[Plugin] PipeAlongPath

[bonk]

I am very green;experience and envy ! Thanks to Tig and others who have gone before. Trying to create a square tube spiral to specs. Steep learning curve. Thanks

[mist3ry30]

Great plugin, thanks! Is there perhaps a way to extrude a specific profile (instead of just a circle as with the pipe extrusion here) along, say, multiple different curves? I have a louvre profile which I wish to extrude along many different curves. Ideally I'd like to select all of the curves, select the profile, and then hit 'extrude'.

[TIG]

@mist3ry30 said:

Great plugin, thanks! Is there perhaps a way to extrude a specific profile (instead of just a circle as with the pipe extrusion here) along, say, multiple different curves? I have a louvre profile which I wish to extrude along many different curves. Ideally I'd like to select all of the curves, select the profile, and then hit 'extrude'.
look at
http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=DM_ProfileBuilderFree_v.1.1.0
That's the older free-version, there's a newer/better version available for a few $...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=560134#p560134

[leo1234]

hey TIG, just want to thank you for your pipe along path plug in! Fantastic !!! On a v tight deadline here and your plugin has saved me untold grief. Cheers, Paul

[amis]

Thanks to author for great plugin! But I encountered the situation when I tried to make a pipe it caused my SU 2013 hang. I suppose the reason of that some problem with my edges or connections, even though TT's Edge tools inspections were done. Can anyone say what was wrong with edges? Sorry for my English

---

Pipework.skp

[TIG]

There are 8 edges connected in that SKP.
Selecting them all and running PipeAlongPath I get no issues.
The pipe forms perfectly and quickly.
I can also draw a circle centered on the vertical line's end and then successfully use FollowMe on the selected path.
Can you do that ?
Do you perhaps have another plugin loading that has an Observer ill-advisedly messing with group creation etc ?
Have you installed something new recently ??
Try disabling most of the plugins, except PipeAlongPath, then retry and see what happens.
It it no longer fails you know that one of the disabled plugins is messing you up...

[amis]

@tig said:

There are 8 edges connected in that SKP.
Selecting them all and running PipeAlongPath I get no issues.
The pipe forms perfectly and quickly.

Thanks you for quick response

@tig said:

I can also draw a circle centered on the vertical line's end and then successfully use FollowMe on the selected path. Can you do that ?

Yes, I performed that and everything's well

@tig said:

Do you perhaps have another plugin loading that has an Observer ill-advisedly messing with group creation etc?

Never heard about such things. I always try to load not too many plugins

@tig said:

Have you installed something new recently ??

Just updated some of plugins.

@tig said:

Try disabling most of the plugins, except PipeAlongPath, then retry and see what happens. It it no longer fails you know that one of the disabled plugins is messing you up...

That's not the shortest way actually) Anyway thanks a lot. I will try.

[TIG]

You can probably reduce the list of possible culprits by looking at the recent updates or those with do complicated processes - they are more likely to have observers etc...
Can you post a simple list of your installed plugins ?

[amis]

@tig said:

Can you post a simple list of your installed plugins ?

2DTools
Fredo6_Curvizard
Fredo6_FredoScale
Fredo6_FredoTools
Fredo6_JointPushPull
FrontFace
Layer Manager
sketchup-stl
tt_cleanup
tt_edgetools
TT_Lib2
tt_selection_toys
tt_solid_inspector
CenterPointAll.rb
dropGC.rb
ExtrudeAlongPath.rb
ExtrudeTools.rb
extrude_lines2.rb
HoleInTheWall.rb
ithil_facefinder.rb
ithil_reverseface.rb
LibTraductor.rb
makefaces.rb
mesh_additions.rb
Mirror.rb
move_to_origin.rb
ocean_extension.rb
PipeAlongPath.rb
PurgeAll.rb
pushpull_tool.rb
recurve.rb
s4u_makeface.rb
SectionCutFace.rb
SimplifyContours.rb
sketchup-stl.rb
SketchyFFD.rb
SliceModeler.rb
TIG-Split_to_plane.rb
tt_cleanup.rb
tt_edgetools.rb
TT_Lib2.rb
tt_selection_toys.rb
tt_solid_inspector.rb
Zorro2.rb
There are no quite new plugins here. Every of them I used for long time.

[TIG]

Ignoring those I am 99% sure are OK...

Try disabling these and re-test:

FrontFace
dropGC.rb
HoleInTheWall.rb
ithil_facefinder.rb
ithil_reverseface.rb
recurve.rb
s4u_makeface.rb
SliceModeler.rb

You also have some 'old' ones that I think might not belong in there - there might be newer su_ versions available ?
... e.g.

ocean_extension.rb
SimplifyContours.rb

[amis]

You're right. Many of plugins in my set are a bit old.
OK. I deleted those you've mentioned, relaunch my SU, select the whole chain (of edges), run PipeAlongPath and stil got SU hang. Looks like my Plugins folder needs total revision...

[amis]

I've tried another way. I redrew the same chain (of edges) near existing one and had no problem with making pipe. But still got the hang with existing chain.
Finally after revision, deleting some of and reinstall/updating all of existing plugins I have no problem. Unfortunally I missed at which step it happened. Thanks TIG

---

Pipework.skp

[johnwmcc]

I find this plugin very useful to draw scaffolding poles when designing amateur theatre sets using scaffolding as part of the structure. I've reset (in the code) the default sizes, and options, to suit my use.

I'd also very much like to have the plugin create a component, rather than a group, and to orient the component axis along the direction of the first line segment in the path. Would that be difficult?

I don't think my own SU Ruby skills are quite up to this, though I may well have a go - I might to able to code for component creation, but have no idea how to set the component axes in Ruby.

[TIG]

You can do it several ways.
Without recasting this as a Sketchup Tool etc I think your best bet is to make the group as it is.
Then later you can turn that into a component instance...
At that stage the origin of the group, and now the component definition ,is at the bounds.min of the container.
To relocate the axes you need to do theses steps...
Get the vector from the point you want the axes to be back to the container's origin.
Then transform all of the definition's entities by that vector.
Then move the instance by the inverse transformation, so it doesn't visibly move BUT its origin is now at the desired point.
I assume you'd probably want that to be the center of the start of the extrusion @new_pts[0] aka pt1 ?
You always want the axes to align in the red along the pipe ?
Insert something like this order around line#490 [untested]...

###...
###
inst=group.to_component
defn=inst.definition
defn.name="some_name_you_like"
ents=defn.entities
vec.reverse!
xaxis=inst.transformation.xaxis
vert=vec.cross(xaxis)
trans=Geom;;Transformation.new()
unless vert.length==0
	ang=vec.angle_between(xaxis)
	unless ang==0
		trans=Geom;;Transformation.rotation(pt1, vert, ang)
		ents.transform_entities(trans, ents.to_a)
		inst.transform!(trans.inverse)
	end
end
vector=pt1.vector_to(ORIGIN)
unless vector.length==0
	trans=Geom;;Transformation.translation(vector)
	ents.transform_entities(trans, ents.to_a)
	trans=Geom;;Transformation.translation(vector.reverse.transform(inst.transformation))
	inst.transform!(trans)
end
defn.invalidate_bounds
###
	model.commit_operation

??? It IS convoluted ???

[Edson]

hi TIG,

I am having repeated crashes while using PipeAlongPath to create a handrail. the model is small and should not be a problem. I wonder if there is a conflict with some other extension. list of extensions attached.

any ideas?

---

escada-emergencia_Leste.skp

[TIG]

With your SKP I get the Bugsplat! as well.
So something is odd in your path...
I can make it work with an exploded path and 8s extrusion... The issue is caused by the tiny geometry you try to make by having very segmented 'sweeps' between the long rails.
If you make 90 degree junctions it works at 24s OK...If you want radiused 'sweeps' make them at least the diameter of the tube...Here the swept radius is 26mm, the tube is 25mm radius [5cm diam] - so that works...
This is a 'full-sweep' between the two main rails.
Make a swept arc that's tangential from the mid-point of the two rails.
Copy that and rotate it to match the other slope...
Then weld the path and the rails sweep seamlessly around a curve as I suspect you'd prefer...

[Edson]

I built the path with Fredo6's BezierSpline extension (Polyline Arc Corners tool). the odd thing is that it works with Profile Builder.

regards.

[oldskoolflash]

Thanks for this, how do I activate the toolbar set for this?

[TIG]

@oldskoolflash said:

Thanks for this, how do I activate the toolbar set for this?
You can't !
It doesn't have a toolbar - there is just a menu entry.

[Roky]

Easy to Use, Well done. worked in Sketchup 2016