[Plugin] bim-tools 0.13.4(june 22, 2015)

JQL · 30 Mar 2013, 11:45

Brewaky,

It's been a while since I test your plugin. It has improved a lot! The interface is looking good and uncluttered and seems practical. However the plugin does not seem to fit to real use yet.

Are you still aiming at that or have you stopped developing it?

The things I find difficult to handle are the following:

The plugin is great in defining thickness for any kind of geometry I throw at it. This for itself would be a great addition to Sketchup if only the remove BIM Properties button would do that. The problem is that, when I remove those properties, somethings still remain there and mess with the model later. Sometimes it creates a bugsplat, sometimes it shows new geometry. Would it be possible to remove everything and keep only the groups the plugin created?
Sometimes when changing wall thickness Sketchup simply crashes;
When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;
When inserting a window it correctly creates the opening with thickness. However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside, the best way to do that would be by inserting the opening in the inner wall in a process similar as the one shown in the next link:

Window to Cut Hole on Thick Wall | SketchUcation

In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to create a component (more exactly a complex component) that can cut the holes on both the outer and inner faces of a thick wall in SketchUp.

(sketchucation.com)

The problem is, if you insert any kind of component on the inner wall, it will soon disappear in the workflow and lead to a bugsplat in the long run.

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

Keep up the good work!

brewsky · 31 Mar 2013, 16:34

@jql said:

Are you still aiming at that or have you stopped developing it?

Yeah, I'm still working on it! Thanks for taking the time to point these things out.
I got a bit sidetracked for the last... couple of months I guess. I have been working on a very cool new feature, but I can't get it to work the way I want yet.

@jql said:

The things I find difficult to handle are the following:

The plugin is great in defining thickness for any kind of geometry I throw at it. This for itself would be a great addition to Sketchup if only the remove BIM Properties button would do that. The problem is that, when I remove those properties, somethings still remain there and mess with the model later. Sometimes it creates a bugsplat, sometimes it shows new geometry.

I will do some tests on the remove BIM properties button. I didn't notice it's leaving properties behind, and it should not be hard to fix this.

@jql said:

Would it be possible to remove everything and keep only the groups the plugin created?

I have been thinking about this myself too, it would be a useful option to "just" generate geometry. If you(or someone else) have a good suggestion on how to add this to the interface without making it too cluttered or complicated I will add this. I could for example make a pop-up that makes you choose what properties to remove, but I am reluctant to add too many steps to the process.

@jql said:

Sometimes when changing wall thickness Sketchup simply crashes;

I'm aware of this and this is probably the biggest problem at this moment. It makes the plugin difficult to use. I added the option to disable automatic updating of geometry(mostly to prevent it from interfering with other plugins). When this is disabled I get no crashes, If you do, please let me know!
The downside is then you have to update every object manually, and I think the most fun thing of the plugin is that it automatically updates the geometry after modifying the source-faces.
The observers I have used for this still seem to cause bugsplats, although much less frequently as they did at first. I will have to work around these observers but that may make editing less "smooth".

@jql said:

When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;

I will have to test this, I will come back to you on this one.

@jql said:

When inserting a window it correctly creates the opening with thickness. However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside, the best way to do that would be by inserting the opening in the inner wall in a process similar as the one shown in the next link:
http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/36-intermediate/321-window-cut-hole-thick-wall
The problem is, if you insert any kind of component on the inner wall, it will soon disappear in the workflow and lead to a bugsplat in the long run.

I think the new feature I have been working on would be great to solve this, but this will take some more time because I intend to pick up the problems you have pointed out first.

@jql said:

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

I let you know if I have trouble re-creating the errors!

Is there anyone out there using this plugin for creating IFC-files? That's what I have been mostly using it for lately, I can create shapes with it that are not easy in our CAD/BIM-software...
I have also been working on a connection with THE BIM server (http://bimserver.org), I was wondering if anyone is interested in that...

brewsky · 2 Apr 2013, 20:39

@jql said:

However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside

What about(for now) putting the profiled wall "caps" into the cutting window component? I know it does not(yet) hide the lines where the profile meets the wall, but that's something I could easily fix.
Check out the attached image and demo file(I roughly borrowed the window shape from ThomThom, because it nicely illustrates a complex profile).
window.skp

@jql said:

When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;

I'm unable to reproduce this one, and also have not yet been able to crash SketchUp, but I will try some more(and bigger) models.

@jql said:

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

Yes, I do like to see these models! Might make reproducing the errors easier.

I did notice another bug.
Sometimes when I create a new model without closing SketchUp first, newly created walls are not seen by the plugin(and so cannot be modified from the plugin).
I will figure out where this comes from...

JQL · 10 Apr 2013, 13:48

Sorry Brewsky, I haven't had time to test your plugin further, as I promised, but I'm going to do that ASAP.

leolouie · 11 Jul 2014, 17:14

Hi,

Any plans on releasing a version for Sketchup 2014? I miss not be able to use this tool.

unclex · 12 Jul 2014, 05:14

Push for 2014~~~~~~~~~~~~

unclex · 19 Jul 2014, 23:51

a little bug
make COMP in the any face，then copy the COMP， sometimes crashed the SU2014

brewsky · 22 Jul 2014, 20:20

@unclex said:

a little bug
make COMP in the any face，then copy the COMP， sometimes crashed the SU2014

Thanks for reporting this.
Do you mean that it crashes(sometimes) when you:

create a "thick face"(wall) with my plugin
then draw a square(for example) on the face.
select the square and it's edges
make component, select "glue to any" and "cut opening" and "replace selection"
copy the new component within the same face
I have not yet been able to reproduce the error, can you send me an example file that crashes?

unclex · 23 Jul 2014, 11:16

a “thin” Face，not even Thicken it
Others just like you said

And not crash everytime，just sometime， so no example file.....

tt_su · 23 Jul 2014, 11:22

@unclex said:

And not crash everytime，just sometime， so no example file.....

When you experience a crash, do you submit the BugSplat?
Please do so, and fill in some information and let us know so we can look it up.

brewsky · 4 Aug 2014, 21:41

New version
Should be a bit faster!
still a bit experimental, needs some more testing but seems to work OK
I also took the time to update the source on google-code...
https://code.google.com/p/bim-tools/source/browse/

Please let me know if you find any issues(or ideas for improvement)!

Cheers!
Jan

Experimental version for SU2014

brewsky · 4 Aug 2014, 21:43

@leolouie said:

Any plans on releasing a version for Sketchup 2014? I miss not be able to use this tool.

Great to hear that you like using it!

I fixed a few basic errors a few months ago but didn't get around to figure out why it's so much slower than on previous versions. All functionality seems to be working though.

I've been working on some side-projects "lately", but if people like using it, than it needs a higher place on my list of priorities
Maybe you can give it a try and let me know your experiences? any feature requests? bugs?

Check out the attachment!
[removed in favor of new version]

markitekt · 11 Sept 2014, 19:37

Great plugin. Lots of potential. How about imperial units?
Thanks!

brewsky · 15 Sept 2014, 18:22

@markitekt said:

Great plugin. Lots of potential. How about imperial units?
Thanks!

Thank you!
I have been thinking about adding imperial units, but until now has not been very high on my list of priorities. I will look into it.

Any more votes for this?

jemagnussen · 21 Nov 2014, 09:21

Hi,

Any chance this will work in 2015 Pro...?

Best regards
Jesper

unclex · 21 Nov 2014, 11:44

We Need U， Jesper

brewsky · 19 Jan 2015, 22:23

Sorry for the late reply
The latest version for 2014 seems to work fine on SU2015, but I didn't get around to make it an "official" version yet so it got a bit lost within the thread(posted on 4 aug. 2014).

I will try to update the main-post with the latest version tomorrow.

gudio83 · 22 Mar 2015, 18:56

@didier bur said:

Hi,
Just a side note: to install, create a folder "bimtools" in the Plugins folder, and put the html file in it.

where is the html file?
the plugin create bim-tools, so i have to add bimtools, right?

brewsky · 22 Mar 2015, 19:48

@gudio83 said:

where is the html file?
the plugin create bim-tools, so i have to add bimtools, right?

Do you have trouble installing? I think this tip is rather outdated by now.
The easiest way to install is through the Sketchucation Plugin Store (Search on author: "Jan Brouwer"):
http://sketchucation.com/plugin-store-free-download

You can also rename the download from bim-tools-0.12.4.zip to bim-tools-0.12.4.rbz.
Then it can be installed thtough: Window --> Preferences --> Extensions
I will use that filetype as the default for the next version...

brewsky · 21 May 2015, 20:14

New version online! Finally support for imperial units