Sketchup's API and Ruby

[arnouff]

my question:

Is it possible to extract the "drawing zone" from sketchup and then, use it somewhere else using Ruby and Sketchup's API?

Id like to insert the drawing zone in a selfmade form....... and use it code behind with Ruby. Or, remove all from the original sketchup's main screen.....menus, toolbars and the rest.

first: is it possible ?
if yes, how can i do ?

thanks
PL

[Marian]

First of all you should ask yourself if it's legal

[CPhillips]

I have done it. But its tricky and windows only. First I used windows messages to remove all the Sketchup UI elements leaving you with just a bare window. Then I used a C# app to grab that window and set its parent to be a panel in a form. It worked pretty well. But that was as far as I took it.

[arnouff]

mmm, legal, it's not.
but im tricky for school.

... possible to fit the "drawing zone" into a webdialog ?
... is there any "transparency" property for a webdialog?

i suppose the best way ("or the easy way") is a floating webdialog as a control bar
over a naked sketchup original window.

control bar connected to Ruby functions.

[arnouff]

To share, this is a post i found about it (by cphillips)

Additionnal stuff:
http://www.suwiki.org/suwiki/index.php?title=Ruby_Tutorial_-Dialog_Boxes_and_WIN32API%28Advanced%29

the Win32API.so link below wont work
you can get Win32API.so from there
After you install ruby into a folder, say c:\RUBY, then Win32Api.so will be in
c:\RUBY\lib\ruby\1.8\i386-mswin32

the original post:
http://groups.google.com/group/Ruby-API/browse_thread/thread/52ade11766148a57

-The function is called "cleanSlate()".
-It will remove all the menus and the window boarder.
-You need to manually disable any toolbars you dont want.
-Requires win32API.so lib(attached).

NOTES:
-It works by looking for a window named "Sketchup - Untitled".
Therefore it will only work when no model is loaded. You could change
this by editing the ruby.
-It wont fully work at startup because the "Plugins" menu gets created
after the cleanSlate() function is run.

Enjoy
Chris
http://groups.google.com/group/sketchup-Pro-Groups/web/win32API.so
http://groups.google.com/group/sketchup-Pro-Groups/web/cleanSlate.rb

<code>
require "sketchup.rb"
require "Win32API"

def cleanSlate()
#setup win32 calls.
findWindow=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "FindWindow", ['P','P'], 'N')
sendMessage=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "SendMessage",['N','N','N','P'], 'N')
getMenu=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "GetMenu", ['N'], 'N')
getMenuItemCount=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "GetMenuItemCount",['N'], 'N')
getSubMenu=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "GetSubMenu", ['N','N'], 'N')
deleteMenu=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "DeleteMenu", ['N','N','N',],'N')
drawMenuBar=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "DrawMenuBar", ['N'], 'N')
setWindowLong=Win32API.new("user32.dll", "SetWindowLong",['N','N','N'], 'N')

#find the sketchup window
pw=findWindow.call(0,"Untitled - Sketchup")

#remove the menu
menu=getMenu.call(pw)
while(getMenuItemCount.call(menu)>0)
	menu=getMenu.call(pw)
	deleteMenu.call(menu,0,0x400)
	drawMenuBar.call(menu)
end

#force the layout to update.
sendMessage.call(pw,0x0047,0,"")

#remove the window boarders
setWindowLong.call(pw,-16,0x00800000|0x10000000|0x00080000|0x00040000)

end
</code>