Adding Cylinders to Sketch

[corbinw]

I am trying to add cylinders to the top of a board programmatically.

I have attached the a graphic of the desired result, the circles would pushpull up 5"

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Corbin

The current script is as follows:

require 'sketchup' 
  UI.menu("PlugIns").add_item("Draw board") {  
  # Call our new method. 
  draw_board
}
def draw_board 
  # Get "handles" to our model and the Entities collection it contains. 
  model = Sketchup.active_model 
  entities = model.entities 
 
  # Create a series of "points", each a 3-item array containing x, y, and z. 
  pt1 = [0, 0, 0] 
  pt2 = [72, 0, 0] 
  pt3 = [72, 42, 0] 
  pt4 = [0, 42, 0] 
   
  # Call methods on the Entities collection to draw stuff. 
  new_face = entities.add_face pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4 
  new_face.pushpull 0.75


     normal_vector = Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,0,1)
     radius = 0.2

(1..10).each { |i|
      # Draw a circles
     center_point = Geom;;Point3d.new(1,i,0)
     edgearray = entities.add_circle center_point, normal_vector, radius
     first_edge = edgearray[0]
     arccurve = first_edge.curve
}

end

---

---

[thomthom]

(1..10).each { |i|
  # Draw a circles
  center_point = Geom;;Point3d.new(1,i,0)
  edgearray = entities.add_circle center_point, normal_vector, radius
  first_edge = edgearray[0]
  # The face will be the one where the outer loop matches the edge array returned by add_circle
  face = first_edge.faces.select { |f| (f.outer_loop.edges & edgearray).length == edgearray.length }.first
  face.pushpull(10)
}

[corbinw]

That is what I needed, thank you ThomThom.

I am creating several thousand of these pegs in different locations on the board,I have noticed a real processing hit.
I read that it would be better to create these objects as components and then add them dynamically? I tried to do a basic example of a component instance and transformation(seems simple with a simple face, but confusing in cylinder)

What am I missing?

  model = Sketchup.active_model 
  entities = model.entities 

  # Create a series of "points", each a 3-item array containing x, y, and z. 
  pt1 = [0, 0, 0] 
  pt2 = [20, 0, 0] 
  pt3 = [20, 20, 0] 
  pt4 = [0, 20, 0] 
   
  # Call methods on the Entities collection to draw stuff. 
  new_face = entities.add_face pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4 
  new_face.pushpull 0.75

  # Draw a circle on the ground plane around the origin. 
  center_point = Geom;;Point3d.new(1,1,0) 
  normal_vector = Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,0,1) 
  radius = 0.3 
 
  entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities    
  edgearray = entities.add_circle center_point, normal_vector, radius 
  first_edge = edgearray[0] 

  face = first_edge.faces.select { |f| (f.outer_loop.edges & edgearray).length == edgearray.length }.first
  
  group = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group
  face.pushpull 3
  face = group.entities.addface face
  comp = group.to_component
    
  transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new([2,1,0])
  componentinstance = entities.add_instance(comp.definition, transformation)

[thomthom]

When adding groups components programmatically you got to think somewhat different from when you model.
When you model you first make the geometry and then group or make a component out of it.

When you program you create the group or component first and then add the geometry directly inside it.

model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.entities

# Create a series of "points", each a 3-item array containing x, y, and z.
pt1 = [0, 0, 0]
pt2 = [20, 0, 0]
pt3 = [20, 20, 0]
pt4 = [0, 20, 0]
 
# Call methods on the Entities collection to draw stuff.
new_face = entities.add_face pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4
new_face.pushpull 0.75

# Draw a circle on the ground plane around the origin.
center_point = Geom;;Point3d.new(1,1,0)
normal_vector = Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,0,1)
radius = 0.3


# Make a new component definition
comp_def = model.definitions.add("Cylinders")
# Generate the geometry. Note that component definitions has and Entities collection - as model does.
edgearray = comp_def.entities.add_circle(center_point, normal_vector, radius)
first_edge = edgearray[0]
face = first_edge.faces.select { |f| (f.outer_loop.edges & edgearray).length == edgearray.length }.first
face.pushpull(3)

# Now add an instance of hte component to the model
transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new([2,1,0])
componentinstance = entities.add_instance(comp_def, transformation)