Elev45shadows.rb help

brodie

TIG, could you post a skp file w/ a saved scene using your ruby so I can open it and see what happens?

-Brodie

TIG

Here's an example...

A normal scene plus a north and west elevation with 45 shadows. Update each tab as the scene is made and each scene has a different north, date, time, location etc to get the shadows as needed...

45test.skp

brodie

Very interesting. Here's what I'm finding. Using your plugin does indeed change the location in terms of latitude and longitude. What it doesn't change is the name (still Boulder instead of Elevations 45 Shadows or whatever) or (here's the important part) the time zone. Time zone stays at -7 (Boulder's time zone) rather than switching to +0 (the time zone in the skp file you posted).

Starting a new drawing, using your script and then manually changing the time zone produced results identical to the results of your sketchup file.

HOWEVER, when I open your SU file the shadows aren't truely 45 degrees. Well, I take that back. They are 45 degrees, however the shadows aren't as long as I'd expect them. For example, if a block is protruding out 1 foot you'd expect the shadow to travel 45 degrees and to stop 1' down and 1' to the right. W/ your script it travels 45 degrees but not quite the full 1' down and 1' over. Check out the example below. On my screen the shadow stops just before the purple face. I'd expect it to travel to the far end of the purple face.

I think we're getting close here. On your screen does the shadow cover up the purple face in my example because on mine it doesn't.

-Brodie

45test 1.skp

brodie

an image to reiterate what I'm saying

45test 1.jpg

TIG

It always changes the location name for me...

Point taken about the 45 degree accuracy. I've fixed it to within a smidge of a mm... Needed minor adjustments to time of day and long/lat to get it 'as near as damn is to swearing'. The 'Boulder' Time Zone bit was from a typo that's corrected...

See updated script... http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=98081#p98081

.

brodie

Bloody wonderful. Agreed, that is much closer. That did, indeed fix the location issue (doesn't still say Boulder, CO any more). I'm still having to manually change the time zone from -7 to +0 but I can certainly live w/ that! Thanks a ton, glad we finally figured this out.

Only thing I'd suggest is adding a caveat in the text of your script and maybe in that other post as well to folks, that if the screen goes dark after running the script to go to Window -> Model Info -> Location -> Custom Location button and change time zone to UTC-0

Thanks again!

-Brodie