New API doc - typos and questions

thomthom

http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/releases.html
The release notes says:

Cleaner, hash-based syntax for initializing

But there's nowhere any example of what the hash should look like, keys etc.

Jim

Thom, you are right it needs to be documented.

This is from the webtextures_loader.rb. The constants are defined a little earlier in the code, but this gives some idea about the keys:


 # Create our dialog.
    keys = {
      ;dialog_title => title,
      ;scrollable => false,
      ;preferences_key => WT_DIALOG_REGISTRY_KEY,
      ;height => WT_DIALOG_HEIGHT,
      ;width => WT_DIALOG_WIDTH,
      ;left => WT_DIALOG_X,
      ;top => WT_DIALOG_Y,
      ;resizable => true,
      ;mac_only_use_nswindow => true}
    @dialog = UI;;WebDialog.new(keys)

thomthom

Thanks Jim. Would probably be able to guess most - but...

What's unexpected there is :mac_only_use_nswindow - Same as WebDialog.navigation_buttons_enabled?

Dan Rathbun

@thomthom said:

What's unexpected there is :mac_only_use_nswindow - Same as WebDialog.navigation_buttons_enabled?

Isn't 'nswindow' a base Cocoa (or Carbon) window class?

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

@thomthom said:

What's unexpected there is :mac_only_use_nswindow - Same as WebDialog.navigation_buttons_enabled?

Isn't 'nswindow' a base Cocoa (or Carbon) window class?

hm... I Googled 'mac nswindow' seems that you might be onto something.
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/ApplicationKit/Classes/NSWindow_Class/Reference/Reference.html

Does it give any visible difference when it's set to true as oppose to false?

Dan Rathbun

@thomthom said:

Does it give any visible difference when it's set to true as oppose to false?

I don't know. I don't have an Apple machine. [..wish I could install OSX of my 686 clone for devlopment. XCode looks like a neat IDE.] There are so many attributes, methods, etc. there it's hard to guess what the SU API is refering to.

thomthom

Edge.reversed_in?
http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/edge.html#reversed_in?
The reversed_in? method is used to determine if the EdgeUse object is traversed in the corresponding direction as its corresponding edge.

Apart from the EdgeUse typo - what does the method really do. I don't understand at all from the description what it does.

TIG

@thomthom said:

Edge.reversed_in?
http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/edge.html#reversed_in?
The reversed_in? method is used to determine if the EdgeUse object is traversed in the corresponding direction as its corresponding edge.

Apart from the EdgeUse typo - what does the method really do. I don't understand at all from the description what it does.

I use it in my 'orient faces' method - although I agree that it all seems pretty arcane and badly explained. If an edge is reversed in a face it is going contrary to that face's logical loop direction. If you test an edge belonging to a selected face and that edge has that face face plus another one that both return as being either reversed or not-reversed then you know that this other face has the same 'orientation' as the selected face: if the other face has the opposite 'reversed-ness' to the selected face then it needs to be flipped over (reversed) so it orients the same way as the selected face...

thomthom

There's a logical orientation of the loops?

TIG

@thomthom said:

There's a logical orientation of the loops?

If you get a set of vertices for a face's loop it's always listed as an ordered array: it will be rotating 'counter-clockwise' to the face's normal if it's an external loop, or 'clockwise' if it's an internal loop... If an edge's start/end vertices break this 'rule' I think it's said to be 'reversed in the face' ? That is the order of the edge's vertices don't follow the loops 'handed-ness' so are flagged thus...

jarl

@unknownuser said:

Your help in finding typos/missing details are very welcome!

On http://code.google.com/intl/da/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/point3d.html#+ it says that the argument is a Point3d, but it should say a Vector3d.

Jarl

thomthom

Geom;;Point3d.new(10,10,10) + Geom;;Point3d.new(20,20,20)
Error; #<ArgumentError; (eval);261;in `+'; Cannot convert argument to Sketchup;;Vector3d>
(eval);261

TIG

@jarl said:

@unknownuser said:

Your help in finding typos/missing details are very welcome!

On http://code.google.com/intl/da/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/point3d.html#+ it says that the argument is a Point3d, but it should say a Vector3d.

Jarl

If you add two pointstogether it returns a vector (or another point if it's taken as an array) ?

thomthom

Color
http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/color.html

When creating a Color object you can specify an alpha value. Not mentioned in the examples.

Color.new
http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/color.html#new
The way the arguments are presented now it looks like they are all equal, but it's actually wither RGB(A) values or a String. It also takes Hex, array with Integers or Floats.

Oddly enough, you can do: Sketchup::Color.new(128) and get a Red-ish color. But not Sketchup::Color.new(128, 255) - where it will throw an error saying at least 3 values are required. So if you can specify 1, 3 or 4 values for the RGBA combination.

TIG

But the Color's Alpha value is always ignored anyway ?
Whereas Alpha value for the material is used !

thomthom

@tig said:

But the Color's Alpha value is always ignored anyway ?
Whereas Alpha value for the material is used !

Yea, that's what I've noticed as well. Confusing. Should be mentioned in the docs. I had hoped that the alpha channel would be used the the view.draw2d method, but alas - it does not. Wondering if it's by design or if it's a bug.

TIG

I guess it was perhaps an early implementation when perhaps Color and Material were the same thing ?
Also I suppose it allows you to import a RGBA value from elsewhere directly into a Color, but then using the first 3 items in the array is no hardship ???
Seems that the alpha could be removed as it's not needed/useful ?

thomthom

I'd rather see view.drawingcolor= make use of the alpha channel and let us draw transparent objects to the viewport.

thomthom

@tig said:

That would be much more use... unfortunately with drawaren't we limited to the built-in color-set, and that has no transparency setting ?

draw is currently bugged an only draws black fill.
draw2d works, and you can specify any Color object (or hex,int,float,array that equal to a colour) but it ignores the alpha.

TIG

@thomthom said:

I'd rather see view.drawingcolor= make use of the alpha channel and let us draw transparent objects to the viewport.

That would be much more use... unfortunately with draw aren't we limited to the built-in color-set, and that has no transparency setting ?
Transparency ispossible with OpenGL but not as I can seem in it's port to Ruby and SUp ???