[Plugin] Perpendicular Face Tools (UPDATED 26-03-09)
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In Nurbs language it's more kown as a sweep
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WOOHOO!!! I finally got it. Little by little I"m understanding transformations....after getting TONS of help from TIG on this script, and Fredo and pretty much everyone else. So I'm pleased to announce the updates to this script:
Perpendicular Face Tools
Description: Three Perpendicular Face tools to help create faces perpendicular to the end of lines.
Usage: Activate it at Plugins>Chris Fullmer Tools>Perpendicular Line Tools. Change the size of squares by entering a new dimension into the measuerments box after the face has been created. Change the radius of circles by entering "12s" for 12 sides into the measurements box. To use the custom face tool, create your face flat on the groundplane. The script attempts to line up the x axis as the bottom edge of the face.v1.0 Updates:
- The original face now explodes upon exiting the custom face tool.
- Added support so that faces will stay oriented with a flat edge on the horizontal plane.
- Holding ctrl while creating a face will over-ride the flat horizontal feature and revert back to the default SketchUp "Arbitrary Rotation".
- Now faces can be added anywhere to a line - on the endpoint (existing feature), in the middle of a line, or on a vertex of 2 lines. The vertex of 3 lines is not supported.
I think that is everything that was requested on this script and more. Faces now orient better, the custom face gets exploded on exiting the tool, AND being able to add perpendicular faces to a single edge, an endpoint and the vertices of 2 lines. Please let me know if there are bugs. Its quite possible. I've tried to test it thoroughly, but its always possible I've missed something
Hope it helps,
Chris
PS. I think I'll do some icons for this tomorrow. Also, the video is not updated yet on the front page. I'm too tied to do it right now. I'll do it tomorrow.
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I found a little bug where the custom face needs to be drawn with the back face pointing upwards. I'll try to fix that shortly so the face can be facing either way.
Chris
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Chris, thank you so much for this, as well as other, wonderful scripts. Your expertise is highly appreciated!!
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Thanks! I'm currently sitting at my computer pulling my hair out though because I can't make the custom face tool work more solidly......grrr. If I draw it, and then run the script, it normally works. But if I reverse it, its borken. OR sometimes just moving it or making a copy of it and using the copy is enough to make my script not orient it correctly. I've still got some ideas to fix it so no matter what you do it, it will orient itself uniformly. I'll get it. Once I do, I'll upload a new version. I've even got a great toolbar for the new update.
Chris
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Chris
Thanks for the update. However, now I have two Chris Fullmer Menu in my plugins. Is that what you intended?
#1
Scale and Rotate
Component on Faces
Select Lines by LenghtThe other:
#2
Perpendicular Face Tool
3 Line ToolThanks for all your work
Ken
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Hmm, that is not at all what I intended. I'll check to see if I messed up my menu system somehow. Thanks for letting me know,
Chris
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sweet
thank you! -
1 thing, (and this is more/less for discussion because i'm well aware i might be in the minority)
with the perp.circle, would you rather have the vertex of the segments at the top -or- one of the segments being horizontal (the way it's working now).
personally, i think it would be better if the vertex were at the top so diameter/radius lines can be drawn vertically or horizontally..
(am i even making any sense?
)that aside, i really like the change to perp.square.. having the horizontal edge is great.
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for example... drawing something like this:
would be 3 or 4 steps faster if the vertex of the circle were up top instead of the segment.. regardless of that part though, this script is way better than having to manually draw the perpendicular plane to begin with..
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ok, I have updated it again. This time it has a toolbar:
I've also attempted to fix some serious issues with the custom face tool and how it orients itself. Unfortunately, its still only about 99% right. There are times when the custom face tool will not orient the face as expected. Often when used on a line that perfectly on the y axis. I'm sure its just a bug in how I'm rotating. But I've looked at the code too long and its really messy. So maybe later I'll re-write it from scratch to clean it up.
As for rotating so that a point is always up.....I'm listening. I don't quite get the benefit by the example you showed though. I generally like to draw through circles on the mid point of edges, not on the vertices. But I might be the only one. So do you have another example that shows how it would be useful to do it with a vertice always on top?
I also updated the video on the front page.
Chris
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@unknownuser said:
1 thing, (and this is more/less for discussion because i'm well aware i might be in the minority)
with the perp.circle, would you rather have the vertex of the segments at the top -or- one of the segments being horizontal (the way it's working now).
personally, i think it would be better if the vertex were at the top so diameter/radius lines can be drawn vertically or horizontally..
(am i even making any sense?
)that aside, i really like the change to perp.square.. having the horizontal edge is great.
if you type an uneven number of segments you will have a vert at the top.
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@chris fullmer said:
So do you have another example that shows how it would be useful to do it with a vertice always on top?
this one:
they're both the same circle.. it's better (for me) to have the actual radius on a vert/horizontal.
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@xrok1 said:
if you type an uneven number of segments you will have a vert at the top.
yeah, and that would work to an extent but then the horizontal is off.. i usually work off of 1/4 circles, get them to the right height, and then divide them into 8"o.c. segments.. it's just easier for me if everything is straight up&down / side-to-side at the beginning of the process.
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makes sense.
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Well I see where its handy, especially if its already a normal part of your workflow. I think what I can implement easy enough is like a shift key that will rotate the faces. Hit the shift key once and it rotates.
A square could rotate 45 degrees each shift. A circle could rotate whatever degree would be require to shift between a flat edge down or a vertex down. THe custom face could rotate 90 degrees, since a fast way to rotate it 180degrees would be handy, perhaps increments of 90 would be a good place.
Anyhow, those are thoughts. I'll implement it. I'll even see if I can make the circle work so that it starts with the vertices at the top and bottom from the start. So the shift would take make it have an edge on top bottom. Make sense? Anyhow, I'll work on it. Let me know if you have any thoughts on the ideas and I'll see what I can do. But I'll be taking a break to watch LOST in a few minutes
Chris
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@chris fullmer said:
But I'll be taking a break to watch LOST in a few minutes
haha
i don't know. it's up to you.. i do think it's important to keep it fairly simple instead of using a somewhat obscure reason to bloat it.. maybe some others can chime in and reach a consensus..
now that i think about it, once i start using this in a drawing, i'll probably prefer using the square instead.. even if i'm drawing an arc. -
and just to jump start that consensus, here's what TIG had to say earlier in the thread.
@tig said:
Circle - not so important to get 'square', but if it has few segments it'd be best if a vertex were at the lowest point in Z
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Well, it turns out that its super simple to implement a modifier key rotation. SO I'll go ahead and do that. I tried shift and it kept rotating when I was trying to orbit and pan with shift key and middle mouse button. Alt was no good, kept opening the menu system and it was annoying to have to keep click back off of the menu.
I think I'll do the up arrow key. Thats convenient and not in use while my tool is activated.
Chris
In fact, I've pretty much got it implemented and its quite nice. I'll have the update in a little bit.
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