[Plugin] Memory Copy (xformclone.rb)

AdamB

I decided to get it out the way. Here it is.

Create an instance of component
Duplicate and position a second instance
Right click on first instance and choose "Play it again.."
Now if you hover over any instance that is the same definition as your 'start' instance it will be highlighted.
Left button to create a new instance.
Type string of the form "123x" in the VCB to set the number of instances to create per left button click.
Click away from geometry to exit tool

Enjoy,
Adam

Stick it in your plugins folder

agrazdi

WOW MARVELOUS

Thanks

agrazdi

remus

Cheers adam,

i have a feeling this is going to become one of those 'how did i ever do that before?' type plugins.

remus

A quick demo for the non believers.
362 segments and about 4 clicks of the mouse

plot-paris

this is marvellous! thanks a lot, Adam!

however, I don't get the multiply function to work. tried everything; typing in the number with and without an x, before and after left clicking the second component. didn't get it to work
(I use Windows Vista)

AdamB

Glad you like it.

Feel free to slap me here but you did press return after typing the "5x" or whatever, didn't you.

Adam

Dave R

Wow! Adam, this is another great plugin. Thank you.

Matt666

Excellent script !!!! Thank you !

@unknownuser said:

version_2 has to be applied directly after the copying/transformation process (like the array fuction only works directly after the copying process, because it retrieves it's information from the last action). therefore we need a shortcut for this function (and an entry in one of the menues).
Totally agree. That would be awesome !

Matt666

A little update, for future improvements noticed above !!

Good luck AdamB !!

PS : And sorry for my incompetence... I don't have enough talent to modify your script

free agent

awsome script, i can think of quite a few things to use this for. but i have a suggestion/request

could we also get a version where we can devide the action? so it fills in the instances between a move and rotation?
for tree branches this would be awsome if we could taper the size of instances or even have some kind of size randomizer on it.

but i think the first request is more important... thanx for the script

Daniel Bouchard

Thanks Adam,

Wonderful script!

thomthom

Yet another muscle to SU.

watkins

Dear Adam,

Trying out your script and enjoying the unexpected results.

Thank you for all your efforts.

Kind regards,
Bob

Move and rotate.skp

mattjc

Hi, this script is excellent.. trouble is i am having some trouble - when i key in the Nx in the VC box nothing happens - I noticed someone else had this trouble... i am running windows XP - can anyone help?!?!

Thanks

plot-paris

I understand that you had to ask.
I did indeed (among every other method imaginable) hit enter after typing in Nx. just tried it here in the office (Windows XP) - works like a charm. may be a vista problem then.

some suggestions, observations:
would you mind changing the Nx to N***** to go in line with the native SketchUp input?
and to assimilate the native workflow even more: is it possible to left-click the second component to be copied and then type in N*? because I love the way it works with the array function in SketchUp at the moment (that you can change the number of copies (or divisions for that matter...) repeatedly, simply by retyping 3*, 11*, 15*, 3*...).

an observation I made is that the order of modifications does still make no difference (of course not - that would only be possible if you applied the function directly after the copy-and-transform process).
that means that if you have more than one rotation process applied to the component-copy you may get results different from your intentions:

in this example I rotated the component arround axis A, then rotated it vertically around the outer corner. to get the desired result, the script had to repeat these steps in exactly the same order (rotate arround A 2x, 3x, 4x... the initial distance, then rotate 2x, 3x, 4x... arrount the outer corner).
the current version of the script however takes the overall changes in position/rotation which in this example results in the first rotation axis B being distorted - merged with the second rotation so to speak

now that I think about it - the result as we get it at the moment may be quite useful as well at some time.
maybe there is the need for two different versions:

verion_1 works exactly like the current script (with the minor changes I suggested at the top of this post ). it would make sense to have an entry within the "tools menue" to keep the context menue tidier. you can choose this function at every point of the modelling process, because it is history independent and retrieves every information from the selected geometry
version_2 has to be applied directly after the copying/transformation process (like the array fuction only works directly after the copying process, because it retrieves it's information from the last action). therefore we need a shortcut for this function (and an entry in one of the menues).

I hope my thoughts are comprehensible.
have to start doing some office work now

plot-paris

I just had the need to use this script, but it got lost on the way to the SU7 installation. so I looked for it again and re-read some posts on the way.
and I still think it would be cool to have a second version of the script that works slightly different, as I stated in this post above:

@unknownuser said:

I understand that you had to ask.
I did indeed (among every other method imaginable) hit enter after typing in Nx. just tried it here in the office (Windows XP) - works like a charm. may be a vista problem then.

some suggestions, observations:
would you mind changing the Nx to N***** to go in line with the native SketchUp input?
and to assimilate the native workflow even more: is it possible to left-click the second component to be copied and then type in N*? because I love the way it works with the array function in SketchUp at the moment (that you can change the number of copies (or divisions for that matter...) repeatedly, simply by retyping 3*, 11*, 15*, 3*...).

an observation I made is that the order of modifications does still make no difference (of course not - that would only be possible if you applied the function directly after the copy-and-transform process).
that means that if you have more than one rotation process applied to the component-copy you may get results different from your intentions:

in this example I rotated the component arround axis A, then rotated it vertically around the outer corner. to get the desired result, the script had to repeat these steps in exactly the same order (rotate arround A 2x, 3x, 4x... the initial distance, then rotate 2x, 3x, 4x... arrount the outer corner).
the current version of the script however takes the overall changes in position/rotation which in this example results in the first rotation axis B being distorted - merged with the second rotation so to speak

now that I think about it - the result as we get it at the moment may be quite useful as well at some time.
maybe there is the need for two different versions:

verion_1 works exactly like the current script (with the minor changes I suggested at the top of this post ). it would make sense to have an entry within the "tools menue" to keep the context menue tidier. you can choose this function at every point of the modelling process, because it is history independent and retrieves every information from the selected geometry

version_2 has to be applied directly after the copying/transformation process (like the array fuction only works directly after the copying process, because it retrieves it's information from the last action). therefore we need a shortcut for this function (and an entry in one of the menues).

I hope my thoughts are comprehensible.
have to start doing some office work now

what do you think? wouldn't that be cool?

driven

This is a very easy to use bit of kit, made the candy-stripe pole and used it for the animation as well.

very,very nice

thanks for posting....

a quick(ish) play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1DJ3oaplgM

???how do I add embedded youtube???

jason_maranto

This is one of those functions I thought should be in Sketchup right from the beginning -- a really basic but totally useful function.

I'm one of the folks who can't get the array part of this script to work... I'll take a look at the script and see if I can't get to the bottom of it , but does anyone already know why?

Best,
Jason.

plot-paris

Jason, did you make sure to do everything in exactly the right order?

for the array function to work you have to select the first component, then right click > 'play it again'. then type in something like 5x (make sure to type in an axtual 'x' and not a *). and then click the second component...

I think this behavior could be optimized to better fit into the native SketchUp workflow, as I already explained in the third post of this page...
I still hope, that at some point someone will hear my pleading and will perfect the script

jason_maranto

I did try that but I'll try it again, maybe I gave up on that avenue too quickly as it did not seem to make much sense to me in regards to Sketchups natural workflow...

Best,
Jason.