[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

August

... When prompted 'Please select a single line that lies on the red axis' is simply won't let me select the line???

Hi Paul,

If you are getting the prompt, I presume the script is installed properly and you have a group properly selected, and I assume there is indeed a line that you are trying to select, so I don't know what to suggest.

Over to you, Chris --- (or someone else) ---

TIG

You should not be inside a Group/Component Edit.
Is the target a Group of Component Instance placed in the Model ?

Can you select the Line normally outside of the Tool ?
Is it a plain 'line'.
Is the target curve a 'curve'.

Why not post the simple model...

Chris Fullmer

Yup, eaxctly all those things. Also, you can open the Ruby Console before running the plugin. It will display error messages if something is going wrong. Please copy and paste those here to this forum if you get any.

Thanks,

Chris

crsrma

Hi there, I'm having a bit of trouble with this plugin myself. It goes so far as to select the component, the red axis line, and the curve but then it halts at the progress bar. I checked the ruby console for errors and it repeats this as I move my mouse around the screen:

Error; #<ArgumentError; comparison of Float with nil failed>
(eval);44;in `>'
(eval);44;in `update'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;538;in `exploder'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529;in `exploder'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;247;in `onLButtonUp'
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;529
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676;in `draw'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb;676
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `/' for nil;NilClass>

I'm on WinXP with Sketchup 7.1 and made sure to update progressbar.rb as well.

Chris Fullmer

I think that might the be the component spray issue. If you have component spray plugin installed, please go and re-download it. There is a newer version that hopefully fix the problem. You can search for it, or just scan through the last few pages. I think it was linked to recently in this thread,

Chris

crsrma

Oh, sorry if that was covered already, that did fix it. Thanks, it's working great now, bending walls like magic.

Chris Fullmer

Not a roblem, glad it worked! I like when it is something that I know ow to fix, as opposed to the people who turn every once in a while with something I'm completely confounded by

Chris

denZ

why i cant use shape bender?
is it work on mac?
when i select the component, there is no "start" and "end" on my component

Chris Fullmer

Yes, it works on a Mac as far as I know.

Select a component, then run the plugin. Then select the lines, then you get the start and end nots. Make sure you've watched the videos at the start of the thread, then come back and ask more questions if it is not working. Please also post the model you are testing it on.

Chris

brookefox

An appropriate use came my way: adding a metal cover to a cistern.

Thank you, Chris.

shape bent cistern cover.JPG
shape bent cistern cover-2.JPG

Well, live and learn. In this case, mapping a shape which should be precisely shaped and sized, to a circle, would be better done (by me) via copy array than with the bender, as it is easier and more precise. But I bet you can't tell which is which in the jpg. You could in the skp.

(The first try as shown in the first image has been removed; tries 2 and 3 are shown in image 3.)

shape bent cistern cover-3.JPG

antli

I just download and try this, perfect & bravo, it help really a lot, a million thanks to Chris.

abspandey

Hi Chris,
The plugin seems great but when i select the target curve, my progress bar gets shows >..............1%END@ ? ( 1 of 5 )searching for objects to explode.

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks
Abi

AlEstenos

I am having problems downloading this plug-in. Every time I hit download my computer saves a file called file.php. As far as I know it should be a ZIP or a .rb file is that correct? Please let me know what to do... Thanks a lot

August

@alestenos said:

... Every time I hit download my computer saves a file called file.php. ...

There are three places in the first post by which you can download the file:

two large size lines that say "Download Shape Bender"
an attachment to the post for a zip file.

Which are you using and what are you doing? Are you just clicking on the link or are you right-clicking and selecting "Save link as..." or whatever your browser says for a download choice?

Both of the text links go to this URL:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?mode=view&id=47534
and the attachment goes to this URL:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?id=47534

That is indeed a file.php, but your browser is supposed to interpret that specially. Obviously it is not.

What ever you are doing, right-clicking or left-clicking, have you tried doing the other?

I hope this helps,
August

Chris Fullmer

Other people have had this same complaint. I think it has to do with something in their browser maybe? Perhaps an old version of Internet Explorer? I do not know. But it should not be downloading a .php file for sure. It should be downloading the zip file. So you might try it from a different broswer.

Chris

sketchersi

I am a new user. I followed the instructions and tried running the script. I got the following error.

Error: #<TypeError: no implicit conversion from nil to integer>
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168:in set_cursor' C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168:in onSetCursor'
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:176:in `onMouseMove'
C:/PROGRA~1/Google/GO2494~1/Plugins/clf_shape_bender.rb:168

Can you help. Thanks.

GilliganU

I have a Mac OS X 10.5 and downloaded shape bender.

I bent some 3D fonts and they look pretty good, but not quite like I expected. The demo video shows that edges and faces that are perpendicular to the initial straight reference line will end up perpendicular to the tangent to the curved line at the respective points. The 3D font cases I tested, these edges all remain parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ORIGINAL straight reference line. While this will be OK for relatively modest bend angles, I don't see how this will be useful for large bend angles.

The other case I tried is to bend a simple cylinder. This failed utterly! Instead of following the curve, the bent cylinder has two straight sections with a 90 degree bend connecting them.

I have posted my sketchup file that shows these test cases on my web site:

http://z.gillie.us/gillie/shapebender/bentText.skp

P.S. I posted this a few days ago, and it did not appear, so I posted it again.
Gilligan

August

@gilliganu said:

... The 3D font cases I tested, these edges all remain parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ORIGINAL straight reference line. ...

Hi Gilligan,

I suspect it's an issue of which way your lettering is rotated.

In this example:

Imagine the results if the square bar represents your text and in one case the text is facing upwards and in another the top of the text is up and the face of the text is toward the bottom of the drawing. In one case you would get the results in the video and the other case would be as you describe.

At least, if I understand you properly. My apologies for not having time tonight to download your sample file.

If I'm on track, then maybe this example would take things a step further:

I hope this helps,
August

Whiteowl77

Interesting tool.
I am using this "Shape bender" Tool in order to create Curved 3D Text in SketchUp, that I can wrap around a cylinder, and use for LOGO purposes. Combined with the "Intersect w/ Model" Tool, and Vray and IDX software - this can really do some remarkable stuff.

Glad to help out anybody who gets stuck with this tool or any 3D Modeling Problems!
Andrew Telker, LEED AP, ECO-Designer
http://www.telkerdesign.com

Chris Fullmer

Great Andrew, glad you like the plugin so much. Thanks for the offer to give assistance when people need it. They generally just ask here on the forum, since that is what its here for. So if someone asks a question you feel like you can answer, we're always glad for the help around here. Thanks for the offer,

Chris