[REQUEST] Automatic drawing of vertical lines

Panga

Hi Chris,

No i don't have any text file with height data. Here's the cad file i used in the example (simplified for import in sketchup). I just enter the Z values I know and then add some new ones in order to create good contours for the sandbox.

Thanks.

Panga.

base.rar

todd burch

Is the Z value the same for every line?

Panga

No, each line has a different value.

todd burch

OK.

I'm trying to understand what time saving feature you are wanting. You will still have to click on every point where you want a line, and you will still have to enter the height of every line.

What time-saving feature are you looking for in this still-to-be agonizing process?

The only real feature I see you gaining from this type of script is that a mouse click, under this type of tool, could be certain to locate a vertex, and not just anywhere on an edge, and can save you from having to inference the Z axis for your vertical line. Is this correct?

From a selfish perspective, I'm also trying see how this might be a general purpose script that others would have interest in and could benefit from.

Panga

Hi todd,

@unknownuser said:

I'm trying to understand what time saving feature you are wanting. You will still have to click on every point where you want a line, and you will still have to enter the height of every line.

Exactly.

As you said, the most annoying step in my procedure is to active the line tool and fix it on the z axis (z inference) before I can enter the z value. Moreover, when I'm fixed on the z axis, I have to drop the mouse, trying not to loose the z axis inference while I'm entering the z value (yes, my mousepad is very slipping during winter )
But when I have a large number of vertical lines to do, even this little gain of time is usefull !

So,what i asked for, is a script that makes a vertical line at a specified place (not only points, also on edges) with a specified height.

@unknownuser said:

From a selfish perspective, I'm also trying see how this might be a general purpose script that others would have interest in and could benefit from.

I totally agree with you, if you or others sketchup users can find some similar interests in this script ! What I need is vertical lines, but maybe others'll need to draw such "automatic lines" along another axis, or following a specific direction (like a edge in the model).

Thanks again for your time.

Panga.

xrok1

once you start drawing your line, press the up arrow on your keyboard and your line will be locked to the Z axis. this should help.

Chris Fullmer

I don't mind trying to write the plugin, but I don't want to duplicate Todd's efforts if he is already working on it.

It will take me longer than Todd, but I think I can do it. I've been working on making "tools" for SU so this would help me out,

Chris

todd burch

Have at it Chris. Ping me if you need help.

Here's a suggestion. After presenting the distance dialog and accepting the value for the first line, draw the line when the user clicks the vertex, and remember that line length. That way, is there are 15 lines to be drawn at 12", then there is no re-entering of data for 14 of those drawing operations.

The way the Nudge tool works is if you left click, the distance dialog comes up (otherwise, it works with just Arrow Keys, repeating the same distance for each nudge). So, maybe you make it so that if any arrow key (or other key, or right click) is pressed, then you put up the distance dialog.

Todd

Jim

I say don't bother with a dialog. Use the VCB to enter a value, or hit ENTER to use the last value. The goal is efficiency. The workflow is:

Activate Tool
Click Vertex
enter length, press ENTER
repeat:
Click OR double-click next vertex.
Double click uses last length.
Single click and enter new length, press ENTER
end:

or something like that.

Chris Fullmer

Not bad ideas there folks. I'll have to figure out double click - and pretty much everything else

Actually I have the beginings written. I have a tool. You activate it. I can get the input point on a left button down/up. I don't know how to get values from what is entered into the VCB, so I'll have to figure that out. All in all, sounds like a fun script to try and figure out. I'll probably have questions.

Chris

chrisglasier

@panga said:

... i'm manually drawing vertical lines from points of the CAD file with a known Z, and joining with the line tool the top of these vertical lines. From a later post ... if you or others sketchup users can find some similar interests in this script !

I am not a ruby scripter but I am doing some studies into the practical application of parametric variables and find your problem interesting. If you have time please tell me how you identify the points with a known Z (x,y values, or some specific intersection type, perhaps), and where does the known Z value come from(spot height label or interpolation perhaps)?

I don't have Autocad, so sorry if these questions would be answered by opening the file.

Thanks

Chris

Panga

Hi all,

@unknownuser said:

I am not a ruby scripter but I am doing some studies into the practical application of parametric variables and find your problem interesting. If you have time please tell me how you identify the points with a known Z (x,y values, or some specific intersection type, perhaps), and where does the known Z value come from(spot height label or interpolation perhaps)?

I'm making projects in landscape amenity, and each time I received from a geometrician an AutoCAD file that includes all the data I need : roads and buildings layouts, roads levels etc...In this file, the most important points are specified with a Z value, as text object in autocad. I'm using these values to define the height of my vertical lines, and to interpolate some others.

Try to open the autocad file with this free software : http://infograph.com/products/dwgviewer/
Note : In the file I uploaded here, the texts are converted in vectors, normally they are really text objects.

@unknownuser said:

Actually I have the beginings written. I have a tool. You activate it. I can get the input point on a left button down/up. I don't know how to get values from what is entered into the VCB, so I'll have to figure that out. All in all, sounds like a fun script to try and figure out. I'll probably have questions.

Really happy if you can have fun writting this script Chris !! If you success to do it, I'll make a small tutorial of all my procedure to make my terrains. Many thanks for all your efforts.

Panga.

chrisglasier

@panga said:

... each time I received from a geometrician an AutoCAD file that includes all the data I need :

Almost certainly true but not in a format that is transferable except by retyping - not good for you but interesting to me - thanks for the feedback.

Thanks and bon chance!

Chris

Chris Fullmer

Well, my prototype is working. But I've run into issues. I can't get onLButtonDoubleClick to work when I also have an onLButtonUp method. How do I keep the on up from conflickting with my doubleclick? I should note that I have a UI.inputbox that pops up in my onLButtonUp. So as soon as the left button is released, that inputbox pops up. I think that is the conflict.

Also, I have not figured out how to remember variables inbetween tool sessions. I was thinking I should be able to start the tool, the user inputs the height. All goes well. Switch to the select or move tool. Then come back to my tool. I wanted it to remember the last input height. But I have been unsuccesful at getting that to work. I was guessing that I could try to write the value to a text file and then have my script get the value from the text file each time. Is that a reasonable solution? Or am I just doing it wrong?

@Panga Right now the script works so you input the height. The line is made so that the line is the input-height above 0. So you type 10m, the line will go to the 10m height. It doesn't go 10meters above your starting point. So if your starting point is at 5m abaove 0, and you type 10m, your line will be 5m tall. Because it will start at 5m and go to 10m for a total of 5m height. The alternative is to make it so the height entered is always the length of the line. If you start at 5m height and type 10m, your line could be 10m tall, going to an elevation of 15m. Which way is preferable to your workflow?

Allrighty, its coming along.

Chris

todd burch

Chris, to remember user entered values across SketchUp sessions, use the Sketchup.write_defaults and read_defaults methods. Whatever you write will be written to the Windows registry or the Mac .plist file.

Pick a name (a key) wisely, like fullmer_linetool_length and store the value in a hex encoded value for best portability on both platforms. You might encounter a known bug if you don't encode a length value. (I don't remember right know if it is a dot, apost, quote or blank that causes issues on Windows.

To remember a user entered value across Tool invocations within a SketchUp session, you can just set a class variable (@@somevar) with the value you want to remember. Of course, you have to have created a class, and not just put your tool in a module...

The best design would be to do both the class variable and the xxx_defaults methods.

Panga

Hi Chris,

@unknownuser said:

@Panga Right now the script works so you input the height. The line is made so that the line is the input-height above 0. So you type 10m, the line will go to the 10m height. It doesn't go 10meters above your starting point. So if your starting point is at 5m abaove 0, and you type 10m, your line will be 5m tall. Because it will start at 5m and go to 10m for a total of 5m height. The alternative is to make it so the height entered is always the length of the line. If you start at 5m height and type 10m, your line could be 10m tall, going to an elevation of 15m. Which way is preferable to your workflow?

Definitly the second solution. I need to create vertical lines from a point with a specific lenght. So the height entered has to be the lenght of the line.

Thanks again.

Panga.

Jim

@unknownuser said:

Of course, you have to have created a class, and not just put your tool in a module...

I think a module-level variable would have sufficient scope as it would be available anywhere within the scope of the module. A module is a class, except that it can not be instantiated. So when you say you need create a class, a module will also work.


module JF
  # Don't initialize if it already has a value
  @my_var = 1 if @my_var.nil?
end

def JF.test_method
  p @my_var
end

p JF.test_method
1

This just shows you can't create an instance of a module even though it is a technically a class:


> Module.class
Class
> Class.class
Class

> Module.new.new
Error; #<NoMethodError; (eval);33; undefined method `new' for #<Module;0x7e4f2b8>>
(eval);33

> Class.new.new
#<#<Class;0x7e4e430>;0x7e4e400>

Chris Fullmer

@Panga ok, I'll aim for that.
@Jim, someday I hope to understand that

I was using instance variables, so I'll just change it over to a class variable. And I think for me right now that will do the trick - at least from activation to activation of the tool.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

@Panga, ok the script is working pretty good now. I am going to attempt to write in some code that makes it remember your last setting over SketchUp sessions. So use it, turn off sketchup and then turn it back on and it should still remember the last number you typed. That is the goal. I never did get double click to work. Oh well.

I should be done soon enough I hope,

Chris

Chris Fullmer

ok, script released here:

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=16923

It does not remember your settings from one SU session to another. I kept getting a lot of errors in trying to implement read_default and write default methods. And I also couldn't figure out how to encode in hex. THat is a new world to me and I didn't find anything useful (or that I understood?) in the ruby rdocs either. I think I'm done for the night, but maybe tomorrow if I get a chance, I'll try it again. Thanks for all the help everyone! Hope its useful Panga and others,

Chris