Unfolding plugin idea

MattC

Hello Everybody.
I am working on a project (Using Sketchup to design paper models).I was able to write a small excel spreadsheet that will perform some 3D coordinates transformations to unroll surface. What I have so far you can see at: [url]sketchup-p-p.blogger.com[/url]
But maybe it would be possible to do it all in Sketchup.
Unfortunately learning Ruby at this time is not an option, so I am looking for someone that is willing to help.
IDEA: Automatically unroll selected faces starting with picked face

Our example consist of 6 faces, faces 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6 are coplanar to each other.
Step 1 – Select faces to unroll (Basic selection)
Step 2 – Select first face

Step3 - Select all faces from Basic Selection that coplanar are to the first face.(Coplanar selection)

Step 4 – Select one face adjacent to Coplanar Selection

Step 5 - Rotate Coplanar Selection to the same plane as adjacent face

Step 6 – Like step 3 select all coplanar faces

Step7 – like step 4 Select one adjacent face

Step 8 - like step 5 rotate to same plane as adjacent face

Repeat until all faces from basic selection are coplanar.

Anyone interested to share programming skills?

Matt

TIG

There are already two unfold scripts around that you could use as inspiration in your own coding... Jim's 'Unfold' and Pumpkin-Pirate's 'Flattery'... first read through those and then come back to us...

MattC

So I chewed TIG's reply over , and I got to work.
Result is this:[flash=425,344:oyqeq35r]http://www.youtube.com/v/vAAt2Jb9P4Y&hl=fr&fs=1[/flash:oyqeq35r]

I can call it from Ruby editor, but how to wrap it up to a plugin state ??
Where can I find any tutorial or help ?

kyyu

@mattc said:

So I chewed TIG's reply over , and I got to work.
Result is this: <snip>

I can call it from Ruby editor, but how to wrap it up to a plugin state ??
Where can I find any tutorial or help ?

MattC, look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEJLw3WJsnU

MattC

kyyu - Thanks a lot, somehow I missed this one.
Work continues...

Jim

A little late, but don't forget about the Waybe unfold plugin.

http://waybe.weebly.com/

MattC

I have seen Waybe, but I haven't really tried it yet.
Other thing is that it is not free, not as much of a problem if you are a hobbyist, but for commercial use? Quite pricey. So is it possible to do most of what Waybe do for free? I hope so
In a meantime ...

I base my work mostly on unfold plugin by Jim. So I try to reverse engineer structure of the code.
But the problems arise. Idea is that to run my plugin I need 3 selections : basis selection of faces that will be unfolded, and 2 faces that will specify unfolding direction.
Basis selection is not a problem, because I can select it before running code.
But I need to be able to select 2 faces when prompted.
I know that I should use onLButtonDown, but I miss something and it does not work. Can anyone help ?

Code:

module Autounfold
# Plugin require elements that we want to unfold to be selected before running
def Autounfold.main
	model = Sketchup.active_model
	model.start_operation "Autounfold"
	sel = model.selection
	bas_sel = []
	face1 = []
	face2 = []
	Sketchup.active_model.selection.each do |e| #we define basis selection of faces to unroll
		if e.is_a? Sketchup;;Face 
			bas_sel<<e;
		end
	end
Sketchup.active_model.selection.clear  #clear selection before asking for faces that defines direction of unrolling
UI.messagebox "#{bas_sel.length} faces selected to unrolling " # information, can be ommited
UI.messagebox "select first face";
# here I want to be able to select one face, and set it as face1 array
UI.messagebox "select second face";
# here I want to be able to select one face, and set it as face2 array
if face.length !=0 and face2.length!=0
	UI.messagebox "ready to unrol";
end
#here goes full algorythm 
end
def onLButtonDown(flags, x, y, view)
        ph = Sketchup.active_model.active_view.pick_helper
        ph.do_pick x, y
        ref = ph.best_picked
        if ref.nil?
            puts "ref.nil"
            Sketchup.active_model.selection.clear
            Sketchup.set_status_text "Unfold; Selection cleared. Select face to unfold."
            return
        end
        if( ref.typename == "Face" )
            if face1.length == 0
                face1<<ref;
                UI.messagebox "face selected"
				return
			else
				if face2.length == 0
                face2<<ref;
                UI.messagebox "face selected"
				return
				end
			end
        end
	Sketchup.active_model.commit_operation
end
end 
plug_menu=UI.menu("Plugins")
plug_menu.add_item ("Autounfold"){Autounfold.main}

Thanks in advance, Matt

TIG

To use 'tool' methods like onLButtonDown() etc it must be inside a 'Class' that is launched as a 'tool' by Sketchup. Then it looks for all of the built-in special 'tool' methods like activate(), resume(), onMouseMove() etc if one is found it's used - see the LineTool example for several of these - and of course the API Tool doc http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/tool.html.
You've wrapped your methods inside a Module - it won't work as a 'tool' unless they are inside a 'Class' [which could also be inside the Module] and/or you need to also launch it as a 'tool' - you'd use something like plug_menu.add_item("Autounfold"){Sketchup.active_model.select_tool(Autounfold.new())} - [assuming the tool is a 'raw' class called 'Autounfold'???]...
The code inside the class's initialize() method runs first, then the code inside the activate() method next - any other methods are linked to those, or auto-activate depending on what you do with the mouse etc... If you use a @state variable and set it to have different values [0, 1, 2 etc] as various 'steps' are completed in the tool's methods then you can control things like 'onLButtonDown()' - by having for example return if @state!=1 in the first line of that method, so that method only becomes into play when you have set @state=1... NB: @ variables persist across methods in that instance of that class - @@ ones [initially set in the class itself, outside of any method]are remembered across uses of that class that session.

kyyu

Also, You can output text to the status bar vs alot of message boxes: http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/sketchup.html#status_text=
Message boxes are especially good for alerting the user of errors and debugging your code.

And there is a book that may help you out, concerning sketchup ruby. You can download the full pdf for free: http://www.autosketchup.com/

MattC

Thanks Everybody ! With Your help I got it working.
After this long weekend I will post what I have done.
Still there are some problems, but those I will try to solve later.

Matt

DOD3R

nice would be the possibility to make UV mam from this

Orangutan

Nice work. Thanks.

MattC

Hello Everybody

Here is result of my work.
Plugin will make a autounfold submenu , with 2 options: unroll and rotate to XY plane AND unroll and leave in plane of last element.
Select elements to unroll first and then activate tool.
Pick first face, and then pick one adjacent to define in which direction it schould be unfolded.

Script is based on idea of unfoldtool , and made with help of this comunity.
Therefore no rights reserved, and no responsibilities to be taken by author.
Feel free to test,use and modify.
C&C welcome!

Matt

Autounfold

Pixero

Thanks! I will study it carefully. As you know I have an idea...

Kuddl

(old) Unfolding plugin idea

(new) [Plugin] Unfolding automatically

Hi Matt,

why do you do no official plug-in from this?
Nice work. Thanks.
You must not hide!

Sorry my bad english…
Kuddl

MattC

Hello

First, it is not finished, there are some things that I would like to change but have no time at this moment.
Second, it is not well tested, I know that on some conditions it will not work properly, I am still investigating the reasons.
Third, When it comes to large curved surfaces, that consist of more than 400 faces, because if the loops that sit in code it can freeze.

So no official plugin yet.Still lots of things to improve.

Matt

MattC

[Solved] BUT ideas are appreciated I am busy with reworking the code , but I found a small problem.
First situation:
Rectangle in XY plane, with a normal vector shown.
Then this rectangle was split with a line into two triangles, again with shown normals.

No problem.
Second situation, with rectangle not in XY plane:

As you can see, there are smaal differences in coordinates.
But when checking if faces are coplanar ( by comparing normals, of planes of faces) it gives a false result.
Is there a walkaround? is it possible to perform some kind of rounding of coordinates?

Thanks for help.
Matt

Gade

Hello, i'm very interested into your plugin but it's not working on my computer... is it possible to use your plugin with mac ? i have sketchup 8? please help me to use your plugin i would like to make a model ...

MattC

@gade said:

Hello, i'm very interested into your plugin but it's not working on my computer... is it possible to use your plugin with mac ? i have sketchup 8? please help me to use your plugin i would like to make a model ...

Hi I will need some more informations to answer, I havn't used it in a long time, at least this version, but I see no reason why it should not work on Mac.

You can also take a look here:
http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/software/18100-spp-sketchup-paper-planes-tools-sketchup.html

Greets
Matt