[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

mjsnyder80

That did the trick. Thank you very much. And by the way, this is an awesome plugin. Nice work, and thanks again.

Mike

darkhelmet

I've almost given up. Ran Ruby console while trying to use this plugin and this is what i got:

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method all_connected' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files (x86)/SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb:307:in line_picker'
C:/Program Files (x86)/SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb:239:in `onLButtonUp'
C:/Program Files (x86)/SketchUp 7/Plugins/clf_shape_bender/clf_shape_bender.rb:307

WIN7 64bit

Chris Fullmer

Hmm, do you have component spray installed? If so, please update. There was a version that was around for a while that caused problems.

If that does not work, please verify that you have the files in the right places. In the plugins folder you should have a file called clf_shape_bender_loader.rb and a folder called clf_shape_bender. All other shape bender files (another .rb file and a bunch of icons) should go inside the clf_shape_bender folder.

So I guess verify those two things. If you do have the most current version of component spray instlled (please actually do re-download and install it again) and you do have your file structure set up correctly, then come back and we'll keep trying things.

Chris

yna

im having problems with the plug in. in the video after i click both the curved line and the straight line the red highlight appeared but the green diddnt and when i pressed enter, nothing happened. what did i do wrong? please help me

Chris Fullmer

The red and green highlight will not always appear at the same time. So if you get the red highlight, then you're doing pretty good - better than most who have initial problems with the script.

It could be that the thing you are trying to bend is too complex. Test it with a simple box or something. That should bend instantly. If that works, then you might just need more patience. If the box does not work, and it still hangs on the red/green highlight, then there might be bigger problems. If that is the case, please open the Ruby console (from the Windows menu). Then try running the plugin. It will probably write errors to the ruby console. Please copy and paste ALL of those errors back here. I'll dig through them and see what I can see. Thanks,

Chris

yna

i tried using it with a less complex shape and it did work. thank you. amazing plugin!!

Chris Fullmer

Great! Now it should also work with complex groups. It just might take more time. I've run some shapes that took 3 hours to bend (it was a fairly detailed corvette model). So once you know its working, you can start experiemneting with more complex shapes. Kust let it run until its done.

Thanks for trying the plugin,

Chris

charly2008

Hi Chris,

i have a Question. How can i control to get a exact Half circle. Please have look at the Image below. Thanks in advance.

Charly

Half Pipe.skp

charly2008

Sorry,

the problem is solved. There was a difference in the length between the model and the line.

Charly

THX-1138

Love this, though it's grovelling over my screw threads.

One thing, though. My desktop lost power during the final stage (after pressing 'enter'), and when I restarted Sketchup I chose to recover from the last autosave. Unfortunately, the shape-bending context didn't save gracefully (shape to bend had weird alterations, there were multiple 'start'/'end' markers, etc.) and I had to throw things out and re-load from the last manual save.

I don't know if SU provides a mechanism for plugins to be notified when a save is about to happen, but if so I think there's room for some fixes there.

How often do you lose power, though..

Chris Fullmer

Hehe, sorry about that. That is the unfortunate nature of plugins. And this one in particular is doing a LOT of stuff behind the scenes. If it gets interupted in the middle of processing, crazy things happen. Normally one can just undo them, but if power is lost simultaneously, that can cause trouble.

Hope you were able to get your file up and running again.

Chris

atelierpaar

Hi Chris,
I just came across your shapebender-tool.
It works great - so I thought i might try If the things would also work on Reverse - Why this ?
Well, I got a historic church here that has curved Walls with curved Windows.
In order to renew the Windows frameconstruction, I am planing to take a 3D Laserscan of the exsisting construction, than reconstruct the Windowframing using the point-Cloud. Once that is done, It would be of great help to stretch the curved Geometry onto a Flat plane in order to produce the Frameparts by use of a Lasercutter.

Do You think that would be possible?
Uli

charly2008

Hi Chris,

I was not sure whether I have the latest version, I installed the plugin again (Sketchup 7.1.6087). The file structure is as it should be. The compo_spray I removed, but did not help. Before I had no problem with the plugin as you can see in the post above. Now I get this error message.

Charly

TIG

The error message seems to relate to a missing 'menu' definition, that then can't have an 'item' added to it.
Can you type the following in turn into the Ruby Console, and post the results...

$submenu
then
$clf_tools_menu
then
$clf_youtube_menu

This should then tell us what's missing/malfunctioning...

Chris Fullmer

@atelierpaar said:

Hi Chris,
I just came across your shapebender-tool.
It works great - so I thought i might try If the things would also work on Reverse - Why this ?
Well, I got a historic church here that has curved Walls with curved Windows.
In order to renew the Windows frameconstruction, I am planing to take a 3D Laserscan of the exsisting construction, than reconstruct the Windowframing using the point-Cloud. Once that is done, It would be of great help to stretch the curved Geometry onto a Flat plane in order to produce the Frameparts by use of a Lasercutter.

Do You think that would be possible?
Uli

Hi Uli, that would be interseting, but at this point, the script does not do that. I'm not sure if there is some way you could make it do that with by bending to an arc that is exactly opposite of the original curve. That might be possible. But for now, the script was not built to do that natively. Sorry, but good luck.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

@Charly, that is odd. Do what TIG shows there. You might even just try re-downloading and installing it again. Perhaps the file itself got messed up.

charly2008

Hi Chris, hi TIG,

I have only just come home. Here's the result:

TIG

So it's returning nil because you don't have RickW's Smustard menu added - OK and shouldn't cause aprobelm...
You do have the clf's tools menu loaded - Good.
BUT you don't have clf's youtube menu loading... Strange...
This could be the problem - it loads from clf's component_stringer / camera_recorder / shape_bender / voodoo_importer
Try checking you have those...

Chris

charly2008

I'm a little bit confused. That are all the Plugins i have in a PDF-File.

Charly

DirPrintOK Document 8 Seite(n).pdf

TIG

So... Chris's tools fall over because one of them hasn't already loaded 'some other menu' when it thinks it has...
Here's a [possible] simple fix... put it into the correct sub-folder...
clf_shape_bender.rb
Chris can sort it 'properly' later...