SU7.1 OSX camera aspect ratio vs. export 2D

JD Hill

Apparently, having a custom aspect ratio set on the camera will cause 2D rendering to randomly print portions of the 'grey box' overlays on the output image. This seems only to happen on OSX (tested here on OSX Snow Leopard, SU Pro 7.1.4870).

Repro steps:

start SU
open ruby console
type 'Sketchup.active_model.active_view.camera.aspect_ratio=1.5'
hit enter
unless the viewport is exactly 1.5:1, you should see gray bars on two edges
go to File > Export > 2D Graphic > JPG, PNG, TIFF

At lower resolutions (i.e. 400px or so), all seems to be well. Go larger, however, and the gray bars that indicate the camera aspect ratio are printed in random patches over the output image.

jeff hammond

i use the 'reset camera' feature in skindigo to avoid this upon a 2d export but you could also use rickw's script found here:

http://www.smustard.com/script/fixAspectRatio

if you need to export 2d views at a certain aspect ratio, try doing it via pixel size (1500x1000 for 1.5:1 etc..).. you can use the black bars to visualize the ratio but make sure to get rid of them prior to exporting.. if you do the math right for pixel ratio/aspect ratio, the exported 2D image will exactly match what you see in the SU window with the camera bars (as i do this sometimes for overlaying a 2Djpg from SU onto a render and never had a problem with mismatched ratios)

not sure if this is a bug or not but these are the workarounds i use.

red_shift

Either I am not using it correctly or the Fix aspect ratio ruby doesn't fix the issue with the random gray blocks/bars showing up on the exported images. If I use the Maxwell plugin to show me the camera view in SU, I am unable then to export images from SU without the gray blocks/bars whether I use Fix Aspect Ratio or not.

JD Hill

@unknownuser said:

not sure if this is a bug or not...

I'm guessing that it is:

As red_shift says, it becomes a problem when using the Maxwell plugin because the plugin relies on the SU camera's aspect_ratio to allow the user to see how the film size they are using in their Maxwell camera will affect their rendered output.

That's how this affects Maxwell users -- however, it is not Maxwell-specific; any script or plugin which relies on SU's Camera::aspect_ratio= method to accomplish its goal will bump into this issue.

Gaieus

Lately I use Twilight Render and its previous version also put these grey bars onto the screen when I set a render output other than my native SU window was. But then - with a press of a button - I could get rid of them.

True that it currently only works on Windows (and I also use XP) so it is just farther related. For me, the fix aspect ratio has always worked when I encountered such an issue (true that a bunch of plugins can cause this) however I have never used Maxwell.

red_shift

Do we have anyone else on a Mac that could perhaps shed some light on this problem? It greatly restricts my ability to overlay Sketchup output on Maxwell renders.

thomthom

@red_shift said:

Either I am not using it correctly or the Fix aspect ratio ruby doesn't fix the issue with the random gray blocks/bars showing up on the exported images. If I use the Maxwell plugin to show me the camera view in SU, I am unable then to export images from SU without the gray blocks/bars whether I use Fix Aspect Ratio or not.

After you used Fix Aspect Ratio - so the gray bars isn't visible in SU - they still export?

My V-Ray Toys plugins has a function that exports from SU an image of only what's between the grey bars.

thomthom

hmm.... it was never tested for OSX... VfSU is PC only so I never tested compatibility....

red_shift

Yes..after Fixaspectratio bars are not visible, but what exports can be a variety of bars placed all over the image, as in post from JDhill.

jeff hammond

yeah, i just tried exporting a jpg after using fixaspectratio and it's still messed up..

[edit] oh wait -- it does work.. earlier, i exported a messed up version then used 'fix aspect ratio' prior to exporting again using the same file name (overwriting).. the thumbnail still showed the bars but the actual file is ok.. if i don't overwrite a previously messed up file then the thumbnail appears correctly as well.

so yeah, clear the black bars prior to exporting using fixaspectratio.rb ...it will be placed in the camera menu titled 'Reset Aspect Ratio'.

i also just tried thomthom's vray toys and it worked too (on a mac)

[previous post continues here----]
like i said earlier, i use skindigo's fix camera feature and it works fine.. it might be kinda weird to use skindigo for this feature alone but that's the only workaround i know of at the moment..

you'd need to install the free version of indigo from here: [i think.. i'm not sure if skindigo will load without having indigo on the machine but you can try only skindigo first if you want]
http://www.indigorenderer.com/download

you can download the mac skindigo installer from this page:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/documentation/sketchup

of course, you could also put in a request to get this as a standalone ruby.. whaat obviously knows how to fix this but as far as i know, he's only published this feature in the full skindigo package..

jeff hammond

@jd hill said:

@unknownuser said:

not sure if this is a bug or not...

I'm guessing that it is:

[attachment=0:2xaaoj67]su_output.jpg[/attachment:2xaaoj67]

right, i know that 2D exports get screwy after the aspect ratio changes.. i was just saying i'm not sure if it qualifies as a SU bug since it's always ruby activated and not native SU..

red_shift

Do you expect Twilight will have this issue if it ports to the Mac?

jeff hammond

@red_shift said:

Do you expect Twilight will have this issue if it ports to the Mac?

i'm sure it will.. anything that changes the camera aspect ratio will do this.. as far as right now, the plugin writers for these external apps should probably offer an option to reset the camera.. fwiw, i think it's very simple to implement

yet another way to fix this is using the same line from JD's original post:

@unknownuser said:

open ruby console

type 'Sketchup.active_model.active_view.camera.aspect_ratio=1.5'

hit enter

execpt.. enter 0.0 as the ratio.. that will reset the camera to it's default and the jpg export will be okay.

so that's 4 ways listed in the thread to take care of the issue. are you still unable to export a proper jpg after changing the aspect ratio?

Gaieus

Twilight used to have these grey bars (along with an easy way to reset the camera9 but in the latest version, it was replaced by a more advanced feature (where you can move and target a red, frame-like net of lines that indicate the render window).

red_shift

The last solution (typing 'Sketchup.active_model.active_view.camera.aspect_ratio=0.0' into Ruby console is a workaround that seems to work, although overlaying SU output over the render requires some tweaking, it's good enough for now. Thanks.

jeff hammond

@red_shift said:

The last solution (typing 'Sketchup.active_model.active_view.camera.aspect_ratio=0.0' into Ruby console is a workarond that seems to work, although overlaying SU output over the render requires some tweaking, it's good enough for now. Thanks.

yeah, that's why I like the skindigo method. It doesn't rezoom the window upon clearing the bars so it's a lot easier to export for overlays because the prerender and 2D jpg are identical.
Whatever whaat did for skindigo could be made as a stand alone ruby but I personally don't have a clue how to write a plugin.

thomthom

"rezoom"?

red_shift

Well, I tried to add the skindigo render plugin, got the following message on SU startup

Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/SkIndigo.rb:1887: parse error, unexpected ',', expecting kEND
Sketchup::set_status_text ("Focus Distance"), SB_VCB_LABEL

May I scream now?

jeff hammond

@thomthom said:

"rezoom"?

This would be a lot easier to explain eith a video but I'm not set up for that right now so....

With skindigo, the grey bars simply disappear when using the reset camera feature.
With the other methods, this doesn't happen. The space between the bars become the outer edges of the SU window upon fixing the aspect ratio hence zooming. If you were to change the aspect ratio then fix it a few times in a row, this 'rezooming' would be even more noticeable.

[EDIT] oops
i got a chance to use a computer and i have the above explanation backwards.. the zooming happens with the "Sketchup.active_model.active_view.camera.aspect_ratio=1.5" method then setting it to 0.0 unzooms it.. (re my last sentence: you can't keep zooming in on the drawing like i described)..
regardless, with skindigo, the model stays put and no zooming/unzooming occurs.

thomthom

Ah yea, I've noticed that when you set camera's aspect ratio to be greater than the aspect ratio of the SU viewport, the camera zooms, or shifts. I've reported this as a bug in SU.

With VfSU, I found that setting the V-Ray camera's zoom ratio to be the same as the SU vewport ratio - then the output matches. Odd - but works.

But the camera doesn't shift if you set the aspect ratio to be less than the viewport ratio. If you set it to 1.0 for instance.

What I wonder SKindigo do is that it might not properly reset the aspect ratio - but instead matches the camera aspect ratio tot he SU viewport ratio. After you use SKindigo to reset, what happens if you resize the SU window?