Entering components

ben.doherty

Hi, This seems really simple, so hopefully it is!

I want to loop through all the instances of a component in a model, then loop through it's entities and find a face that has a special material (lets say kryptonite).

From looking at the API it seems that Groups have a .entities, but ComponentInstances don't.

Any hints on how is it done?

Back story *(ignore this if you aren't too bothered about the application of this)*I'm analysing an appartment block. There are 8 or so appartment types, each is placed and named according to it's position, so one might be 'floor 5 appt 7'. There is a critical window that I need to test using the method outlined in the Taking pictures with cameras thread.

My plan so far is to take a copy of each face and put it onto a layer, run the test for each window, and then delete them all. Essentially leaving the model untouched.

ben.doherty

I've actually cracked this. I found an old thread that explained it. I'll post it up in a bit when I finish it

thomthom

@ben.doherty said:

From looking at the API it seems that Groups have a .entities, but ComponentInstances don't.

Any hints on how is it done?

With ComponentInstances you need to access its ComponentDefinition - that has .entities.

Btw, Groups and Images also have definitions, you iterate them when you iterate model.definitions. Which is why ComponentDefinition has .group? and .Image?

ben.doherty

So here's the solution I came to. I'm sure that there are better ways to do this, but this was quick, and it worked. I suppose in the future adding a method to the vector class instead of making an instance method would be neater etc.

[as I see it] Feature instances can't be entered, but their definitions can be. That means that you can find the face that you need to access, but it'll be at the origin. the Instance does have a transform, so if you apply that transform to the new object then you can make it be in the same place as the instance.
But wait! you can't transform a face, but you can transform a group, so just throw the face into a group and transform that.

Any raises on that? it doesn't seem too elegant, but it does the job.

#module Voyeur
#module FaceMaker

if( not file_loaded?("makeTheFaces.rb") )

    # This will add a separator to the menu, but only once
    add_separator_to_menu("Voyeur")
    
    plugins_menu = UI.menu("Plugins")
    voyeur_menu = plugins_menu.add_submenu("Voyeur")
    voyeur_menu.add_item("make analysis faces") { makeAnalysisFaces }
end

  def toP3d(vec)
    return Geom;;Point3d.new(vec.x,vec.y,vec.z)
  end
  
  def vertToVec(aVertex)
    unless aVertex == nil
      pos = aVertex.position
      theVec = Geom;;Vector3d.new(pos.x,pos.y,pos.z)
      return theVec 
    end
  end
  def scaleVec(vec,scalar)
    return Geom;;Vector3d.new(vec.x * scalar, vec.y * scalar, vec.z * scalar)
  end
  
  def makeAnalysisFaces
    
    mod = Sketchup.active_model
    ent = mod.entities
    sel = mod.selection
    
    analysisLayer = mod.layers.add 'analysis'
    
    ent.each{ |e|
      if e.is_a? Sketchup;;ComponentInstance
        e.definition.entities.each { |newE|
          if ((newE.is_a? Sketchup;;Face) and (newE.material != nil))
            #puts newE.material.name
            verts  = newE.vertices
            normal = Geom;;Vector3d.new(newE.normal).normalize
            offsetFactor = 3000.mm
            offset = scaleVec(normal, offsetFactor)
            newPoints = []
            for i in (0...verts.length)
              pvec = vertToVec(verts[i])
              newPoints[i] = toP3d(pvec + offset)
              #ent.add_cpoint newPoints[i]
            end
            tempGroup = ent.add_group
            face = tempGroup.entities.add_face newPoints
            #puts "#{e.name}'s transform matrix"
            #puts e.transformation.to_a
            tempGroup.transformation = e.transformation
            tempGroup.set_attribute "analysisInfo", "apptType",   e.definition.name
            tempGroup.set_attribute "analysisInfo", "apptNumber", e.name
            tempGroup.layer = analysisLayer 
          end       #if newE.is_a? Sketchup;;Face
         }          #e.definition.entities.each
      end           #if e.is_a
    }               #ent.each
  end               #makeAnalysisFaces
#end
#end

I am having lots of trouble with modules though, if I ask the ruby console for Voyeur::FaceMaker::instance_methods it gives me back a list of the methods as I'd expect, but if I say Voyeur::FaceMaker.makeAnalysisFaces it throws a #<NoMethodError.... any idea how to fix that? Currently I've just taken the module stuff out, which seems like bad karma.

Dan Rathbun

I also think you missed the Geom::Point3d.offset method


            for i in (0...verts.length)
              pvec = vertToVec(verts[i])
              newPoints[i] = toP3d(pvec + offset)
              #ent.add_cpoint newPoints[i]
            end

can become:


            for i in (0...verts.length)
              newPoints[i] = verts[i].position.offset( scaleVec )
              #ent.add_cpoint newPoints[i]
            end

Dan Rathbun

@ben.doherty said:

I suppose in the future adding a method to the vector class instead of making an instance method would be neater etc.


>   def toP3d(vec)
>     return Geom;;Point3d.new(vec.x,vec.y,vec.z)
>   end
>

Done already (in a way.)
See the API method: Geom::Vector3d#to_a

Also do not overlook (it's easy; the online API is not organized at that well,) that the API extended the Ruby baseclass Array to be compatible with both Geom::Vector3d and Geom::Point3d classes.
See, (API left nav) Base Classes: Array

What the API does NOT explain well (and you won't know unless you read the API topic thread,) is:

Geom::Point3d.new( *args )
*args can accept an Array argument or literal as the 1st arg (the rest are then ignored.)
Ex:
Geom::Point3d.new( [1,2,3 )]
Geom::Point3d.new( vec.to_a )

Geom::Vector3d.new( *args )
*args can accept an Array argument or literal as the 1st arg (the rest are then ignored.)
Ex:
Geom::Vector3d.new( [1,2,3 )]
Geom::Vector3d.new( pt.to_a )

Neither class can directly accept each other as arguments; you must use the .to_a method on the argument.

So to convert Vertex to Vector3d, is simply:
Geom::Vector3d.new( vertex.position.to_a )

In addition to scale a vector, you can use:
vector.length=vector.length*scaler
or use the vector.transform! method:
vector.transform! Geom::Transformation.scaling(scalar)

For a new scaled vector:
vector2=vector1.clone
vector2.length=vector1.length*scaler
or use the vector.transform method:
vector2=vector1.transform Geom::Transformation.scaling(scalar)

Dan Rathbun

@ben.doherty said:

I am having lots of trouble with modules though, if I ask the ruby console for Voyeur::FaceMaker::instance_methods it gives me back a list of the methods as I'd expect, but if I say Voyeur::FaceMaker.makeAnalysisFaces it throws a #<NoMethodError.... any idea how to fix that?

moved to it's OWN topic thread, so folks can find it easier:

See: [info] Using Ruby Modules