FlexTools Updates

halroach · 9 Dec 2018, 14:59

It’s Black Friday time!

We’re glad to offer you €25 Off FlexPack Pro! - Speed up your modeling workflow with dynamic windows, doors, WallCutter, the most powerful wall cutting tool in the Sketchup world, and more.

This offer is good starting now, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday - Nov 23-26.

Spend less time modeling and have more time for actual designing with FlexTools!

Epix3D · 4 Jan 2019, 12:51

How can I make a swing glassdoor with glass sidepanels?

halroach · 4 Jan 2019, 14:44

@unknownuser said:

How can I make a swing glassdoor with glass sidepanels?

Hi Epix,

Take a look at the video in the link - It's currently the closest to a glass door that you can get with FlexDoor:
https://youtu.be/LvJJq04AWV0

The settings that were changed in the video:
Doorstop - Height => 0
Sill - Height => 0
Clearance Bottom => 0

Hinges => 0

Door Panel - Thickness => 1cm
Axis - Move => 10cm

The door handle was also changed (with some parts deleted).
You can make your own custom door handles following the tutorials here:
http://frandzel3d.com/flexdoor/flexdoor-hardware/

Hope that helps.

Epix3D · 4 Jan 2019, 16:20

Looks good halroach but I will need frames around glass like a panel door. Do I have to make it manually? I hope this will come in an upcoming version.

halroach · 5 Jan 2019, 14:54

I think I have what you need - Please take a look at the (Experimental ) FlexLabs section:
https://flextools.cc/flexlabs/

I just added now a 'FlexDoor with glass divisions + Side panels'.

***** Make sure to install and activate the FlexBetaPack.

***** Since it is rather experimental, turning off any of the side panels might screw things up.
If you want to remove a side panel (by clicking on the sides of the frame) without sub-components flying around, double click into it until you reach a component called 'Panel Right' or 'Panel Left'. Delete the component that is within either of those. After that click (With the interact tool) on the frame sides to turn off or on the panels.

***** To edit each of the panels and the mullions you have to double click into the components a few times till you reach the right settings.

Let me know how it works out.

halroach · 21 Jan 2019, 12:39

A new update is out!

You can now browse and search through your In-Model Components and Groups with ComponentFinder!

Read more details on the FlexBlog .

Epix3D · 23 Jan 2019, 14:40

When I mirror Flex doors and windows with copy the cutholes on original disappears..?
Same happens if I modify a wall with flexcomponents.
Is there a way of updating so the cutholes comes back?

halroach · 23 Jan 2019, 14:44

@unknownuser said:

When I mirror Flex doors and windows with copy the cutholes on original disappears..?
Same happens if I modify a wall with flexcomponents.
Is there a way of updating so the cutholes comes back?

Can you upload a jpg or an skp example or send either to yoni@flextools.cc so I can better understand where the issue is.

Epix3D · 23 Jan 2019, 18:55

Flexwindows are mirrored from one side to the other cutting new holes but removing the original holes from the side copied from..

[img][/img]

Epix3D · 23 Jan 2019, 19:03

..Strange thing happened, -when I closed and reopened the file the holes were back..?

juju · 23 Jan 2019, 20:04

@unknownuser said:

Flexwindows are mirrored from one side to the other cutting new holes but removing the original holes from the side copied from..

[img][attachment=0:2ociutft]FlexToolsMissingHoles.jpg[/attachment:2ociutft][/img]

@unknownuser said:

..Strange thing happened, -when I closed and reopened the file the holes were back..?

I've had success in the past when selecting the various DC's and hitting the Refresh on the FlexTools toolbar.

Epix3D · 23 Jan 2019, 20:18

Thank you Juju,. I will try that next time.

I have suggestion.

I often use CleanUp3 plugin to clean my files for unecessary geometry.
The door arc in FleTools Doors should be locked to avoid disappearing when cleaning for stray lines.

[img][/img]

halroach · 24 Jan 2019, 05:00

@unknownuser said:

Flexwindows are mirrored from one side to the other cutting new holes but removing the original holes from the side copied from..

[img][attachment=0:3bf4o6r3]FlexToolsMissingHoles.jpg[/attachment:3bf4o6r3][/img]

Hi Epix3d,

Like Juju mentioned, this a good example where the refresh button/s come in handy

A quick explanation:
When you first place a wall cutting window, it is automatically glued to a surface and it generates an opening. When you mirror and copy it, one or both of the components (The original or the mirrored) can become unglued, and the WallCutter algorithm doesn't know that the mirroring/copying happened, so it doesn't try to cut through anything. Moving the problematic window a little left and right OR doing a refresh, OR re-opening the model will jolt the window back to behaving as expected. Note though, that one of the windows will still be unglued.

I think it also depends which mirroring plugin you are using. I just tried to re-create this, and the original component's opening closed up, where as the copied component worked correctly and generated an opening... This seems to be the opposite of what is happening in the image you posted.

There are a few more 'advanced' situations where the refresh function is very useful. There are some good examples with animations at the learn pages:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

I just added a few mentions about the Mirroring situation.

Thanks for finding this!

halroach · 24 Jan 2019, 05:08

@unknownuser said:

Thank you Juju,. I will try that next time.

I have suggestion.

I often use CleanUp3 plugin to clean my files for unecessary geometry.
The door arc in FleTools Doors should be locked to avoid disappearing when cleaning for stray lines.

[img][attachment=0:2iqdcvlq]LockArc.jpg[/attachment:2iqdcvlq][/img]

I don't quite remember why now, but something tells me not to lock components by default. Maybe it's the red color every time you select the component...

Other than locking, another thing you could try in order to avoid the lines getting erased is to open the arc component and draw the radius lines so a surface is generated. Then hide the lines and the surface.

See if that works.

After which ever change suits you, you can then save the component aside with ComponentFinder for future use.

Epix3D · 24 Jan 2019, 09:27

I cannot find any problem with locking the arc by default as it is locked steps inside the component.
i have made some door libraries previously working like this. If you want to delete the arcs(which should not be necessary as it is on own layer) you just unlock it.
I think default is best way to avoid customers deleting arcs by mistake.

pilou · 25 Jan 2019, 00:01

seems all works fine!

halroach · 4 Feb 2019, 12:08

You can now produce 45(+) different Dynamic Doors, thanks to Mr. pcmoor and his extremely useful Multi Dynamic Door Panel.

How? By combining it with FlexDoor

We've known about this multi door panel component for quite some time now, but it had a catch. The minute you made a copy of it, and altered one of the copies, both DCs would jumble up with sub-components flying all around your model. The only solution was to delve deep into each component and make all of it's sub-components unique - A very time intensive process. So... we decided to develop a tool just for this called 'Make Totally Unique'. After applying this tool to your new door variations, the door and all of it's sub-components will instantly become unique and they will all behave just right.

See more details in this FlexBlog post.

porschegt2 · 4 Feb 2019, 18:05

Hi all,

Iam using the flextools pro but i cant Access to parameters from Windows and doors… anyone can help me out solve this issue?

thanks a lot

carlos

juju · 4 Feb 2019, 18:43

click into them a level or so to access more DC options

halroach · 5 Feb 2019, 04:41

@porschegt2 said:

Hi all,

Iam using the flextools pro but i cant Access to parameters from Windows and doors… anyone can help me out solve this issue?

thanks a lot

carlos

Hi Carlos,
I just replied to your email about this issue. If you still can't get to the parameters, please post a screenshot/video.

*** Edit for reference:**
The issue had to do with a crazy DC plugin bug - '/u' was appearing in the folder path where the SKP file was being saved to which would then cause the DC plugin to fail with errors.
More about this issue at: https://forums.sketchup.com/t/error-on-component-options-window-when-downloading-in-window/19991/21