[Plugin] Set Arc and Circle Defaults

Bob James · 2 Sept 2011, 17:14

Hope someone takes you up and does a menu option.

+1

openhatch · 2 Sept 2011, 21:12

Ha!

Thanks to AlexMozg for rewriting it a better way!

(I have little idea what that code actually does, BTW)

That rewrite only ran after I found a copy of win32ole.so and dropped it into the plugins folder. The copy of the file I found was linked from this thread.

Is that file what I should use then (or is it safe)?

openhatch · 3 Sept 2011, 07:34

So.. okay.. I added a plugin menu option to alter and store "defaults".

And per suggestion, the code uses Sketchup.send_action to avoid problems of hotkeys changing.

I encounted an undesirable side effect with SendKeys via win32ole.so (and found the same limitation with eventrelay's SendKeyMacro): if Sketchup was loading for a while and I (for example) had a web browser open with a text box, while Sketchup was out of focus, SendKeys would type the macro (for example "12s") into the browser's text box! - appearing to make ghost typing (could be creepy for a user) but also not typing it into SketchUp's Value Control Box.. and so not changing any setting!

After quite a bit of frustration, and observing that strangely the second parts of the macro (for the Arc tool settings) didn't type into the web browser window, but in fact got in to SketchUp.. however those magic brackets and start_timer(s) work, they seem to alleviate it.. I finally got the error to apparently go away by placing an inert {TAB} before the macro for Circle Tool (as Circle Tool was to Arc Tool (whose settings worked), so Tab is now to Circle Tool).. blah blah but it apparently worked:

	UI.start_timer(0, false){
  Sketchup.send_action   "selectSelectionTool;"
    myEventRelay.SendKeyMacro("{TAB}")
      UI.start_timer(0, false){
      Sketchup.send_action   "selectCircleTool;"
      myEventRelay.SendKeyMacro(circleSides.to_s + "s{ENTER}")
      UI.start_timer(0, false){
        Sketchup.send_action   "selectArcTool;"
        UI.start_timer(0, false){
        myEventRelay.SendKeyMacro(arcSegments.to_s + "s{ENTER}")
          UI.start_timer(0, false){Sketchup.send_action   "selectSelectionTool;"}
				}
			}
		}
	}

Sticking with eventrelay over win32ole; it seems to load and execute faster.

Involute · 22 Nov 2011, 00:59

I'd love to get this to work, openhatch, but I'm unfamiliar with plugins. Can you give me some pointers (cut and paste the code to a file, save it in plugins directory, etc.)? Thanks.

openhatch · 29 Feb 2012, 00:10

@involute said:

I'd love to get this to work, openhatch, but I'm unfamiliar with plugins. Can you give me some pointers (cut and paste the code to a file, save it in plugins directory, etc.)? Thanks.

Sorry I missed this reply. Added to usage notes in the post is this answer:

Extract the files in the .zip archive to your plugins folder (for example, in Windows 7, this is usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins"), and start Sketchup.

[Edit:] no, that answer is already in there under installation instructions...

Christmended · 27 Feb 2015, 20:14

Any plans to make this work in SU2015? Mine doesn't work.

rustystumps · 2 Mar 2015, 17:51

Dito on the Not working in V15 of SU. Really would like this.

rustystumps · 13 Apr 2016, 18:29

2016 and still waiting for a Ruby Script for this. The one mentioned previous is old and the required second file is not readily downloadable.
I manufacture models and use the SU files to print on my Form1+ 3D printer to make masters for RTV Silicone molds so finished parts are then cast in resin plastic.
I need smooth arcs and curves and most, if not all, of my models have plenty of these.

Dave R · 14 Apr 2016, 00:53

You might want to set about writing your own script for this. The author of this plugin hasn't been active here for four years. He might have moved on to other things.

thomthom · 14 Apr 2016, 13:37

Might be good to try to reach out to the developer and see if he'd be willing to open source it and put it out on GitHub. IMO that would be better than rewriting from scratch.

driven · 14 Apr 2016, 16:39

does this work in v14 and above?

I don't use PC's but I'm looking for code that does something similar to this...

require 'win32ole'
val =  48

circle_first = UI.start_timer(1.0, true) do
	if Sketchup.active_model.tools.active_tool_name != 'CircleTool'
		Sketchup.send_action('selectCircleTool;')
	else # run the script
		WIN32OLE;;new('WScript.Shell').SendKeys("#{val}{ENTER}")
		p "#{val}{ENTER}" 
		UI.stop_timer(circle_first)  
		arc_next = UI.start_timer(1.0, true) do
			if Sketchup.active_model.tools.active_tool_name != 'ArcTool'
				Sketchup.send_action('selectArcTool;')
			else # run the script
				WIN32OLE;;new('WScript.Shell').SendKeys("#{val/2}{ENTER}") 
				p "#{val/2}{ENTER}"
				UI.stop_timer(arc_next)
			end 
		end 
	end 
end

john

TIG · 14 Apr 2016, 17:36

Here is a v8...v2016 beta RBZ... of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"
It uses different methods across the various SketchUp versions...
Note that it's for Windows only...

I think it works OK...

The defaults.txt file contains the default [new] segment counts for circles and arcs [its shipped values are 48 and 24 respectively].

These are used to reset those defaults as SketchUp starts...

The Plugins/Extensions menu contains a new TIG-CircleArcDefaulter submenu...

Its items let you:

Edit the defaults.txt file to set new defaults [which are then reused thereafter].
Reset the defaults to the two values currently saved in the defaults.txt file [run this after saving your edit]...

If there is positive feedback I'll publish it as a new Extension in the PluginStore...

TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v1.0.rbz

TIG · 15 Apr 2016, 14:08

Here's an update on my recent beta RBZ...
v2.0 of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"
It works on v8...v2016 and it now works on both PC and MAC
It uses different methods across the various SketchUp versions and OS...

As with the original PC only version...

The defaults.txt file contains the default [new] segment counts for circles and arcs [its shipped values are 48 and 24 respectively].

These are used to reset those defaults as SketchUp starts...

The Plugins/Extensions menu contains a new "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter" submenu...

Its items let you:

Edit the defaults.txt file to set new defaults [which are then reused thereafter].
Reset the defaults to the two values currently saved in the defaults.txt file [run this after saving your edit]...

If there is enough positive feedback I'll publish it as a new Extension in the PluginStore...

PS: I did a post a while back about 'versines' and how to consider faceting in 3d-printing etc...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=577465#p577465
These simple snippets [" & mm] were written to let you input the radius, versine-tolerance [typically 1/1000"] and a swept-arc - and get back a corresponding segmentation suggested for the arc - since smaller radii are different from bigger objects etc...

PPS: As you know, @driven is a MAC guru, and he has pointed out in a PM that users with the latest OSX [my test MAC is one OSX behind!] might have Apple trying to protect them from the sort of operations need to circumvent SketchUp's segment-defaulting as it starts up... If you do get error messages and have some system knowledge you can probably set it to be allowed, alternatively let us know because @driven probably has a work around, but that does involve using a 3rd party app that'd need shipping for MAC uses...

TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v2.0.rbz

TIG · 16 Apr 2016, 15:32

Here's an update on my recent beta RBZ...
v3.0 of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"
It works on v8...v2016 and it now works on both PC and MAC
It uses different methods across the various SketchUp versions and OS...

It now has a trap [thanks to @driven] to ensure that the SketchUp viewport is foremost as the 'reset' is done...

As with the previous version...

The defaults.txt file contains the default [new] segment counts for circles and arcs [its shipped values are 48 and 24 respectively].

These are used to reset those defaults as SketchUp starts...

The Plugins/Extensions menu contains a new "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter" submenu...

Its items let you:

Edit: the "defaults.txt" file to set new defaults [which are then reused thereafter].
Reset: the defaults to the two values currently saved in the "defaults.txt" file [run this after saving your edit]...

If there is enough positive feedback I'll publish it as a new Extension in the PluginStore...

I'll repeat the PSs [modifed]...

PS: I did a post a while back about 'versines' and how to consider faceting in 3d-printing etc...
viewtopic.php?p=577465#p577465
These simple snippets [" & mm] were written to let you input the radius, versine-tolerance [typically 1/1000"] and a swept-arc - and get back a corresponding segmentation suggested for the arc - since smaller radii are different from bigger objects etc...

PPS: @driven, the MAC guru, has pointed out that users of the latest OSX might have their Apple trying to protect them from the sort of operations need to circumvent SketchUp's segment-defaulting as it starts up...
If it does this, then please follow this guidance to allow SketchUp.app access to your computer...
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21504?locale=en_US

TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v3.0.rbz

TIG · 16 Apr 2016, 18:57

Here's an update on my recent beta RBZ...
v4.0 of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"
It works on v8...v2016 and it now works on both PC and MAC
It uses different methods across the various SketchUp versions and OSs...

It now has a MAC trap [using 'cliclick' - thanks to @driven] to ensure that your OSX doesn't try and stop its system-level resetting.

As with the previous version...

The defaults.txt file contains the default [new] segment counts for circles and arcs [its shipped values are 48 and 24 respectively].

These are used to reset those defaults as SketchUp starts...

The Plugins/Extensions menu contains a new "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter" submenu...

Its items let you:

Edit: the "defaults.txt" file to set new defaults [which are then reused thereafter].
Reset: the defaults to the two values currently saved in the "defaults.txt" file [run this after saving your edit]...

If there is enough positive feedback I'll publish it as a new Extension in the PluginStore...

I'll repeat the various earlier PSs [modifed]...

PS: I did a post a while back about 'versines' and how to consider faceting in 3d-printing etc...
viewtopic.php?p=577465#p577465
These simple snippets [" & mm] were written to let you input the radius, versine-tolerance [typically 1/1000"] and a swept-arc - and get back a corresponding segmentation suggested for the arc - since smaller radii are different from bigger objects etc...

PPS: @driven, our bestest MAC guru, has pointed out that users of the latest OSX might have their Apple trying to protect them from the sort of operations need to circumvent SketchUp's segment-defaulting as it starts up...
This version should circumvent this, if it does not please let us know, in the meanwhile see this...
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21504?locale=en_US

TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v4.0.rbz

Bob James · 16 Apr 2016, 19:52

@tig said:

If there is enough positive feedback I'll publish it as a new Extension in the PluginStore...

My vote:

TIG · 18 Apr 2016, 21:14

Here's another update of my recent beta RBZ files...
v5.0 of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"

If sidesteps a possible MAC-only issue - which could arise if someone else were using the same app in their own Extension's code.
But now it's been properly separated...

See the previous posts about its usage etc, which remains the same...

TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v5.0.rbz

aboammar · 24 Jun 2021, 07:03

@tig said:

Here's another update of my recent beta RBZ files...
v5.0 of "TIG-CircleArcDefaulter"

If sidesteps a possible MAC-only issue - which could arise if someone else were using the same app in their own Extension's code.
But now it's been properly separated...

See the previous posts about its usage etc, which remains the same...

I just tried your extension (TIG-CircleArcDefaulter_v5.0.rbz) on SkecthUp Pro 2021 and it is working great. The only thing that is not working in the extension is the Reset Default function. Maybe you can fix this in an update.

Anyway, thank you so much for this extension. But why it is not available in the Extension Whitehouse?

TIG · 24 Jun 2021, 17:59

You might notice that this free extension is ~10 years old, and it hasn't been changed for >5yrs, so any updates are very unlikely...

Note that none of my plugins are hosted on the EWH - and like Fredo - I prefer to use the somewhat earlier original repository - SketchUcation's PluginStore - which offers advantages to developers, and which has many additional tools unavailable through the EWH...