definition date, then issue is solved.

I don't really understand what you mean by this...

Also, when you refer to upload you mean saving to file (on sketchup it's called "save as" on the context menu) or getting the definition updated from file into model (wich is called "reload" in component context menu).

In the previous context "upload" looks like "save as" but in this next context "upload" seems to be "reload".

@inteloide said:

Also, I was thinking that plugin is also purging all definitions each time it upload a definition : this cost a lot of time too. I will also change this to purge only and updating end.

@inteloide said:

Add a model/component history text input, to allow writing your model improvments and components improvments.

If it is very simple to add those notes and simple to read them, it could be useful.

@inteloide said:

The idea would be to have an host window which can accept different sub-windows from different plugins. Each plugin could be loaded separately but when you have installed the host window (host plugin), every other plugins (made by me, of course) will fit in the same window (you would be able to change from one to the other by clicking an icon). Then it keep clear your workspace !
So additionnal function like "model/component history" still stay in the same window.
Good idea, no ?

Yes it's a good idea if all plugins share related objectives, otherwise, it might be confusing to have a window that has two completely different uses. It's not very Sketchup like.

@inteloide said:

Just update version 1.8.0, with following improvments :
Added : Revision level management option added !
Added : Option to start or not automatically the manager (default=no)
Added : Option to refresh or not the list when start automatically the manager (default=yes)
Optimized : The return of the update progress in Sketchup state bar !
Optimized : In all definitions reload, component definition are reloaded, from file, only if different from model definition.
Optimized : Simplify refreshing date display script

I'll try to implement this for version 1.8.0

Seems to be a nice update... Thanks!

JQL

JQL

I have some little feature requests for you to consider:

1 - Would it be possible to find a component in the list by clicking it in the model? Just like outliner...
2 - Would it be possible to change component's names directly on the list?
3 - Would it be hard to double click or click an icon on the list and the file/component that is selected would open in a new Sketchup session for editing and then reload when saved, like editing a texture in external image editor? (there's a plugin that does this already but breaks file path association. It's called Component Edit Window.)
4 - Would it be possible to creat filters on the list that would only show updated components or outdated or components that were associated with a file or whatever other options you have. Tick on a box and you only see green icons, tick other box and you only see blue, click on both and you see both icons on the list.

I hope you find this interesting, thanks and best regards,

JQL

inteloide

@greatoe said:

Then after a restart of Sketchup, the following error window shows.

Hello Greatoe,

Just post version 1.8.1 which should correct the message you had.
After that...mistery... ;o)
Please send me further errors (you can start ruby console in parrallel to see any error you may have).

About version 1.8.1 version, few modifications actually :
Corrected : Add option for MAC user, should help tp start the plugin, pay attention when saving files.
Optimized : Simplify access to tool through Plugins menu

inteloide

JQL, first thank you for your ideas

To answer you :
1 - Yes, it's not easy to find in the list a definition name, but... I'll try
2 - Yes, good simple idea ! I vote for ;o)
3 - Good idea again, should not be so complex.
4 - Humm...some programming hours below that...I'll try

Also, more traduction could be add if users help me to translate (all texts are in Plugins\BGSketchup\Composants\Rb\Localization.rb)

Inteloide

JQL

I can help you with Portuguese translation:

Here is the file: I also took the chance to checke the English translation and made some changes that you should only consider as suggestions for a more intuitive aproach to your plugin if you think they're worse, please disregard them. (I think I didn't mess with code or the spaces you had).

The main suggestion on translation are as follows:

1 - I believe most sketchup users have no idea of what are definitions but (almost) everyone knows about components so I replaced "definitions" with "components" on all strings.
2 - I simplified some strings to make them similar to usual english strings in most software. The less words the best people understand them immediately.

I hope this helps and thanks for all your hard work.

JQL

EDIT: Sorry forgot the file, here it is saved as UTF-8 without BOM:

Localization.rb

inteloide

Hi JQL,

Thanks for English and Portuguese translation. Your English is definitevely better than mine !! It's true that I used words that may not be easy to understand for somebody else than ...me, I should correct my French translation too ! hé hé ;o)

About your proposal, I implented (using Jquery javascript) a right click function, with actions like save, upload, edit. Edit open a new Sketchup instance openning the component definition. I can make sketchup to wait the new sketchup window to close (to know if component was modified), but the old window looks freeze until new window is not close... Maybe an option could be good for user to decide not to freeze the sketchup window which start the new sketchup window.

Thank you for your support.

JQL

No problem,

With those kind of features it's really going to be one of the most essential plugins in my workflow.

I think you're right, freezing the first window is bad has there might be things you need to copy as references for editing in the other window. I think the other plugin I mentioned would close the 2nd window when saving the model, wich is also bad as you might want to save progress, but not yet update original model with xref.

I think the best procedure would be only to automate opening a new window and not any other process as you can simply save and reload.

What might happen is that when you open second window, a dialog could show on the first window asking:

You're editing file ".../component.skp" Do you want to reload it now?

then you could have 3 buttons on the dialog:
1 - OK - reloads when you press it.
2 - Cancel - the window goes away and you can keep working in both SU sessions reloading whenever you wish or simply overwriting file again at any time.
3 - Not now! - This might pop up a reminder from time to time, telling you that you have a component being edited in another window. This is useful for when you edit the window but forget to reload it in the main model.

This reminder could be the same as above that would show up from time to time if you keep pressing Not now! button. You could be able to configure options for the time that would take for this popup to show or if it would be turned off, as it may interfere in some users workflow.

I'm sorry, for so much requests, but as you keep implementing ideas, I keep having them... so it's a nonstop procedure.

Thanks again,

JQL

Rich O Brien

@Inteloide

Your plugin is now in the PluginStore

You are added to the Plugin Author group so you can see this forum...

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=382

You can also see this....

http://sketchucation.com/my-plugins

inteloide

@rich o brien said:

@Inteloide

Your plugin is now in the PluginStore

You are added to the Plugin Author group so you can see this forum...

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=382

You can also see this....

http://sketchucation.com/my-plugins

Thank you very much !

inteloide

Hello !

Last modifications :
1.9.0:
Added : Right-click menu to do different actions
Added : Rename function in the right-click menu
Added : Adding function to open new SU instance to modify a component + message when coming back to previous SU instance
Added : Auto-select in the list selected component in the model
Added : Now it asks to create a new revision level when saving definition (and option is activated).
Corrected : Bug when upload a component with a revision level
Corrected : Bug with bright and dark red icon color
Corrected : Some translation were missing

1.8.3:	Corrected : Implement string conversion to Java when upload text titles in Html page

1.8.2:	Non official version...deleted

glro

I tried the last version

it works fine

but i get an error message in the ruby console when i use my plugin mult_dim_tool

"Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method entities' for #<Sketchup::ComponentInstance:0x95a0a9c>> C:/Archivos de programa/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/BGSketchup/Composants/Rb/Composants_Main.rb:764:in onElementAdded'"

Actually, i get the same message when i use any plugin

Any idea?