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    Ruby Tutorial: How to create and add a component from Ruby

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    • GaieusG Offline
      Gaieus
      last edited by

      Seems to me that maybe we should create a "Ruby tutorial subforum" here.
      Thanks Todd!

      Gai...

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      • L Offline
        lewiswadsworth
        last edited by

        @gaieus said:

        Seems to me that maybe we should create a "Ruby tutorial subforum" here.
        Thanks Todd!

        I agree...that would deal with a great many of the problems that new users have with rubies. The available Ruby texts you can buy do not deal with the implementation of Ruby in SketchUp.

        --Lewis

        [Lewis Wadsworth]

        col sporcar si trova

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        • T Offline
          tomot
          last edited by

          I find these little "Ruby snippets" very helpful. they are a great way to learn to code in Ruby.
          I have another idea for a snippet. Using the Cube as a basis that Todd started with above.

          How do I code a radial array of cubes about a central point?

          tia

          [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
          tomot

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          • TIGT Offline
            TIG Moderator
            last edited by

            @tomot said:

            How do I code a radial array of cubes about a central point?
            tia

            Look into my "Grow.rb" script to see how to do all types of matrix arraying etc - Move, Rotate and Scale of copies...

            TIG

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            • T Offline
              tomot
              last edited by

              I revisited the Cube this afternoon:
              I added a dialog box, 2 sub-menus.
              One for a component cube, the other
              for a grouped cube. Then added some color
              and transparency statements.

              Thanks TIG I will have a look at grow.rb

              btw: using the component cube first , followed by grow.rb
              and then changing any component cube creates some interesting effects.


              Box0.rb

              [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
              tomot

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              • T Offline
                tomot
                last edited by

                I'm still doing some further investigating into components used in Ruby
                The attached Ruby could produce 2 options for component editing, by adding a sub menu.

                What works now is that each component in the group can be edited on its own
                What does not work!
                Editing one component in the group , and had have the other 8 follow the same editing changes.

                I hope someone can have a look at the code, I cant seem to find the right component code lines.

                tia


                Box4.rb

                [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
                tomot

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                • TIGT Offline
                  TIG Moderator
                  last edited by

                  If you make a component and place it several times then anything you do to one instance affects all of the others - unless you use 'make_unique' on it first. Using groups and copying them avoids this, BUT a recently noted but undocumented quirk in the SUp Ruby coding means you must use 'make_unique' on a group as you copy it... otherwise that copy is treated as an 'instance' (just as if it were a component anyway !!!) and then both might change as you alter one...

                  TIG

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                  • T Offline
                    tomot
                    last edited by

                    I'm wondering why you would suggest Make_unique

                    I was copying similar code from JoistTool.rb which allows for
                    component editing of the type I'm looking for.

                    Yet JoistTool.rb does not contain any Make_unique code.

                    I'm wondering if the Upto statements are causing a problem?

                    [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
                    tomot

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                    • TIGT Offline
                      TIG Moderator
                      last edited by

                      But the Joist and Rafter tools make a component that is repeatedly copied AND if you subsequently edit one of them then they all change ! If you want parts that are unconnected then use Groups - but make each unique - as I said within a script they can be viewed as clones of the same thing and they'll edit together, but doing an edit in the "real world " has each of them treated as a single entity...

                      TIG

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                      • T Offline
                        tomot
                        last edited by

                        OK, I really don't understand at this point how or where I'm going to introduce make_unique, into my existing script. I have the following inserted before the 1st upto statement

                        definitions = model.definitions
                        component = definitions.add
                        entities = component.entities

                        followed by:

                        trans = Geom::Transformation.new
                        entities = model.active_entities(component, trans)

                        after the cube has been drawn
                        What I cant wrap my head around is:

                        Both my script, Box4.rb and JoistTool.rb create copies of 3d entities.

                        JoistTool.rb uses t=Geom::Transformation.translation to make copies
                        while, Box4.rb uses Upto to make copies.

                        Obviously these copies are treated differently in Ruby?
                        causing JoistTool.rb work, and Box4.rb not work?

                        (I'm sorry for my thick head)

                        [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
                        tomot

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                        • TIGT Offline
                          TIG Moderator
                          last edited by

                          Try using groups as an alternative...
                          ...
                          entities=model.active_entities
                          group=entities.add_group
                          gents=group.entities
                          ...
                          gents.add_line(pt1,pt2)
                          gents.add_face(pt1,pt2,pt3...)

                          etc, all made inside the group NOT model

                          then transform group etc

                          group1=group.copy
                          group1.make_unique

                          transform group1 etc

                          ...

                          TIG

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                          • T Offline
                            tomot
                            last edited by

                            I'm re-reading your comments, and somehow I get the feeling we are misunderstanding each other.
                            I think I'm responsible for that misunderstanding at the very beginning.

                            your response to my question about the joist and rafter tools is a case in point.

                            I quote you:

                            "But the Joist and Rafter tools make a component that is repeatedly copied AND if you subsequently edit one of them then they all change !"

                            What I quoted above, is exactly what I would like my script to do. I'm not looking for parts that are unconnected, as you talk about in the remainder of your quote.

                            I would like all of the cubes that my script repeatedly copies/generates, to be made a component, so that if I then edit one all the rest will change.

                            [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
                            tomot

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                            • K Offline
                              Koos Brandt
                              last edited by

                              Hi

                              I know it is nearly a year later, but your code is not doing what you think it is doing.

                              Box4 does the following logically:

                              It creates a component def
                              Then you add 1 face to it and pull the face to make a block
                              then you add this component as an instance

                              then you add another face to it and pull it making block 2
                              then you add another instance. But you also update the original instance to now have two blocks

                              and so on

                              if you set it to have 3 by 3 blocks you get 9 components all the same with each nine pulled faces inside it. The inside blocks are not component instances, the are merely blocks (pulled faces) inside the component.

                              If you select the block at the end of the process and move it you will see there are more blocks underneath it.

                              If you wanted to do what you intended, you needed to create a new component def each time you enter the upto loop.

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                              • T Offline
                                tomot
                                last edited by

                                Its one of the things I have not been able to resolve.
                                I will give your suggestion a try, in the near future.

                                thanks!

                                [my plugins](http://thingsvirtual.blogspot.ca/)
                                tomot

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