[Plugin] Perpendicular Face Tools (UPDATED 26-03-09)

jeff hammond

A Scaling function between each click of a face along the curve
(with the arrows Right / Left for example Increase / Decrease)

to go even further off topic :

what if you could scale the faces via some sort of weighing mechanism? (and i'm not sure if 'weighing' is the right term here -- i basically mean that everything isn't scaled equally and the 'pressure' is greatest at a determined point and dissipates as it gets further away ... i can sort of give an idea using the smoove tool but that only works up/down.. if this could somehow work with the scale tool instead, it would open up a lot of options.

[flash=425,344:27kpptas]http://www.youtube.com/v/3AwbiNkwG9c&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:27kpptas]

Chris Fullmer

Yeah, a soft selection tool (which is essentially what smoove does) would be nice. Its probably not enough, but you can hold down shift with the smoove tool to make it work in other directions than just the blue axis.

Chris

jeff hammond

re: the construction point for placement of the custom profile..

would something like this be hard to implement? (via 1001bit's extrude tool)

[flash=425,344:avk32lsb]http://www.youtube.com/v/3AQ0bMPJh4Y&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:avk32lsb]

Chris Fullmer

I like that. I'll have to think about it. It might require some re-writing and re-organizing.

And I am really bad at the on-screen display of rubber band lines and crosshairs and lines that light up etc. Maybe once I get those under control, I can implement something more visually friendly. For now, I might just have to include a true construction point recognition.

Thanks for the great suggestions,

Chris

pilou

@dave
@unknownuser said:

Between Chris's plugin and the Skin plugin, this was all dead simple and fast work.

What is the number of the version of Skin plug you use?

Dave R

@unknownuser said:

@dave
@unknownuser said:

Between Chris's plugin and the Skin plugin, this was all dead simple and fast work.

What is the number of the version of Skin plug you use?

Looks like 2.2.1

pilou

Many thx

jeff hammond

i think a good branch/byproduct of perpendicular face tools could be perpendicular line.. (and this ruby might already exist? tried searching to no avail)

the only thing it would need to do (that i can think of) is draw a construction line perpendicular to a line that's on a plane.

goal - perp.line at the green dot -- [edit] the greyish background is actually a plane.. the line isn't floating in space.. i should've shown that better.

using perpendicular face tool (which is now the easiest way for me to do this)

the proposed byproduct

this would be one of the cool little rubies that i'd assign a shortcut to..

[EDIT] i said:
"the only thing it would need to do (that i can think of) is draw a construction line perpendicular to a line that's on a plane."

i guess it should also be a little smarter than that and function how perp.face tools does in that if you click on a vertex, the angle will be bisected.

dtrarch

Jeff

Just draw a perpendicular line [by inference] to end segment and convert to construction line with xline.rb
http://www.smustard.com/script/Xline

dtr

jeff hammond

@dtrarch said:

Jeff

Just draw a perpendicular line [by inference] to end segment and convert to construction line with xline.rb
http://www.smustard.com/script/Xline

dtr

thanks
but it's not as if i need the construction line, it's just that drawing a perpendicular line via inferencing is hit or miss.. the example i posted should be easy enough but if other lines are around, the inferencing goes haywire.. i usually have to resort to using the protractor.. simple enough but still annoying and the less tiny annoyances i have to deal with, the better my moral is

[edit] oh, and actually.. i think the perp.face tool might even be better for me anyway.. for one, instead of having an infinite length const. line, i can type my dimension in the vcb with chris' tool. (ie if i need a 10' perp. line, type in 20').. the fact that the perpendicular face is a group makes it real easy to get rid of the reference plane after i'm finished with it..

jeff hammond

from a different thread but it's about this plugin

@chris fullmer said:

And Jeff, why is your perpendicular face tool icon so tiny? That's kind of weird. It should be the normal size.

it's because the resolution is set to 300 and all the other icons are at 72.. for some reason, SU mac is reading the actual document size instead of the pixel dimensions when displaying the icons in the custom toolbar.. strange
i have it sorted out now but i guess in the future, make sure they're at 72 ?

magazines

Hi,
I'm a bit of a newbie. I have been trying for hours to produce a plane that is perpendicular to a line (a sight line actually). I tried to access your plug-in which seems to accomplish this task wonderfully, but it said I did not have permission. How could I get a copy? Thanks very much for the writing of the plug in.
Brandon

Chris Fullmer

It said you didn't have permission when you tried to download it? or when you tried to run the plugin?

Chris

magazines

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the response. It's odd, I got the plugin to download after re-registering.
But even when I put it in the plugins folder, it doesn't show up under my plugin pull-down menu.
Strange. I'm sure I'm doing something very stupid, but at the same time I've tried it different ways.
Any ideas? It certainly seems to be what I'm looking to do.
Thanks,
Brandon

Chris Fullmer

I file it under Plugins>Chris Fullmer Tools> Perpendicular Face Tools. Let me know if its not there,

Chris

magazines

Well,
I think there we have a difference of platforms. I'm on a mac and the plugins go in a folder under application support for Sketchup. I think I have it in the right folder.
When I open sketchup (upgraded to 7) I get the following message:

no such file to load -- clf_perpendicular_face_tools/clf_perpendicular_face_tools.rbError Loading File clf_perpendicular_face_tools_loader.rb
no such file to load -- clf_perpendicular_face_tools/clf_perpendicular_face_tools.rb

I'm really not sure what is happening. Also I tried another plugin on the forum, and it worked.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Brandon

jeff hammond

when you download the plugin & unzip the file, you'll have a folder called
clf_perpendicular_face_tools_v1_2

open that folder and you'll see two items:
clf_perpendicular_face_tools_loader.rb & a folder called
clf_perpendicular_face_tools

place those two items in your sketchup plugins folder and start SU..

the path should look like this:

(click on the picture for larger)

note the two items i listed above are in the plugins folder.. the actual ruby is inside the clf_perpendicular_face_tools folder.. leave it there along with the toolbar icons.

magazines

Thanks Chris and Jeff,
I downloaded it again, and finally got it to work. For some reason it was automatically creating another folder within the clf_perpendicular_face_tools folder. So I guess it wasn't seeing the ruby.
Thanks much, It looks like this tool does exactly what I need.
Thanks for helping out someone getting started.
Brandon

Chris Fullmer

Oh good, glad you got it working,t hanks for helping Jeff. I'm pretty useless with Mac info.

And check this script in the future. I'm busy right now with school, but in the not to distant future this is a script that I have a few planned tweaks, includingbetter Mac support (I think the rotation keys might not work on a Mac if I remember correctly), and letting the custom face use a point other than its center point. Both are easy enough to implement, I just need to do it. So like I said, check back on this plugin in the future, and hopefully it will be even better,

Chris

broomstick

Chris, I never got to thank you for this script. It is a time and life saver when fast modeling stair railings!!!!