How do you make plug-ins for sketchup
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I think some of the "easiest" scripts to start writing are ones that begin by iterating through the model and doing something to the geometry. Here's a few variations of some basic examples. Then tweak them and expand on them to make them more and more involved.
pushpull all faces in the model
pushpull selected faces only
select all faces that have a certain surface area.
select all faces that have a surface area within a specified tolerance.
Delete all lines that are not drawn on an axis.
Delete all faces in the model or all faces from a selection, leaving just edgesAnyhow, thats a small start. Those should all be fairly straightforward.
Chris
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wow im finally interested in learning ruby
it would be awesome to not have to request rubies, just make em urself... and share of course. -
youve got me tempted now, chris. I'll post my efforts this evening
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Is Ruby on Rails the same as Ruby?
Thanks,
Jeff -
Rails is like an extension of regular ruby. So Ruby is the main language, and rails is a "ruby gem". Its still the same language, but it adds more features and functionality especially developed for web developers (I think).
Chris
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How about a "heal" script that joins broken, but co-linear edges?
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I think all those suggestions can be written in 10 lines of code or less. So they are good compact examples too.
Some of the more efficient programmers might be able to pull them off in one or two lines, but for me 10 or less would be good. It might take more than that too of course.
Chris
EDIT: 10 lines doesn't include any menu system implemenetation. Since I write everything in Jim's WebConsole, there's no need to make a menu for it until I'm ready to save it as a ruby file.
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So literature to buy if one was to, Ruby or ruby on rails? Sounds like ruby on rails would be the next step or more advanced than ruby?
Thanks,Jeff
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Rails is not Ruby. Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby. Forget about Rails if you're interested in Ruby for SketchUp.
You can't go wrong with the Pickaxe book. However, I don't believe you need to purchase anything as there is plenty of material online to get quite in-depth.
@click draw said:
So literature to buy if one was to, Ruby or ruby on rails? Sounds like ruby on rails would be the next step or more advanced than ruby?
Thanks,Jeff
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Gotcha, thank you. Good advise.
Cheers,
Jeff
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@chris fullmer said:
pushpull all faces in the model
AAHHHHH!!!! It took me HOURS to find the typename function!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
...but at least I know now
model = Sketchup.active_model entities = model.active_entities # - - - - - - - - - - - - entities.each { |entity| if entity.typename == "Face" entity.pushpull 10 end }(WHY can't it be easier to find things on the sketchup ruby API list????)
Also, it gives weird, unexpected results sometimes: it seems to pushpull the new faces it makes too
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[Slightly OT]
I've always been very careful to use Object#kind_of? rather than Object#class so that code works with any derived classes too. (Rather than just testing for an explicit class).
Good idea? Bad idea?
Adam
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Awesome!
My theory on why it pushpulls some new faces is because it is going through .each entitiy in the entities list. Well, its a dynamic list of the entities in the model, so as soon as you pushpull a face, it creates new faces and adds them somewhere to that entities list. It might be to a part of the list the it has already processed, so it won't do those faces. Or they might get added towards the end of the list to a part that has not yet been processed, so it will pushpull those when it reaches them.
The way to counter that is instead of pushpulling all faces as you find them, add them to an array. Then once you've gone through all the entities and found all the faces, then run through the faces array and pushpull them.
Another check you might want to add is a vildity check to make sure the face you are about to pushpull is valid. Say you have more intricate geometry with original faces facing eachother. Then if one gets pushpulled first to the exact distance that it overlafs the other face, you might very vell end up deleting the other face, and it will give an error when you try to pushpull it. So if you do something like
faces.each do |face| face.pushpull( 100 ) if face.valid? endThen it will skip faces that have been deleted in the proces of pushpulling other faces.
And the API gets much easier to work with after a while. I promise. Just for fun, read through the methods in a cuple of classes everyday. And re-read them often. Its helpful.
Well done,
Chris
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I have no idea, I'm just learning the sketchup API; maybe Chris will come by and give you his input.
... Anyways, now I'm trying to figure out how to make a transformation tool like the move tool. Any tips?
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@unknownuser said:
I have no idea, I'm just learning the sketchup API; maybe Chris will come by and give you his input.
Oh goodness, I don't know that. Adam is part of the brains around here. I was hoping to learn from the responses from one of the other programmers. I'm just a hack, I really know very little about the technical ins and outs. Jim posted an interesting idea that I think is related to the question though. It can be found here:
@unknownuser said:
... Anyways, now I'm trying to figure out how to make a transformation tool like the move tool. Any tips?
Transformations are still the bane of my life. Little by little I feel like I'm getting control of them, but that is only after a few rather involved transformation scripts. I think I keep writing them because I'm a glutton for punishment.
The idea is that you first create a transformation object. You then apply that to what you want to transform. There are lots of ways to make transformation objects. And different types of entities want to be transformed differently.
For a simple move, start with just moving whatever is selected. Make it so you select geometry, then run the script and it moves the geometry. Easy enough.
- define the selection to move
selection = Sketvhup.active_model.selection - Define the transformation. It will be a translation transformation. this is the example in the API:
@unknownuser said:
vector = Geom::Vector3d.new 0,1,0
t = Geom::Transformation.translation vectorThe translation transformation needs a vector to determine how to move your object. The vector in the example is 1 unit on the y axis. You can make it 100 units on the y axis, 10 on x, and -200 on z. That would be [10,100,-200], for example. And it would move your selection from where it sits, that distance, on each axis.
3. Apply that transformation to your selection.
t = Geom::Transformation.new([10,100,-200]) entities.transform_entities(t, selection)I have not tested the code there might be a glitch or two, but I think this will get you started.
Chris
- define the selection to move
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A complete rip off of BTMs code:
model = Sketchup.active_model entities = model.selection # - - - - - - - - - - - - entities.each { |e| if e.typename == "Face" e.pushpull 10 end } -
then change it around and make it erase all faces instead of pushpulling them
Chris
Edit: you literally just copied and pasted, awesome!
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That's good, but my main issue (which I've been trying to figure out) is how to use the cursor to set the transformation, like the move tool does; click and drag. I thought I saw something on it once, but am still confused.
*I started writing this before remus's post. I see you used the 'selection' method, I guess that would fix the whole pushpull-resulting-faces issue I had.(that's what they're called, methods, right? I can never remember...)
*I started that last part before Chris posted
and Chris, why won't it work to just replace e.pushpull 10 with e.clear! ? -
...but I DID manage to get it to reverse faces
model = Sketchup.active_model selection = model.active_entities # - - - - - - - - - - - - selection.each { |entity| if entity.typename == "Face" entity.reverse! end }Why does reverse! work, but not clear! ?
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give em some credit chris, i had to type 'selection' as well
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