Suggestion for new plugin
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Chris Fullmer's latest plugin --Extrapolate Colors-- gave me an idea for another one.
very often in my design work i create louvered facades. in presenting them it would be nice to be able to show the louvers in different states of opening so that the elevation has some variety and some resemblance to a building in real use (see the image attached). to do this one would have to create several instances of a component: one closed, one open and a couple in between. so far so good. the problem arises when one has to arrange them on the facade. putting them one by one to create some randomness would be tedious, especially for a large facade.
my suggestion is that you create a script to automate it. one could fill the facade with the same component, perhaps putting one sample of each alternative at the bottom. then the script would take over and distribute all the variations randomly throughout the facade.
does it make any sense to any of you?
best regards,
edson
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Edson, I like it. Maybe it could start with a proxy component such as a rectangle laid out in a grid so the spacing is as desired or with any other spacing. Then you could select them, start the Random Component Replace plugin, select the range of components from a list and click OK. Proper setup would include making sure the component axes are in the same place in both the proxy component and the other components so they'd be aligned correctly.
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If I understand correctly, this is what DC's could do easily.
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Could a DC be made that randomly sets the openness of the louvers?
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Yes, it would be fairly easy. I'll have a quick go
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Here you go, just use the interact tool to change the openess.
p.s. i assumed openess means changing the angle of the individual slats, not sure if thats right...
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Yeah, that's what I mean.
Funnily, I kept "fingering" it and it didn't always changed the angle. I guess that's how the code works in this particular one - sometimes the same random number comes in as it was before.
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@remus said:
Here you go, just use the interact tool to change the openess.
p.s. i assumed openess means changing the angle of the individual slats, not sure if thats right...
yes, remus. but this does not introduce the element of randomness that is needed emulate real life (in a real building the configuration of louvers would be different from one day to the next).
what i am suggesting is a plugin that changes the openness of the louvers randomly.
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Ohh, sorry Edson, I never did get back to you on this. I started working on it, and even got something working. But got busy with moving.
I also was thinking a DC would work. You can use random numbers in DC's too. So a single OnClick could genereate a random number between 0 and 180 and that would be the amount of rotation given the louvre's. I was putting together a video tutorial to give to you on how to make the DC's.
Maybe if I get a chance here soon, I'll upload it to this thread.
Chris
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@edson said:
yes, remus. but this does not introduce the element of randomness that is needed emulate real life (in a real building the configuration of louvers would be different from one day to the next).
what i am suggesting is a plugin that changes the openness of the louvers randomly.
It is random though
It shuffles randomly between 3 states of openness. Judging by your reply this is not how it works in reality, but i think its still possible to do what you want with a DC.edit: a revised version of the first DC which changes the openess by degrees rather than larger increments.
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@chrisglasier said:
Dear Edson
I hope you don't mind my using your suggestion to illustrate my view that plugins should be considered in two categories...
My apologises for "bending" your topic,Chris
no problem, chris. we all benefit from these discussions.
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Dear Edson
I hope you don't mind my using your suggestion to illustrate my view that plugins should be considered in two categories:
So in the case of your louvres it would seem close to reality to use dressing plugins to create an individual component but unworldly to create separate components with different rotations. The component is the same, only its assembly differs.
So here I would recommend using a webdialog machine to assemble each louvre and determine its rotation. JavaScript has a ready-made random number generator (Math.random()), but the rotation might better be determined by sun position, or wind direction/air flow for cooling plant and so on. Louvres could also be grouped in sets whilst still retaining their individuality (no exploding of groups required) and all could be animated including delivery, hoisting, unpacking, installation, testing and use.
Now all of this is unlikely to be of anything but passing interest to the Sketchup modeler but as the webdialog machine records are in comma separated plain text, other machines designed for different purposes can add their output over the Net and help compile comprehensive data. All (authorised) can see the results.
This seems well and good but the main stumbling block is the difficulty in establishing a single standard for the interaction of webdialogs with PCs and Macs. I am not suggesting this should be attempted in this topic, but if what I suggest helps to build a consensus for a dedicated webdialog forum, then I think this would greatly help the development of this important aspect of Sketchup use.
My apologises for "bending" your topic,
Chris
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