[Plugin] bim-tools 0.13.4(june 22, 2015)

brewsky

when starting sketchup after installing BIM tools I get an error:
Error Loading File C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/bim-tools/clsBtEntity.rb undefined local variable or method `' for main:Object

Too bad that I can't reproduce the error, and I don't really understand it either.
It seems that it tries to load an unnamed method for the main ruby object.
Is there anyone who can give me any tips on troubleshooting this?

I learned a thing or two about better usage of "modules".
I'm currently implementing this, I hope it will fix this error too.

TIG

Do a find in your .rb files' code for a loose `
Perhaps someone open the .rb in a wordprocessor and added formating to the text

brewsky

@tig said:

Do a find in your .rb files' code for a loose `
Perhaps someone open the .rb in a wordprocessor and added formating to the text

While searching for a loose ` with grep, grep showed some strange characters before the first character of the script in the file mentioned in the error. I checked the formatting, and this file seems to be the only one encoded in UTF-8 with BOM(some microsoft addition to UTF-8: "Byte Order Mark"), while the others are without BOM. Could this explain the error?

I have not yet found a loose `, but I will also check the rest of the files.

I found that the "normal" ruby error is something like "NameError: undefined local variable or method `a' for #", where it uses two different markers surrounding the method/variable name. Only in the case of my plugin there is nothing between the markers...

brewsky

@hygicell said:

when starting sketchup after installing BIM tools I get an error

Hi Frank!

Can you give this version a try?
I removed the offending file , see if it helps...
bim-tools-0.12.1.zip

Cheers!
Jan

Dan Rathbun

@brewsky said:

@tig said:

I checked the formatting, and this file seems to be the only one encoded in UTF-8 with BOM(some microsoft addition to UTF-8: "Byte Order Mark"), while the others are without BOM. Could this explain the error?

YES. For maximum cross-platform compatibility set Notepad++ defaults for .rb files to "UTF8 without BOM (ANSI as UTF8)" with UNIX end of line chars.

brewsky

Thanks Dan!

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

YES. For maximum cross-platform compatibility set Notepad++ defaults for .rb files to "UTF8 without BOM (ANSI as UTF8)" with UNIX end of line chars.

Why UNIX EOL?

Dan Rathbun

@thomthom said:

@dan rathbun said:

YES. For maximum cross-platform compatibility ... with UNIX end of line chars.

Why UNIX EOL?
Well do you really want to have to distribute your plugins in two editions, one with Mac EOLs and one with DOS/Windows EOLs ?

Remember that Ruby was developed on Unix-like systems, and loves UNIX EOLs. MS Windows hates files with Mac EOLs. The Mac OSX descends from BSD Linux, so has no problem with UNIX EOLs, and I'm not sure about DOS/Windows EOLS.

It makes sense to set your code editor's default EOL to something that both platforms can read without problems.

thomthom

I have written all my plugins with Windows EOL (CR+LF) and I've never had any problems using them on OSX due to EOL.

brewsky

EOL and BOM seem as different things, other than they are probably both part of the used UTF format(microsoft or Unix).
Is that correct?

thomthom

@brewsky said:

EOL and BOM seem as different things, other than they are probably both part of the used UTF format(microsoft or Unix).
Is that correct?

EOL is just End Of Line characters - used in any encoding. But there are different mutations.

BOM is a Unicode feature indicating the endianness of the current Unicode encoding.

hygicell

Hi Jan,

somehow I must have forgotten to click on a "follow this post button",
I thought this would go automatically
so it is only now I see your prompt reactions, folks, sorry for that !!
and thanks to all

first I tried installing the new version using Thomthom's installer directly over the old one
same error result

next I first deleted the bim tools folder before reinstalling, again with Thomthom's installer
errors eliminated as far as Bim tools is concerned

thanks

Frank

@brewsky said:

@hygicell said:

when starting sketchup after installing BIM tools I get an error

Hi Frank!

Can you give this version a try?
I removed the offending file , see if it helps...
[attachment=0:1h3u0vc0]bim-tools-0.12.1.zip[/attachment:1h3u0vc0]

Cheers!
Jan

brewsky

@hygicell said:

errors eliminated as far as Bim tools is concerned

Great! Thanks for testing it!

ivreich

@brewsky said:

Or place self-cutting components! http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114533

I've tried many times to create self-cutting components, but it never ever works. Have followed every single step to the letter in the instructions, but components refuse to cut through single surfaces.

Anyone else having this problem? I'm running Sketchup Pro v8.0.14346...

Joel

brewsky

@ludnid said:

Removing the recent installations found bim tools to be the culprit . Does anyone have the same problem?

I have changed a few things in an attempt to prevent the crashes you experienced.
I have added a new button that enables/disables all observers(which I believe to be the problem).

I hope you can try this new version(0.12.2) to see if it's fixed, especially when you put it in "manual-mode"(top-left button=red).

And thanks for reporting the problem!

brewsky

@ivreich said:

I've tried many times to create self-cutting components, but it never ever works.

The most simple example to see it work is to draw a big square face(this is the "wall") and inside draw a small square(the "window").
Then select the window-face including it's edges, then right-click --> make component. Now all the options for a cutting component are set automatically(because the face is actually already "cutting").

If you remove the window-face(keep the outer edges, they will cut the hole!), now if you close the component you should have a hole in the wall!

ikun

Thanks for your work!! It's awesome!

JQL

Brewaky,

It's been a while since I test your plugin. It has improved a lot! The interface is looking good and uncluttered and seems practical. However the plugin does not seem to fit to real use yet.

Are you still aiming at that or have you stopped developing it?

The things I find difficult to handle are the following:

The plugin is great in defining thickness for any kind of geometry I throw at it. This for itself would be a great addition to Sketchup if only the remove BIM Properties button would do that. The problem is that, when I remove those properties, somethings still remain there and mess with the model later. Sometimes it creates a bugsplat, sometimes it shows new geometry. Would it be possible to remove everything and keep only the groups the plugin created?
Sometimes when changing wall thickness Sketchup simply crashes;
When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;
When inserting a window it correctly creates the opening with thickness. However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside, the best way to do that would be by inserting the opening in the inner wall in a process similar as the one shown in the next link:

http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/36-intermediate/321-window-cut-hole-thick-wall

The problem is, if you insert any kind of component on the inner wall, it will soon disappear in the workflow and lead to a bugsplat in the long run.

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

Keep up the good work!

brewsky

@jql said:

Are you still aiming at that or have you stopped developing it?

Yeah, I'm still working on it! Thanks for taking the time to point these things out.
I got a bit sidetracked for the last... couple of months I guess. I have been working on a very cool new feature, but I can't get it to work the way I want yet.

@jql said:

The things I find difficult to handle are the following:

The plugin is great in defining thickness for any kind of geometry I throw at it. This for itself would be a great addition to Sketchup if only the remove BIM Properties button would do that. The problem is that, when I remove those properties, somethings still remain there and mess with the model later. Sometimes it creates a bugsplat, sometimes it shows new geometry.

I will do some tests on the remove BIM properties button. I didn't notice it's leaving properties behind, and it should not be hard to fix this.

@jql said:

Would it be possible to remove everything and keep only the groups the plugin created?

I have been thinking about this myself too, it would be a useful option to "just" generate geometry. If you(or someone else) have a good suggestion on how to add this to the interface without making it too cluttered or complicated I will add this. I could for example make a pop-up that makes you choose what properties to remove, but I am reluctant to add too many steps to the process.

@jql said:

Sometimes when changing wall thickness Sketchup simply crashes;

I'm aware of this and this is probably the biggest problem at this moment. It makes the plugin difficult to use. I added the option to disable automatic updating of geometry(mostly to prevent it from interfering with other plugins). When this is disabled I get no crashes, If you do, please let me know!
The downside is then you have to update every object manually, and I think the most fun thing of the plugin is that it automatically updates the geometry after modifying the source-faces.
The observers I have used for this still seem to cause bugsplats, although much less frequently as they did at first. I will have to work around these observers but that may make editing less "smooth".

@jql said:

When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;

I will have to test this, I will come back to you on this one.

@jql said:

When inserting a window it correctly creates the opening with thickness. However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside, the best way to do that would be by inserting the opening in the inner wall in a process similar as the one shown in the next link:
http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/36-intermediate/321-window-cut-hole-thick-wall
The problem is, if you insert any kind of component on the inner wall, it will soon disappear in the workflow and lead to a bugsplat in the long run.

I think the new feature I have been working on would be great to solve this, but this will take some more time because I intend to pick up the problems you have pointed out first.

@jql said:

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

I let you know if I have trouble re-creating the errors!

Is there anyone out there using this plugin for creating IFC-files? That's what I have been mostly using it for lately, I can create shapes with it that are not easy in our CAD/BIM-software...
I have also been working on a connection with THE BIM server (http://bimserver.org), I was wondering if anyone is interested in that...

brewsky

@jql said:

However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside

What about(for now) putting the profiled wall "caps" into the cutting window component? I know it does not(yet) hide the lines where the profile meets the wall, but that's something I could easily fix.
Check out the attached image and demo file(I roughly borrowed the window shape from ThomThom, because it nicely illustrates a complex profile).
window.skp

@jql said:

When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;

I'm unable to reproduce this one, and also have not yet been able to crash SketchUp, but I will try some more(and bigger) models.

@jql said:

If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.

Yes, I do like to see these models! Might make reproducing the errors easier.

I did notice another bug.
Sometimes when I create a new model without closing SketchUp first, newly created walls are not seen by the plugin(and so cannot be modified from the plugin).
I will figure out where this comes from...