Can i draw the whole building structure with code?

[wdbao]

@chrisglasier said:

Just a few points you might like to consider.

Objects are used in JavaScript rather than classes but hierarchies of both are important. So are the hierarchies of whatever you are trying to model. For example, does a wall belong to a room or to a floor? It also could belong to a concrete mix or a structure subcontract; a time period or a submission ... To make your data useful it needs to accept multiple links.

To achieve this in spreadsheets is just too difficult. While in 1989 they became three dimensional with multiple sheets, they never really satisfactorily harboured 3d data. The solution I found was to simply lay down column and row headings side by side in columns. Each column has its own axis; while presented in 2D it actually represents 3D. A column of floor numbers is like a section, an adjacent column of room names like a plan. These columns move so that you can navigate to and manipulate large amounts of data and create as many links and cross links as you need.

Data in spreadsheets can easily be converted into delimited plain text. If you have many you can create a macro to automate it somewhat. What I mean is that because data is in a spreadsheet don't assume the solution is limited to it. Really plain text is king because it is common to all proprietary and open source applications ... and humans!

Input can always be done by non-professionals.

I would suggest you think about a web based application with a Ruby file to work Sketchup.

i have read some document about BIM
and i just read some of webpages about your "namesets"
the whole thing is a little bit hard for me to grasp all at once, considering i am a not a programmer and i just read some fraction of ruby tutorial
but i find your ideas very fascinating
i would definitely look into it

your ideas about BIM is definitely the way for the future
but right now i want to improve my existing work flow in my construction business.
more over i need to come up with sth fast and consolidate myself confident to continue my work and my dream for the future

[chrisglasier]

A simple image to hopefully explain "while presented in 2D it actually represents 3D"

Of course animation is needed to allow columns to open in a 2D space.

[wdbao]

@thomthom said:

If you're starting out SU scripting you might find this sticky post interesting: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=10142

It is a great post
thank you

[wdbao]

I am actually glad you move this into public discussion
if not boring you, i want to introduce myself more for better understanding:
i am one of the only two college graduates in my small company and the other one hate English.
so i am all alone on this.
and i don't really have a lot of free time. Now i just work as a ordinary builder(one of the construction crews ). so a lot of hard labour and working overtime.
But i still have a strong desire to learn new things.
now i just put my original ideas on the table when i have a little free time.
no more thorough thoughts,
cause as times move on, i can never keep up with chris on this discussion.
my original ideas are simply.
i just want to model the whole building(mainly structural parts) with ruby codes.using scripts i can kill all the boring repeated modelling job once in all. Cause the main components in a concrete structure( the main building structure here in china), like reinforced columns, beams and slabs, are very similar in nature. they all follow some regional Coding( we have our Chinese Designing Coding for concrete) which can be totally represent in scripting codes. and then i can get the information which set the particularity of each component in a special project from the design institute( i am looking this at a construction standpoint).For example, a table of column which contain all the information about columns in a project.
so it is all set. all i need to do is write the script which respect the Designing Code once, and make sure the data from design institute are readable for my script.
When i get my model in sketchup for my project. there are three main things i want to do ( Chris, you are right. I really want to "be able to incorporate your research into your day to day work ")
First, I can use this model to detect any problem before construction from the blueprint passed from the design institute. I believe they call it Collision Detection.
Second, I can import this model into Synchro or Virtual Builder for construction Management.
Third, I can use this model to illustrate some construction process.

I had never been involved with complex data in programming or building design which you need " 3D spreadsheets". Chris, sorry that i still can't fully understand your way of handling complex data. why not just more columns? and information about components are not just 3 dimensionals. Just adding the timeline
it will turn into 4D.

i am working in a residential construction site. the structure is simple. so my original idea is to have two different models. One represent the design, one for the building actually constructed. you know for future comparison. and the data of different component are in separate spreadsheet in excel. My starting point is from Piling foundation. I have already have data on spreadsheets which contain the information about the pressed piles, like the actually length, diameter, the date constructed and so on. this is actually a construction record which i asked another college to put it into computer. and i have another file which contain all the coordinate of the piles. originally i use this mainly for surveying and setting out using total station. with this two i think i can construct the piles in sketchup. But i haven't finish the script yet. cause i need to finish my ruby tutorial first and i have some structural analysis to do.
i think i all i need is a csv reader and the code using this data to form the geometry in sketchup.

About the nameset. Chris, i download the file. but i don't think it working properly for me. or it just a hmtl problem of my browser. all i see is sth like Cgscsene which helps me to navigate the scene. i didn't see sth like Figure 3 or Figure 4 in your Essay. Never mind, i have read your essay about nameset.
i believe your main purpose is organize "information that is assembled to direct a physical outcome". I think it's great idea. It really blow my mind. i never think that the information around building can be organize in such a way.
But i think you need to form a whole new workflow to implement your ideas. i have read some articles about BIM. i think all those new solution is really good for different aspects of the design team to better understanding each other and limiting errors. But they haven't form a good workflow. the old paper oriented method did have its merits. Like some other BIM system, your nameset treat all the information as a unity. But in the specific step of the construction process, we just need a fraction of the information. Like in the setting out stage, we just need one or a few paper to set the position. i know we can extract that part of the information. But that would lead us back into the old workflow. what i mean is we need to consider the overall workflow.

[chrisglasier]

Well even for a graduate that was a fine post in English. Actually I met some other Chinese graduates the other night (one came from Foshan btw) who also enjoyed trying out their ideas in English - made me feel very bad only knowing a few words in Cantonese and only two or three in Putonghua. But my main concern is while English is an international language of business, JavaScript is not.

What this means is that many are coming up with simple solutions like "drawing a whole building structure with code" without considering how this links in with other persons' simple solutions. The outcome is an unnecessary complexity of simple solutions. My interest is in finding a way to unite the efforts of all so that the complexity is handled by the computer, with only the required information being presented for the task at hand; this means automation.

My purpose in sending you the current development of namesets was mainly to demonstrate that we can make machines from HTML and JavaScript - compare banks making ATMs to substitute cheques and cashiers. Of course ATMs only deal with money whereas most of us have to deal with a diverse range of objects and their attributes and properties. This is why structuring the information as hierarchies of objects with key/value records is important both for navigation and automation, and I am afraid adding columns in spreadsheets just doesn't come close.

One benefit of such machines is capturing information as close as possible to its source. There need never be ridiculous situations where a designer determines a dimension for a column, draws it in plan and section, sends the drawings to a builder who extracts the information to instruct the setter out. Instead the dimension immediately gets stuck to the column for all to see in whatever format they want to see it. The only change in workflow is omission of duplication. I hope you will like to think about that.

[chrisglasier]

Also for the Ruby part see Automatic Sketchup which is reviewed in this topic.

[chrisglasier]

wdbao, I hope you don't mind my moving our PM discussion here. It just might be of interest to others.

In a PM to me
@wdbao said:

... i hope i can contribute sth to this nice community
but i haven't had much time, most of the time i have to work day and night
believe me ...

Living in Hong Kong and China for many years I certainly believe you!

So I am wondering, in pursuit of the point behind the question in the title, whether you would be better off for the time being just acknowledging that Ruby code can assemble components as a 3D model and concentrate on exploring how to structure data of one of your current projects that will later enable you to so. The same data can be used for buying materials, planning and monitoring progress, instructing labour, supporting payment requests and so on. So you should be able to incorporate your research into your day to day work for the benefit of your business.

As I mentioned in one of my PMs I was responsible for fitting out the Forum Hotel in Shenzhen, China - 750 guestrooms and three floors of public spaces - where I put to the test my previous adventures into using spreadsheets for large quantities of data (particularly on Norman Foster's Hong Kong Bank project). This was in 1988 about a year after Lotus introduced their multi-sheet application (123 v 4.0), which initially I thought would greatly help deal with the three dimensional nature of data. But it didn't; let me explain using a simple example of a concrete column by looking at the hierarchies within the data.

COLUMN > Width, depth, height, x, y, z;
COLUMN > Material, labour, equipment;
COLUMN > Start date, duration
COLUMN - Material > Concrete, rebar, plywood, struts, clamps;
COLUMN - Labour > Steel fixer, carpenter, concretor;

Of course this is just the start (yet to list are suppliers, costs, prices, instances of other columns and on and on). It is like you need to keep turning each list through 90 degs alternatively on the XY, XZ and YZ planes; it just doesn't work; either the data overlays other data on the XY plane or is just too difficult to drill down into the underlying sheets in the Z oriented planes.

What we did on the Forum Hotel was to list everything in one column only adding data to columns to the right to terminate a hierarchy - e.g. width = 300mm. We set up a number of columns on the left of the data for various indexes to allow us to alternatively sort the data into different aspects of the object in question. One aspect was shop drawings (drawn by hand in those days) which now could be the natural output of structured data as a fully supported Sketchup model. And of course all that tedious sorting can now be avoided by animation.

What I realised from our discussion so far was that the menu system I was using for namesets wasn't in line with what I have said. So I have now started to redevelop it. I think the structure is OK for the objects in the nameset itself; it's the backup that assumes devices rather devices being called by the data (or something like that!).

Anyway I think if you would like to start to introduce some of what I have said into your day to day work, hopefully quite soon I can take your data and turn it into a nameset ... and then we can use it to start generating Sketchup models. This should then help you learn Ruby coding.

[minguinhirigue]

wdbao, any improvment in this big project of yours ?

[wdbao]

@chrisglasier said:

Also for the Ruby part see Automatic Sketchup which is reviewed in this topic.

been busy with a lot of stuff
now i am reading the automatic sketchup, since the author make the pdf file public.
it's a really great work.
and only now i truely understand the important of hirarchy chris have told me about.

[wdbao]

@minguinhirigue said:

wdbao, any improvment in this big project of yours ?

progress has been slow
now i still looking for ways to read csv files from inside the ruby script
and make use of the data in csv files

[wdbao]

it seems to me that Sketchup Ruby API don't have the CSV library.
should i just use the File class
or should i add the csv module to it
and how?

[chrisglasier]

@wdbao said:

it seems to me that Sketchup Ruby API don't have the CSV library.
should i just use the File class
or should i add the csv module to it
and how?

I used this to collect data from json files (could be csv text files)...

@dlg.add_action_callback("send") { |d, a|
			nr = Integer(a)
			subDir = "nset/"
			files = ["config","nset","mset","words","numbers"]
			lines = []
			file = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), files[nr] + ".json")
			File.open(file, 'r') do |f1|
				while line = f1.gets  
					lines.push line  
				end
			end 
			array = [nr,lines]
			array = array.join("qq")
			#p array
			script = "rubyReceive('#{array}')";
			d.execute_script(script)

I don't know what you mean by csv library.

[wdbao]

i mean CSV library as one of the Ruby Standard Library
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=29544&start=0&hilit=ruby+library

[Dan Rathbun]

@wdbao said:

i mean CSV library as one of the Ruby Standard Library
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=29544&start=0&hilit=ruby+library

You can add the paths to the full Ruby Library directories, and load from there.
See a script I posted here, tweek it to your system, version etc.
(code) Ruby LOAD PATHs script for (Win32)

You should try to run the same Lib versions as the interpreter that Sketchup loads.
Are you on a Mac/OSX or PC/Win32 ??

[Dan Rathbun]

To talk more about your CSV File question, I thought TIG posted an example here somewhere on the forums.

It's not that hard.
As each line of the file is read ( f = file.readline ) the var contains a string, so you'd use the String method .split and specify the character to split by.
record = f.split(',')
At that point the var record is an Array of String values.

It's up to you if you wish to convert each record to Ruby data, line by line; or just collect an Array of record Arrays, close the file, then do your conversions all at once with a nested loop.

[wdbao]

@dan rathbun said:

To talk more about your CSV File question, I thought TIG posted an example here somewhere on the forums.

It's not that hard.
As each line of the file is read ( f = file.readline ) the var contains a string, so you'd use the String method .split and specify the character to split by.
record = f.split(',')
At that point the var record is an Array of String values.

It's up to you if you wish to convert each record to Ruby data, line by line; or just collect an Array of record Arrays, close the file, then do your conversions all at once with a nested loop.

thanks Dan
it is easy to get the data on csv file this way. or any other files

[Dan Rathbun]

@wdbao said:

thanks Dan
it is easy to get the data on csv file this way. or any other files

Is this a question ??

Do you want examples ??

EDIT: Well, I posted 1 example using Ruby's IO class:
[code] reading a CSV file

[wdbao]

thanks again.
it is not a question.
your help is greatly appreciated.
the example code you posted is good for separating the header.
but i want to parse the data into hash.
then i can access the data in a natural way.

[Dan Rathbun]

@wdbao said:

but i want to parse the data into hash.
then i can access the data in a natural way.

OK posted a second example that outputs record Hashes, same thread.
[code] reading a CSV file

[wdbao]

@dan rathbun said:

@wdbao said:

but i want to parse the data into hash.
then i can access the data in a natural way.

OK posted a second example that outputs record Hashes, same thread.
[code] reading a CSV file

Dan, you are marvellous! this will do.