How do you make plug-ins for sketchup

remus

just learnt an important lesson about using recursion in combination with a messagebox.

model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.selection

entities.each { |e|
 if e.typename == "Curve"
 edgnum = e.count_edges
 UI.messagebox "edgnum.to_s"
 else
 UI.messagebox "Please select a curve"
 end
 }

10 points if you can spot what'll happen (without running it!)

BTM

it counts the edges of any selected curve, and displays them as a string, in a message box. If 20 curves were selected, then 20 different message boxes, with the amount of edges in each curve, is shown, one after another each time you click enter.

remus

Could well do, but it's worse than that...points still up for grabs.

remus

Close enough, it will keep saying 'please select a curve' until you force quite SU, as it keeps going through the model.

BTM

oh, I forgot to mention that if no curve is selected, it says the message "Please select a curve".

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you wrote part of your code wrong, which could cause... hmmm.... I don't know... O.K., I'm testing it

BTM

No, just tested it, I think it says it once for every edge in the selected curve/curves.

remus

thats interesting, more experimenting is needed!

edit: perhaps in the morning. Its getting a bit late now

BTM

model = Sketchup.active_model
selection = model.selection
#  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
   selection.each { |entity|
      if entity.typename == "Face"
      UI.openURL "http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/"
   end
}

Chris Fullmer

Well, this is not the problem in question, but a selection will not contain an entity "Curve" for one thing. It contains edges though, and they might belong to a curve. So you can test if e.typename == "Edge" and then if true test if e.curve != false.

(And this gets back to what Adam was bringing up and Jim also talked about in another post. I think instead of testing if each entity is an edge (which is how I still do it), perhaps test each entity if its part of a curve. (I don't know the best code to do that, but its something to think about).)

I think that a selection can only hold DrawingElements (which does not include curves). I'm not sure why though.

Chris

BTM

It probably got overrun by new posts, so here's my original question about translation

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.

Chris Fullmer

Oh, and BTM, in my opinion, as a fairly new Ruby scripter, making any script that interacts with the mouse is a bit challenging, especially at first. It requires making a class tool, and instantiating the tool, and making good use of methods, including pre-defined methods from the API. I'll try to write up a template for creating a new tool. But that is really a tutorial all of its own. (BTW, I said before I was working on a tutorial for beginning ruby, and its been put on hold because the methods for wiritng a tutorial for SketchUcation are currently not working....so I have to wait for the management to fix it.)

If possible, I would avoid the mouse controlling the transform idea.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

To be more specific, I don't understand how to implement the inferencing system of SU. I have a sfew scripts that use inferencing, but I literally copied and pasted portions of those scripts from the query tool example that comes with SU. If you want to being working with inferencing, check out that tool.

Jim

@adamb said:

[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

It's good when you explode a Group to reject things are not Drawinglements. Sometimes I get Loops in the exploded collection of entities.


ents = group.explode
ents.reject!{ |e| unless e.is_a? Sketchup;;Drawingelement }

Jim

@chris fullmer said:

(And this gets back to what Adam was bringing up and Jim also talked about in another post. I think instead of testing if each entity is an edge (which is how I still do it), perhaps test each entity if its part of a curve. (I don't know the best code to do that, but its something to think about).)
Chris

Look again at the Selection class, there are a couple methods that can help determine of a selection contains a Curve:

.is_curve? and .single_object?

Chris Fullmer

Here's an amusing illustration of what I mean when I say that I have avoided using the mouse in my scripts because it is complex (for me). Here's my scripts in the order that I've written them:

Loose to groups - no mouse interaction.
Random Painter - no mouse interaction
Greeble 1 and 2 - no mouse interaction
Color by Z - no mouse interaction
Onscreen Display - my first mouse interaction (inferencing) The code is 95% from the query tool. I still don't undesratnd how parts of it work
Select Lines by Length - no mouse interaction
Three Line Tools - mouse interaction (inferencing, still copied from query)
Components onto Faces - no mouse interaction
Perpendicular Face Tools - mouse interaction (inferencing, still copied from query)
Scale and Rotate Multiple - no mouse interaction
Label Open Faces - no mouse interaction
Shape Bender - Mouse interaction written entirely on my own (select different objects with the mouse), but no inferencing

Anyhow, I've written about 12 scripts I've released and all of them avoid mouse input like the plague. The few that do allow for mouse input, the code is largely borrowed from the query tool, and still I don't understand how a few things in the code work

Chris

But don't let my inabilities stop you by any means. If you want to learn it, go for it. It will probably make for lots of great threads about implementing inferencing, which the forum could use I think!

BTM

Where do I find this "query tool"? The closest thing i can find is comptr.h, and 2 sketchyphysics files

Chris Fullmer

Jim, I'm a little confused. I thought you would be able to add a curve object to the selection set. But it returns this error:

(eval);6;in ‘add’; wrong argument type (expected Sketchup;;Entity or Array of Sketchup;;Entity)

But the API says that "Curve" is a subclass of the Entity class, just like DrawingElement. Why can't I add a curve object directly to the selection?

Chris

Chris Fullmer

Oh yea, the quesry tool is kind of hiding. It is in the utilities folder, and inside the utilitiestools.rb file. Starting on line 55.

Inside of SU it is under Tools > Utilities > Query Tool

But it only does point inference. It does not do all the inferencing you will want - like locking to an axis or anything with axex. Only single points. But its helpful for that,

Chris

BTM

It's nowheres to be seen on my mac Checked everywhere, it's just not there.

Chris Fullmer

You looked in both your plugins folders? It also might be in the tools folder.