[Plugin] 3D Text Editor

[mutsu_kwq]

@tig said:

Because of the scant contents of that folder it must be the VirtualStore 'tree' - expand the path in the top-bar and you'll see it includes 'VirtualStore' - NOT 'Program Files'...

Fix your Plugins folder's permissions to FULL read/write, clear the VirtualStore folder and then reinstall the Lib, and you should avoid these problems thereafter...

Thank you so much Master TIG... i think my sketchup program works fine now.
But i'm curious where can i find the virtual store folder and how to clean it..

[TIG]

Your screen-shot shows the VirtualStore folder opened ?
If you have a 'Compatibility Files...' link/button in the top-bars of your Plugins folder's 'Windows Explorer' window, then that shows you have some mis-installed files/folders, click on that and it takes you there...

If you now have set FULL read/write Security permissions to the Plugins folder you should no longer get anything in the VirtualStore...

Its path is:
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\VirtualStore
with nested subfolders matching the path into which you were prevented from installing files...
Ending in \Plugins
If your AppData folder is hidden you will need to either go to it using the path OR change your Folder Options to show hidden files/folders...

[alexkara]

Has anyone managed to use 3D text editor on Su 2014 under Win 8.1? I haven't been able to successfully execute the plugin under Win 8.1. All I get is a blank (black fill in) of the input dialog box. The same model can be processed in Win 7 using the same version of SU.

[TIG]

I have no issues with this tool in v2014 under Win 7.
I haven't upgraded to Win 8 yet.

Anyone else with Win 8.1 having these problems ?

You could PM thomthom... it might be something to do with the way the available-fonts list is accessed ?

[thomthom]

I have Win8.1, IE11 and it's working fine with SU2014 for me.

There was an issue when Win8 came out where it wasn't working, but I addressed that in TT_Lib2. What version of TT_Lib2 do you have?

[alexkara]

Latest versions of everything (Win 8.1, IE, Plugins, TT_LIB2). I bit the bullet and "uninstalled" anything remotely related and re-installed and it seems to be working. Thanks for confirmation and sorry about the "cry wolf".

[driven]

Thomas,

I sent you a PM re UFT8 3dText on Yosemite...

The other thing I'm wondering is if scaling could be used to obtain higher vert count on curves...

i.e. use a scaled down container, but scale up the input values?

john

[thomthom]

Have you seen indications that using Entities.add_3d_text base the quality on the size of the text?

[driven]

@thomthom said:

Have you seen indications that using Entities.add_3d_text base the quality on the size of the text?

no, and just did some test and it doesn't, unfortunately...

maybe it was todd's original $plugin that did, or just wishful thinking...

if 3dText is your primary output, i.e. signage, then being able to increase precision would be good...

john

[thomthom]

The extension use the max level of detail already. If anything the API need to allow higher output.

[Garry K]

3D text component uses text to name the text.
3D text component stores settings so they are what they were last time.

I like the fact that we can edit 3D text. It means we can store a component with dictionary attributes and then edit the text.

---

[shake1]

Hi, is it possible to increase the number of segments (before place text)?
Please make this addition.
for example

[TIG]

As far as I know the tool already uses the maximum smoothness settings available through the API.

[Dave R]

There's an alternative though. Make the text without extrusion and use Curvizard's Smooth Contours on the curves. I've done that on the S but not on the G in the screen shot.

[TIG]

That's a solution, but any editing of the 3d-Text will lose the smoothing and it'll need redoing from scratch + extruding again.

[Dave R]

True. But if shake1 has to have smoother curves...

[TIG]

As far as I know thomthom uses the max smoothness available in the API's .add_3dText method.
But of course if thomthom were willing he could make the 3dText with no extrusion, then apply some customized smoothing methods to the edges, then pushpull all of the faces to the extrusion value.
I know thomthom has used some 'douglas_peucker' algorithms etc before to simplify/smooth curves...
Perhaps they or something similar would help ?

[shake1]

@tig said:

As far as I know the tool already uses the maximum smoothness settings available through the API.

Hi Tig, my friend told me about the "maximum", but i think there are some news about how to work around this limitation.
Dave R - yes, i use Curvizard and BZ Convert to catmull spline, but it would be a bit to simplify the process of smoothing

is there any chance in the future to do more smoothing inside 3D Text Editor?

[Garry K]

Hi Tig - I used Douglas Peucker Algorithms back in the early 1990's with GIS. Actually it reduces the geometry through simplicity but doesn't actually increase the smoothness. My first experience with these was with Arc GIS and Map Objects etc. The overall process is to eliminate vertex that are very close to the prior vertex but do so without overly reducing the accuracy of the GIS path.

We used it before the US eliminated military GPS selective availability in 2007. After dropping SA and with the more storage and processing power we opted to reduce our reliance upon Douglas Peucker.

[TIG]

I had a sneaking suspicion that his Douglas-Peucker was for curve-simplification...
For smoothing he'll need algorithms like...
Butterworth
Kalman
Laplacian
Savitzky-Golay
Ramer-Douglas-Peucker
Kolmogorov-Zurbenko
etc

There are lots !
I wonder what Fredo uses in his tool ?
His code is so complex I can only see what half of it does !