[Plugin] Exploded Arc Centerpoint Finder UPDATE May 23, 2013

EarthMover

TIG,

Thanks for the response. I'm referring to offset arcs. When you offset an Arc, the result is a simple curve, which looses it's ability to increase segments,find center point from or take a radius dimension pull offs. In my work, I design a lot of radius steps, curved walls, curved walkway & Patios. I often will draw out an Arc, which represents a landing, then I will offset that Arc 5 or 6 times for my steps. By the time I get out the last offset, I may want to increase the segments in my arc as it is looking choppy, but it is not possible at that point. I'll also often delete the initial arc to open up my landing, then I'm left with all simple curves and I have no ability to find the center point, unless I explode a curve, use Chris's script, then reweld, but still it is not an Arc. I also tend to have trouble getting the weld ruby to work on certain exploded curves, and instead of welding, it will decimate it into more segments. The other thing is dimensioning. Only with an Arc can you use the dimension tool to get a quick radial dimension. If you try and get a dimension on a offset curve, it will just measure one of the segments and not the whole curve. This is where a conversion tool would be useful.

I noticed also, that when you have an Arc that is part of a face and extruded, it's extruded counterpart maintains it's Arc status, but both the initial Arc and the extruded Arc lose their ability to have to the segments changed, for obvious reasons. This would be important for trying to convert Curves to Arcs in 3D space, as the newly created Arc would have be locked similarly. The gain from converting a curve to an arc in 3D space would be solely the ability to pull radial dimensions and also to find center point. Unless someone wrote a script that would allow for selecting two arc counterparts in an extrusion and simultaneously increasing the segments in 3D after a curve to Arc conversion.

EDIT - I just looked at the link you posted. Sounds like my latter request was addressed in that post and not possible. Oh well then.

Arc Curve.jpg

Arc Counterpart example.jpg

RunnerPack

Hey, EarthMover,

It was my request on this Google Group post that (partially?) inspired Chris F. to make his plugin. Using his idea from that discussion, I made code to find the center-point of two Edges... which I promply discarded when he made his implementation that didn't look like a train-wreck

So, I took his code (without permission; sorry, Chris! ) and made my own tool with a different interface (context menu) that I think adds (some of) the functionality you want. Since you probably wouldn't find it otherwise, here is the thread where I attached mine.

The readme header in the file also explains how other coders can use the new methods for finding the center of a Curve or of any two Edges. I also wanted to add a radius method and the "convert Curve to ArcCurve" function discussed above, but they're still on the todo list. BTW, my plugin also works on Circles and Polygons.

c.plassais

Hi Chris,
Arc Centerpoint Finder translated into French and the attached link http://biblio3d.1fr1.net/plug-in-sketchup-f19/plugin-arc-centerpoint-finder-en-francais-retrouver-le-point-central-d-un-arc-t448.htm#3004

at the next

Christophe

Chris Fullmer

Great, thanks Christophe! I've updated the first post to also include a link to the French version.

Chris

jeff hammond

@chris fullmer said:

Name: Arc Centerpoint Finder
Version: v1.0

wow! nice one.
perfect little timesaver.
thank you

thomthom

There's a wee bug. It adds the CPoint in model.entities instead of model.active_entities - so if you use this inside a group/component it's not added to the correct context.

Panga

Chris, you're a mind reader...I was looking for this function for a long time. Thanks for your help in our sketchup's lives !!

Chris Fullmer

@thomthom said:

There's a wee bug. It adds the CPoint in model.entities instead of model.active_entities - so if you use this inside a group/component it's not added to the correct context.

Oh darn, there was a little while there where I think I forgot about .active_entities and just added everything to the .entities collection. I'll fix it and get it uploaded later today,

Chris

Chris Fullmer

ok, now updated so that when it is used in group/component edit mode, it will add the construction point inside the group that is being edited. Thanks for pointing that out Thom.

So re-download it from the first post in the thread.

Chris

thomthom

August

Thanks Chris,

I found this to be a very readable script for learning a little more Ruby. It's pretty clear from context what it's doing as far as finding a perpendicular direction, creating a temporary "z" from the original two edges, etc. I assume the ".cross" function is the Cross-product from vector algebra, which I vaguely remember, but I'll have to look up what that actually is and why it's called "cross".

Thanks again,
August

kostas_designer

i know it may seem stupid, but why can't i see the context "point at center" menu when i right-click on an arc?

Chris Fullmer

You have to first enable the sketchup ruby script examples from Window > Preferences > Extensions > Ruyb Script Examples (or might be the one called Utilities tools). Enable them both, then you should get the point at center option.

Chris

jeff hammond

@chris fullmer said:

You have to first enable the sketchup ruby script examples from Window > Preferences > Extensions > Ruyb Script Examples (or might be the one called Utilities tools). Enable them both, then you should get the point at center option.

Chris

ha!
i never knew this function came with SU.. i've been using jim f's arc_centerpoint.rb for a couple of years now.

Jim

Hehe, and I wrote that before I realized Point at Center came with SketchUp!

kostas_designer

@unknownuser said:

@chris fullmer said:

You have to first enable the sketchup ruby script examples from Window > Preferences > Extensions > Ruyb Script Examples (or might be the one called Utilities tools). Enable them both, then you should get the point at center option.

Chris

ha!
i never knew this function came with SU.. i've been using jim f's arc_centerpoint.rb for a couple of years now.

Me too, seems that the ways of SU are infinite!

Thanks for the tip, Chris.

boofredlay

I just wanted to thank you again for this Chris. It is a very useful tool.

Chris Fullmer

Oh good, glad its helpful!

Chris

baz

Great tool, thanks Chris.
baz

watkins

Dear Chris,

I made a request a little time ago for an icon to go with this script. I use your centrepoint finder so often that an icon would be very useful (and yes, TIG, I know I could assign a shortcut...)

Many thanks,

Bob