[Plugin] FredoTools::ColorByAltitude - v1.2a - 10 Jul 21

fredo6 · 16 Oct 2019, 19:40

ColorByAltitude is a standalone script (for SU2018 and above) which is part of FredoTools. It paints faces of the selection (free faces, groups, components) with colors based on their altitude from a Color ramp which is configurable. ColorByAltitude creates a single texture to paint all faces. You can optionally generate isocontours, a legend and a 2D color map.

ColorByAltitude is installed as part of FredoTools 3.7 and above.

See the main post for FredoTools for installation.

IMPORTANT: ColorByAltitude is available for SU2018 and above only. Note that it will not appear in the menu or toolbar for earlier versions of Sketchup.

No documentation, but you can have a look at the Quick Start section and the Video below

SU Versions: SU2016 and above
Platforms: Windows and Mac
Languages: English, French
Menus: by default, ColorByAltitude is installed in Tools > FredoTools. It also appears in the Contextual menu when you select a group or component.
Icon toolbar: Fredo6 Tools. There is only a single icon. By default, it is not shown. You need to go to the Default Parameters… dialog of FredoTools to enable the icon.
The plugin is free, for private and commercial usage.

FredoTools::ColorByAltitude - Quick Introduction

Color Ramp

[to be completed]

ColorByAltitude 1.2a – 10 Jul 21: Fixed major bugs (boundaries and wrong coloring on Mac)

ColorByAltitude 1.0a – 16 Oct 19: Initial public release in FredoTools 3.6a

Pixero · 16 Oct 2019, 20:33

Looking great.
How is the colors applied to the surface? Is it projected from the x or y direction?
I can see this useful as a mask for different terrain textures.
Would it be hard to also add color by slope and a mix of both?

fredo6 · 16 Oct 2019, 20:45

@pixero said:

Looking great.
How is the colors applied to the surface? Is it projected from the x or y direction?
I can see this useful as a mask for different terrain textures.
Would it be hard to also add color by slope and a mix of both?

Colors are applied in the Z direction (mapping Z to V), so it's not really a planar projection.

The technique of using a single texture for all faces only works when there is an absolute criteria, here the altitude, which is defined in each point of the face.

It won't work for slope, since faces can have different slopes in any direction (in addition to the difficulty to define a 'sliding' slope for a face).

For masking, this is a limitation of Sketchup which cannot 'mix' textures. You have to do that in an external editor. In theory, I think I could do it from within Sketchup with the API, but it's going to be damned long for the calculation, as the plugin would have to calculate the individual mixed texture for every face. And of course, you'll get as many material as faces (which can be numerous in terrain). So not really something to keep a light model.

Dave R · 16 Oct 2019, 21:28

Very nice, sir. A useful extension for sure.

pilou · 16 Oct 2019, 23:03

Fresh air of the altitude!

Pixero · 17 Oct 2019, 06:16

That makes sense. I was thinking of using it as a mask in rendering software where you can layer materials.

@fredo6 said:

@pixero said:

Looking great.
How is the colors applied to the surface? Is it projected from the x or y direction?
I can see this useful as a mask for different terrain textures.
Would it be hard to also add color by slope and a mix of both?

Colors are applied in the Z direction (mapping Z to V), so it's not really a planar projection.

The technique of using a single texture for all faces only works when there is an absolute criteria, here the altitude, which is defined in each point of the face.

It won't work for slope, since faces can have different slopes in any direction (in addition to the difficulty to define a 'sliding' slope for a face).

For masking, this is a limitation of Sketchup which cannot 'mix' textures. You have to do that in an external editor. In theory, I think I could do it from within Sketchup with the API, but it's going to be damned long for the calculation, as the plugin would have to calculate the individual mixed texture for every face. And of course, you'll get as many material as faces (which can be numerous in terrain). So not really something to keep a light model.

cotty · 17 Oct 2019, 18:58

@fredo6 said:

since faces can have different slopes in any direction

I think the most useful slope would be the maximum value for each face, something like the magnitude of the gradient: "it has the direction of fastest increase of the function at P, and its magnitude is the rate of increase in that direction." [Wikipedia]

fredo6 · 17 Oct 2019, 19:23

@cotty said:

I think the most useful slope would be the maximum value for each face, something like the magnitude of the gradient: "it has the direction of fastest increase of the function at P, and its magnitude is the rate of increase in that direction." [Wikipedia]

In fact I know more or less what to do to manage a continuous mapping of slope in any point of a face, since we compute the local gradient. The issue is that I cannot map a single texture for all faces, but would need individual texture by face. So it's a little bit overkill for the problem, which is mainly to visualize technicall the low and high slopes.

pilou · 2 Nov 2019, 01:33

fredo6 · 2 Nov 2019, 09:28

NEW RELEASE: ColorByAltitude 1.1e - 02 Nov 19

ColorByAltitude 1.1a includes cosmetic adjustments and bug fixing.

It is available as of FredoTools v3.7a.

See FredoTools plugin home page for Download.

See also main post of this thread for User Discussion.

Fredo

zooen · 18 Mar 2020, 15:46

Bonjour,

Je ne comprends pas, je n'ai pas la rampe de couleurs sur la gauche de la boîte de dialogue. Dans la vidéo elle est présente dès l'ouverture de la boîte de dialogue. J'ai désinstallé puis réinstallé FredoTools_v3.8c et il me manque aussi des icônes dans le lanceur FredoTools.

Quelqu'un a-t-il une réponse?

I don't understand, I don't have the color ramp on the left of the dialog. In the video it is present from the opening of the dialog box. I uninstalled and then reinstalled FredoTools_v3.8c and I'm also missing icons in the FredoTools launcher.

Anyone have an answer?

fredo6 · 18 Mar 2020, 20:20

Which version of Windows?

Do you have the latest version of LibFredo6 (v9.5k)?

Fredo

zooen · 18 Mar 2020, 20:41

Bonsoir Fredo,

Merci de répondre aussi rapidement. Je suis bien à jour: 9.5k et je suis sous Win 10 Pro.

Zooen

fredo6 · 18 Mar 2020, 23:02

There seems to be a problem with the SVG files in the default web browser (and also a problem for supporting Canvas). With Windows 10, this should be OK, unless you did something to the browser and still have an old version of IE.

Also, with LibFredo6 v9.5k, you should have a small eye icon on the right of each line.

Fredo

zooen · 19 Mar 2020, 09:28

Thank you for the answer,i do not use IE as a browser!

I look at that and come back to you to inform you of the rest.

Merci pour la réponse, je n'utilise pas IE comme navigateur!
je regarde ça et reviens vers toi pour t'informer de la suite.
Zooen

zooen · 19 Mar 2020, 13:36

Bonjour,

J'ai fait deux ou trois choses pour essayer de résoudre le problème (et comprendre la teneur de ton message).
J'ai installé SU 2020 sur mon portable (Win 8.1) avec Mozilla firefox comme navigateur par défaut (c'est toujours celui que j'utilise depuis des années) en y associant les SVG, pour voir si j'avais le même problème. Avec uniquement les extensions et plugins suivants:
Sketchucation plugin store et tes plugins et extensions.

j'ai fait un test avec avec ColorByAltitude Avec les trois variantes de dégradé, cela fonctionne (il y a déjà un progrès ). La matière est présente et varie en fonction de la variante choisie : Géographique, Niveaux de gris et Arc-en-ciel.

J'ai fait la même association SVG sur mon ordi de Bureau, même résultat c'est OK.

Mais je n'ai toujours pas la rampe et les icônes (voir la capture d'écran).

Quant à "Canvas" j'ai fais quelques recherches sur le net pour voir et comprendre ce que c'est, bon cela reste assez flou pour moi.

TruePaint et les autres plugins que j'utilise fonctionnent très bien aussi et je n'ai pas de problème d'affichage pour eux.

Voilà où j'en suis. Notre échange devrait-il sur faire sur le forum français?

Zooen

varioushemrog · 23 Mar 2022, 20:38

Bon Jour Fredo!

I found today your extensions. Thank you so much for creating all these wonderful tools!

I use a Macbook Pro 2021 M1 not intel and installed today: LibFredo6 12.8a, TopoShaper 2.6a and FredoTools 4.3a

Sadly ColorByAltitude is NOT showing in my toolbar and it shows in in pink in the "Check Fredo6 Plugins for Update".

This is the reason I downloaded the FredoTools I need to color by altitude a 20 acre land.

Please help!

Thanks for all you do! (I will post a message under TopoShaper for I have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with too)

Have a happy one!

Helena

fredo6 · 23 Mar 2022, 22:00

@varioushemrog said:

Sadly ColorByAltitude is NOT showing in my toolbar and it shows in in pink in the "Check Fredo6 Plugins for Update".

Could you show a screenshot of this.

In principle, FredoTools::ColorByAltitude should work on Mac M1.

varioushemrog · 24 Mar 2022, 17:12

Hi Fredo!

Of course, here is the Screenshot.

Merci beaucoup!

Helena

fredo6 · 24 Mar 2022, 20:41

Then, can you check the version of FredoTools. It cannot be v4.3a.