[Plugin] Voxelize - Updated 2011-04-04

Dan Rathbun

Made a few changes for you Andrew:

properly module wrapped the plugin.
cube size is remembered during session in var @@cube_size
made it easier to control menu with constants defined at top of file
added validation for the menu item

I think the "group test" should fire before the inputbox is displayed.
But otherwise it looks good.

Latest version now in the first post

Gillman

Very intesting plug-in, and practical too. I was looking for a quick way to place a repeating element on a sphere (in this case Clint Howard's ship from Star Trek TOS "The Corbomite Manuver"). I edited the cube and replaced it with a pyramid with geodesic spheres at each angle.

It turned what would have been a mind-numbing task into something trivial. Now all I have to do is upload it to the warehouse.

TheDro

@Gillman: I'm glad to hear that it was of use to you.

@Khai: I've been looking at the structure of the .schematic file which is used to import structures into Minecraft using MCEdit. I think I've got it figured out but I still need to write the code and I'm reading the book of ruby to try and figure out the best way to do it.

@Everyone: I've added a new "spiral" algorithm to prevent interpreting sharp edges of solids as "entrances" to the solids. Basically, I improved the algorithm to work with more solids which is good. I'll upload the new version once I'm not too busy with work/school.

22curious

@TheDro, the spiral refinement will be useful - looking forward to it - thanks!

Khai

thanks Dro

mitcorb

You will discover, while scaling an instance of a component, that the others do not scale accordingly, at least while using the native scale tool.

TIG

Scaling one Component Instance from the 'outside' won't affect other Component Instances of the same Component BUT scaling a Component Instance's 'contents' will change all Component Instances of that Component - that's because when you edit the contents of a Component Instance you change the Component Definition itself and this is repeated across all of its Instances]...

mitcorb

Aaah yes. Thank you.

Lobster

Thanks for this,

Interesting plug in.

Dave R

Is there any chance of making this work to allow selection of a component as well as a group?

TheDro

I might eventually get to adding that feature but it's hard to say when. I've been pretty busy this summer and plan to be until September so I might not get to programming any time soon. I just checked out some of the methods of components (instance and definition) and there is a "bounds" method (not found in the api documentation...) which I could use to run my script. This means it should be possible to make it work for components but I might not get to it any time soon.

Have a great summer .

TIG

Of course you could always explode the component-instance and immediately group the highlighted geometry that results... now you have a group to process...

Dave R

That's true, TIG. I guess for no more often than I would use the plugin, that wouldn't be too much trouble.

leminilab

@unknownuser said:

This screams out for Sketchy Physics to drop all those cubes.

That's what I thought too!
Can't wait to see that!

octopus2

Is there a way of knowing how many cubes were generated?

Dave R

Since the plugin creates the cubes as instances of a component, select one of them and look at the Entity Info box. It'll tell you how many there are.

TheDro

If you open up Window>>Ruby Console, before running the plugin, the debug information will tell you how many cubes were created, among other things. The other things are the amount of time each step takes to run. This is probably more helpful to me than to you but remember, this is still in beta .

Flashhawk

You are kidding me right? I mean you must kid me!! I did this by hand last week!!! I was totally not aware of your script and i made a voxelized soldier for a 3d Print project (3mm or 1/600 scale infantry) by overlaying a 3d-warehouse model with a matrix of 30x30x30 voxel and then deleting everything that was not used... (like in Michelangelos "I chipped off everything that did not look like a lion") Man i will so much use this next time!!!! Thanks alot!
Flashhawk

Dan Rathbun

@thedro said:

I just checked out some of the methods of components (instance and definition) and there is a " bounds" method (not found in the api documentation...)

Yes it is.

bounds() is defined in class Drawingelement

Group, ComponentDefinition, ComponentInstance are all subclasses of Drawingelement, so they inherit their superclass' instance methods.

At the console:
Sketchup::Group.superclass()

Sketchup::Drawingelement

Sketchup::Drawingelement.superclass()

Sketchup::Entity

.. so they also have all Sketchup::Entity instance methods. And Sketchup::Entity is a subclass of Object so they have all of those instance methods, and module Kernel is mixed into Object, so they will have of those methods.

Anton_S

Does anyone play Minecraft? -- everything is made of cubes