Adding child group while parent group is active
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We are having some problems getting the transformation correct when adding a child group to a parent group when that parent group is active. If the parent group isn't active then it works fine.
Has anyone else had this problem. Details and technique to duplicate are below.
Our workflow is that the user adds child groups to a parent group while the parent is open. The script below shows my problem, you have to enter it line by line in the ruby console because there are steps (Steps A and B) where you have to click around to change the current active group. I have tried calling make unique on both groups to no avail and can’t even do a work around of setting the child’s transformation to the parent’s inverse transformation because when I try to get the parent’s transformation it comes back as identity. I would really appreciate any help in finding a work around for this, I don’t want to have to go to components instead of groups unless I really have to.
Script is below:
# clear everything out Sketchup.active_model.entities.clear! # add the parent group group1 = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group # didn’t work # group1.make_unique # set parent’s transformation group1.transformation = Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Point3d.new(10.m, 0, 0)) # add some points to the parent group group1.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(0.m, 0.m, 0.m)) group1.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(5.m, 5.m, 3.m)) # the parent group’s transformation shows the correct translation puts group1.transformation.to_a.join(', ') # step A) double click group1 to open it # parent’s transformation now shows as identity? puts group1.transformation.to_a.join(', ') # add the child group group2 = group1.entities.add_group # didn’t work # group2.make_unique # we want the child group’s axes to be the same as the parent group’s axes, unfortunately this seems to put it at the absolute origin group2.transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new # add some points to the child group group2.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(0.m, 0.m, 1.m)) group2.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(5.m, 5.m, 4.m)) # step B) exit out of all groups to top level model # the parent group’s transformation is correct puts group1.transformation.to_a.join(', ') # the child group has a negative translation to bring it back to the origin? Why? puts group2.transformation.to_a.join(', ') # this will put group2 where it is supposed to be group2.transformation = Geom;;Transformation.new # group transformations are now correct puts group1.transformation.to_a.join(', ') puts group2.transformation.to_a.join(', ') -
@unknownuser said:
Returns the transformation of the current component edit session. If a user has double-clicked to edit a component's geometry, this will return the transformation of that component, relative to its parent's origin. This allows one to correctly calculate "local" transformations of a given entity regardless of whether the user is in edit mode.
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#edit_transformHave you looked into that method? SU7+ though.
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Thanks ThomThom, do you have any information explaining edit_transform in more detail? In my case I have group1 with group2 inside of it. I sort of understand what this does when the active_path is '[group1]'. However, what happens when the active path is '[group1, group2]'? What I'm really after is some documentation like:
when active_path is '[]', group1.transformation returns xxx, group2.transformation returns yyy, active_model.edit_transform returns zzz
when active_path is '[group1]', group1.transformation returns xxx, group2.transformation returns yyy, active_model.edit_transform returns zzz
when active_path is '[group1, group2]', group1.transformation returns xxx, group2.transformation returns yyy, active_model.edit_transform returns zzz -
If I remember correctly, when a group/component is open for editing SU will transform the coordinates inside the active context into global coordinates. With model.edit_transform you can convert the coordinates you get while editing back into local coordinates.
You also have model.active_path http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/model.html#active_path with give you access to the current edit path.
I can't remember exactly how it worked - I'm sure someone else will chime in.
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I guess a simple question is which component are you editing when you are editing group2 inside of group1? Are you editing group2, group1, or both?
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@davidboulder said:
...I don’t want to have to go to components instead of groups unless I really have to.
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to use groups instead of components? I've been trying to set some standards for my own workflow of when to use a group vs. a component (beyond the obvious of having multiple instances of the same entity, or needing the internal reference axis of components).
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@danbig said:
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to use groups instead of components? I've been trying to set some standards for my own workflow of when to use a group vs. a component (beyond the obvious of having multiple instances of the same entity, or needing the internal reference axis of components).
Groups don't add entries in the Component Browser. The comp list quickly grows in a project, so unless I know I will need multiple instances of an object I create groups.
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What about being able to change the internal axis of a component? It seems like this changes the orientation of the bounding box as well. Does this have any consequence on your workflow?
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@danbig said:
What about being able to change the internal axis of a component? It seems like this changes the orientation of the bounding box as well. Does this have any consequence on your workflow?
Never trust the API docs.
Also check out the comments at the bottom of the page. -
Well I guess I will have to get off my butt and post the answer to my own question:
# clear everything out Sketchup.active_model.entities.clear! # add the parent group group1 = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group # set parent’s transformation group1.transformation = Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Point3d.new(10.m, 0, 0)) # add some points to the parent group group1.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(0.m, 0.m, 0.m)) group1.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(5.m, 5.m, 3.m)) # add the child group group2 = group1.entities.add_group # set child’s transformation group2.transformation = Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Point3d.new(0, 10.m, 0)) # add some points to the child group group2.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(0.m, 0.m, 0.m)) group2.entities.add_cpoint(Geom;;Point3d.new(5.m, 5.m, 3.m)) # group transformations are now correct puts Sketchup.active_model.active_path puts group1.transformation.to_a.join(', ') puts group2.transformation.to_a.join(', ') puts Sketchup.active_model.edit_transform.to_a.join(', ') # from top level active_path = nil group1.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 393.700787401575, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] group2.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 393.700787401575, 0.0, 1.0] edit_transform = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] # open group1 active_path = [group1] group1.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] group2.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 393.700787401575, 393.700787401575, 0.0, 1.0] edit_transform = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 393.700787401575, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] # open group2 active_path = [group1, group2] group1.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] group2.transformation = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0] edit_transform = [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 393.700787401575, 393.700787401575, 0.0, 1.0]
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