Plugin to easily paste and align multiple components/groups?

[AcesHigh]

I have this atrium with several floors, where each floor hole is different. The ballustrade will have curved glasses made specially for each position.

I need to place on each curved glass pane the supports/screws (gee, I don't know the english word) that hold the glass pane to the structure.

Because each glass pane is different, I can´t make a component and be done with it. I have to place the supports/screws in the proper approximate position in each glass pane.

But there comes the problem that I need to align them to the part of the curved glass pane where I will place them.

Here is an image of what I have done.

Notice the method I used for THIS floor was placing the two sets of 4 "screws" straight and connected by a line. Then I SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY would grab the group by the line, place the line in the botton left corner of a glass panel and use that same corner as pin axis of rotation, thus making the other end of the line (with the other 4 "screws" component) pass over the other corner...

Not only this was SLOW (and I have SEVERAL FLOORS TO MAKE THAT!) as each set is not properly aligned. The two sets only have an average rotation in relation to the entirety of each glass panel.

THUS, after this long and badly written explanation of my problem, I think maybe I was able to show what is the issue here so you can help me find the correct plugin to use for what I want:

I want a plugin to easily (because I will need to place a few hundred of these) place components/groups on a face and that they stay aligned (the alignment can be relative to the plugin axis). If the plugin is more visual (like Fredo plugins usually are), great. But if I need to place the component by just clicking over the face without seeing the proper placement, that will still be better than what I am doing.

Btw, as I said, I need to place hundreds of these, so if the plugin let me select the component once, then each click will place a new instance of the component over a new face, awesome.

ps: I am not asking anyone to make this plugin. I suppose such plugin already exists, I mean, I doubt nobody needed such important feature before. I just don´t remember any such plugin nor was I able to find something like I want in a search

Thank you!

[TIG]

If the 'curved' form is an arc then you can establish its 'center'.
If there is no residual 'arc' for an inference point, then perhaps by using the Protractor tool to make two perpendicular guides through the centers of two of the panels ?
Once you have the center you can place one set of supports on the first panel, then select these and use the Rotate tool snapped onto the 'center', press Ctrl to go into Copy mode and click one panel and the adjacent one to set the angle [unless you already know it and can type it in], the supports then copy around, immediately type in a number + <enter> and that many copies will be arrayed around the panels.

However, a far simpler [and more productive] way would be to make the balustrade panel as a component, with the support=brackets placed as desired [preferably with each of those as a sub-component, so in the future you could also change them globally if desired].
Then copy that panel around the curve as needed.
If you then change one panel [e.g. the height changes or the brackets need relocation], then the rest of its instances will also change.
But if you what a 'special' - perhaps an odd width to finish a run - then you can use 'make_unique' to create a new 'sibling' that can be edited without affecting the others...

I know you say each panel is 'different' - but in practical terms you are making something far more expensive and liable to mistakes, than if you made it out of one, or at least a few components that were the same... Surely they cannot all be different radii AND widths ?

Another idea... make the assembly of the brackets for one panel as a component, setting its origin to the top/center of the glass.
If you make the bracket 'stub' a component with a gluing axes centered on the base then it will 'glue' perpendicular to the glass facet below it [View > Hidden Geometry ON]
Now you can place each 'set' centered on a panel, exploding it and selecting the parts, then using the Rotate tool centered on the panel's arc-center to adjust the location of any brackets which need moving on the glass surface.

I know this all sounds like the old joke:
A "How do I get to London?"
B "Well, if I wanted to get to London I wouldn't start from here!"

But I think this isn't so much a Plugin question at all, rather how you approach and set off on the design, so that it progresses in logical stages; rather than try to fix a tangled mess later on...
You seem to be making your life far more complicated that it needs to be...

[Box]

I agree with Tig on a better construction method, but meanwhile if you are trying to make the mounts perpendicular to the glass, using glue to components you can easily paste them in place, no plugin needed.

[AcesHigh]

Thanks for the tips guys. Somehow, I managed to use Sketchup for years without using Glue to Faces.

And sincerely, I don´t know what I am doing wrong. I create the component as "glue to" set the axis I think correctly, and yet and copying and pasting, the component doest glue to the face.

**Anyway, I solved my problem for now with a plugin... Chris Fulmers "Components Onto Faces".

The plugin has placed one copy of the component at each of the glass pane faces (the glass panes are not groups nor components, so I can select all faces at the same time) all in the same height and perpendicular to the face.

So I just deleted the components that werent needed (left the ones at approximate correct distance to left and right borders of the panels) and selected them all and corrected their height.**
I had checked Chris Fulmer plugin before (I already had it) when thinking on how to solve my problem, but I had not thought about this solution.

Btw, I am not the architect, I am just doing the 3D. I told the architect that having each glass panel customized would be a pain in the ass, but he wanted that way because apparently the client wanted that way (client probably has not seen the cost yet), so I am not in a position to enforce logic in this case.

I think it will look better in the 3D but in the end (after trying to minimize costs) they will change to flat panels and maybe a few ones curved for smaller curves.

Thanks.