[Plugin] ComponentScenes v0.3 UPDATE

tim

Here's a first attempt at a plugin to build a set of pages that show one component each, ready for Layout to embed and dimension etc.

Usage
Select one or more components - even inside another component - and from the plugin menu 'Build Component Scenes'. You should see a number of pages appear, each named after the components chosen, Each page will have one component visible on a layer named after the component. When you open the model in Layout you will now have a nice convenient way to do individual component drawings.

I've tried to make this idempotent - if you repeat the command you should get the same results each time with no interference between the sets of pages. Pages seem to be happy to share names whereas Layers seem to prefer unique names and there shouldn't be any clashes.

The current To-Do list is

Make this an extension later http://sketchupapi.blogspot.ca/2011/07/turn-your-plugin-into-extension.html
Package as an RBZ file http://sketchupapi.blogspot.ca/2011/12/rbzs-in-sketchup-8m2-distribute-your.html
Do not make scenes for duplicate components

(how to decide this? scaling, shearing and flipping in the component transform can make two apparently equivalent components NOT duplicates).
Make undo/redo friendly.
first pass at this is to wrap the main routine in start/commit_ operation

but it doesn't remove created pages and

SU crashes completely if it tries to undo a lot of component pages

Find a way to close any open component edits after making the component pages so that the components don't appear to be missing; you could argue that the user should understand but never underestimate the confusion of users. On hold for now because it would surely annoy users to lose an edit deep inside a complex model

Updates for v0.3

attempt workaround for active_view.zoom failing to actually zoom to the chosen component

Updates for v0.2

Wrapped routine in start/commit_operation, which speeds up dealing with many components.
Zoom to extent of component when making the page.
Download ComponentScenes
version 0.3

tim

Here's an example skp file and layout file to show what it does.
Pine bed example SU file
Pine bed LO file

The skp started as a single page with the bed model. I d-clicked on the bed component to open it and selected-all. The plugin created the slat, side, headboard, footboard and mid rail pages. Since the headboard and footboard are composed of further components I also opened them and repeated the process, creating a sizeable list of other pages with each individual component on its own page.

The model was sent to Layout and just as an example I created a detail page for the post from the headboard. Since the post exists on its own scene I could have a total of five views on the page, one each of the left/right/front/back view and an iso view for context. Without any other components in the SU scene there is no clutter to worry about in Layout.

tim

Version 0.2 updated to-

wrap the routine in start/commit_operation. This noticeably speeds up dealing with many components. It should also make 'undo' work better but Pages do not get removed by undo so something ain't raht.
zoom to the extent of each component when creating the page for it
See first post for download.

Rich O Brien

Thanks for this Tim

It's somewhat similar to this....

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=39152

tim

@rich o brien said:

It's somewhat similar to this....

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=39152

Yes, it has some important similarities to both the viewports and Comp2Layer plugins including the fact that they jointly inspired me to try something oblong the same lines but more suited to my own needs. ComponentScenes works with nested components though, which viewports seems not to handle. Comp2Layer actually moves the chosen components to new layers, which I found annoying.

Most importantly to me the process of writing the plugin is a learning experience; the possibility that it may result in something useful to other people is a nice bonus

tim

@tim said:

something oblong the same lines

Hunh? Damn you auto cockerel. That should be oolong

tim

New version uploaded 15 Jun 2012; try to make the zoom setting for each component scene actually work. Yet again, the API does't do what it says in the docs.

Dan Rathbun

@tim said:

Pages seem to be happy to share names whereas Layers seem to prefer unique names and there shouldn't be any clashes.

I think your asking for trouble.

What will happen when code tries to get a reference to a page with: pages["name"] ??

TIG

It is daft that Definitions, Layers, Materials etc must have unique names - set automatically, BUT every Scene-tab could be called 'foo' !
You can 'uniquify' your page names... before falling foul of the potential for duplicated names...

### assuming that 'pages' is reference to the Model's Pages object
names = []; pages.each{|page| names << page.name }
used = []; names.each{|name|
  unless used.include?(name)
    used << name
  else ### already used !
    name = name+"#1"
    name.next! while used.include?(name)
    used << name
  end
}
used.each_with_index{|name, i| pages[i].name = name }

NOW the Scene-tabs will have unique names !

foo, foo#1, foo#2, foo#3 etc...

kostiaarh

Can anyone help me? please add icons for this plugin. I tried to do it, but could not get the plugin to work. Thanks

ComponentScenes.rar

TIG

When you join strings into a file-path it's best NOT to use a separator.
So NOT
cmd.large_icon = File.join(imgdir, "/cs_l.png")
but
cmd.large_icon = File.join(imgdir, "cs_l.png")
Although Ruby should usually fix it for you.

However, I don't think that is the issue - I suspect it is with your PNG files themselves.
PNGs for buttons need not be that big, also your PNGs are in 'Indexed Colors' - try converting them to 'RGB' with something like Gimp.
Your larger PNG is 1.5kb, my toolbar equivalents are usually considerably smaller...
Yours is 128px sq, when mine is 24px sq - just like the su_... equivalents...
Again you can use Gimp to resize then down to 24px sq [16px sq for small icons]...
As recommended here:
http://ruby.sketchup.com/UI/Command.html#large_icon=-instance_method

Box

7 years between posts, impressive.

kostiaarh

Thanks Tig. I made all the corrections but the plugin does not work. I don’t know what to do with it.
Error: #<NameError: undefined local variable or method deleting_group' for main:Object> C:/Users/KOSTIA/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2019/SketchUp/Plugins/ComponentScenes.rb:189:in block in <top (required)>'

2ComponentScenes.rar

TIG

The error message is most helpful.
Your code calls deleting_group from outside the module !
The get it to work move all of your toolbar code inside it, and rename the methods with self.xxx
However, you never define deleting_group and ComponentScenes is used oddly within the menu code.
It all needs reworking...
Look at some other authors code that define a cmd and make a toolbar...
You have muddled up everything !

kostiaarh

I would also like to know if it is possible to organize the created scenes in the panel? For example, scene1, scene2, scene3 ... sceneN? When I use this plugin, the scenes are placed in a chaotic order.

TIG

You are jumping around somewhat in your 'problems'...
Look at the Pages and Page section of the API guide.
You need to get an array of the scene-tabs names and sort them, then reorder the scenes accordingly...
http://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Pages.html
It's not that easy to do !
But here's a crib to get you started...


model = Sketchup.active_model
pages = model.pages
num   = pages.length
if num > 0
  selected = pages.selected_page.name
  page_names = pages.map{|pg| pg.name }
  page_names.sort!
  num = page_names.length
  page_names.each{|page|
    tran_time = pages[page].transition_time
    pages[page].transition_time = 0
    delay_time = pages[page].delay_time
    pages[page].delay_time = 0
    pages.selected_page = pages[page]
    new_page = pages.add(page)
    new_page.transition_time = tran_time
    new_page.delay_time = delay_time
  }
  num.times{ pages.erase(model.pages[0]) }
  pages.selected_page = pages[selected]
end

Pages [Scenes] are now in order...

kostiaarh

Thank you Tig. I put this code in the toolbar editor. Works great.