Add information to construction points

harnstein

Hi guys!

Sketchup's construction point feature is a little limited
A little..

Is there a way to add information to a point which is carried over to other applications (in this case native SU V7 import to 3DS Max)?

Would be great if construction points could be named but the entity info window is empty. As construction points relate to a certain object its hard to find the corresponding object in 3DS, only possible visually in the viewport..
Finding construction points through outliner wont work either.
Construction points are hard to see / select.. in styles > edit I can change the color to something more visible, which is something.. but a larger point representation in the viewport would be great.

Any idea where I could find some more information about this topic or if there is a way to achieve the features above?

Thanks a lot!

Niko

Dave R

Construction points, or more properly guide points are not intended to be used as you are talking about. They are intended to be temporary entities used a guides while modeling. Like guidelines, guide points are subject to deleting with Delete Guides. Instead of trying to make guide points do something they weren't designed to do, you might consider making a component to use instead. Components can have all sorts of information added to them. If you use Dynamic Components, they can have a number of custom fields which can contain more information than you likely need.

alpro

Like Dave said, you're better off using a component, you can make it whatever you want with whatever extra data you need. You then can use this http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30506 to replace all of your guide points with your component.

harnstein

Hey guys,

thank you for your responses and ideas

I guess this wont work for the intended use in the pipeline to 3DS Max..

First, thanks @Dave for clarifying the correct term, great I can get back to guide point as the proper term, just read "construction point" pretty often in SU context and therefor though it should be like this. Better to stick to guide points though

I totally get the point that in a SU context there would be many workarounds - and using a component, e.g. a cross of lines with some "meta"information would be ideal and I would have done it that way.

Wouldn't work in 3DS Max like this - and the programs that follow. I need to set up a certain hierachy in 3DS, linked to guide points. And I have to process a bunch of objects from the same file - ideally e.g. exporting FBX with autmatic naming of the linked elements based on the guide points name. Thats why I was asking for guide point naming informations in SU.. And actually in 3DS all guide points come in in a numerical order, which makes it hard to identify the correct relating guide points.

If I'd use components in SU I maybe could realign guide points in 3DS to those components - but then I'm left with the same: guide points in a numerical order without any name..

Maybe some scripting could help but this is beyond my knowledge, sadly.

So I guess I have to stick with whats given and resort / rename the SU guide points in 3DS as I did it now.

But dont you know of any option to change the viewport representation of guide points in SU, to eg. make them larger? As I need to keep going with the SU guide points workflow this would make the working with them a bit easier.

Just a rough guess: Maybe I could nest a single guide point in a group and name that group - MAYBE that could be used for carrying over some information - but I guess it's not helping as guide points come in loose, no matter if they are inside a group/component or not.. At least through the native .skp file import in 3DS.

Maybe any other ideas?

Best,
Niko

EDIT Ah, shoot, putting a single guide point a group won't work.. If I have eg two lines in a group (+ a guide point, guidepoint + one single line won't work) - as soon as I delete the lines the group disappears, and so does the guide point..

EDITEDIT It DOES work indeed.. The guide point disappeared as it was somehow connected to the line I drew from it. Putting all objects a bit to the side and adding another guide point at the worlds origin worked. Dont know if this helps me in 3DS - but its something.