[Plugin] Lamella Roofs
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A lamella roof is made up of many identical lamellas arranged in intersecting helical arches. It looks like this:
I have created a plugin that generates a Sketchup model of such a roof, like this:
The plugin also supports the creation of a diagrid roof, where the lamellas are more-or-less co-planar, rather than staggered.
The lamella_roof plug-in and documentation are attached. All comments very welcome.
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Images dont show, but cheers for the plugin
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Hi Tim,
I fixed those image links....nice looking plugin BTW
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Excellent...
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Thx very much for fixing the image links, Rich.
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Nice Plugin Tim, thanks.
Here is a good example of a Lamella Roof with loads of info on its construction.
Hounslow East Underground Station Lemella roof, London, UK.
Mike
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Indeed, a beautiful roof. Note though that this uses the Cowley connector http://www.cowleytimberwork.co.uk/connectors.htmlto line up the lamellas at the nodes, which is a bit fancy (and may be expensive). There are quite a few modern examples of lamella roofs, and I'm going to document them on my blog (http://www.lamellaroof.com - so far unpopulated; stay tuned!) I personally like the through-bolts, and the offset look.
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Interesting. I very much like that first image you posted, Tim. Are the crowns on the pieces simple circular arcs?
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Reminds me of some of the beautiful wooden aircraft hangar roofs I've seen.
Works of art. I don't think too many survive to this day, I didn't see many pictures.
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To be precise, a section through the roof across its axis is circular, but the lamellas are skewed, so the edge is elliptical. However, to complicate things, there is a twist in the elliptical surface. If you run the plugin and inspect the lamella closely you'll see how it works.
Nervi designed aircraft hangars in this style. Also Junkers (of dive-bomber fame) designed a steel lamella system used by the British in WWII for over 100 hangars in RAF airfields scattered across the UK.
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Interesting.
Any chance you could fix the script to use model units and make it accessible from a menu so the console isn't required?
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As Dave said +
If you run the script in an existing model the first thing it does is DELETE EVERYTHING!!
and I do mean delete, not hide, not move, DELETENot good, not good at all
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@escapeartist said:
Reminds me of some of the beautiful wooden aircraft hangar roofs I've seen...
And reminds me of "perpendicular style" English Gothic vaults.
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@paul russam said:
As Dave said +
If you run the script in an existing model the first thing it does is DELETE EVERYTHING!! and I do mean delete, not hide, not move, DELETE
Not good, not good at all
That's because the OP [TimWarner] doesn't seem to realize that you can make your own Template that doesn't include Sang etc; so in line #50 he has
ents.clear! # Get rid of Sang
Which of course empties the model if you've already dome some modeling !
A disaster !!
BUT it's easily disabled to avoid it erasing your existing model - edit the file and change line #50 to read.
**#**ents.clear! # Get rid of Sang
so that it's now ignored
To avoid the clunky 'First run from the Console to install a menu item' [every time!]... the closing '
end' can simply be moved above the 'if...' that makes the menu entry so the menu is made as the script is auto-loaded
Also it's best to make the dialogs' defaults dimensions as 'lengths' thus:
values = [1200**.l**,6000**.l**,20.0,6,2]
forcing it into 'inches', i.e. 100'x50' - which now displays in the current units.
If you're metricyou could use:[30.m,15.m,...etc anyway
Then you can leave those two 'lengths' alone as
height = results[0] span = results[1]
i.e. NO.to_fis needed as it already knows it's a 'length' !
In the second dialog you can make the sizes directly in 'mm' with[38.mm,150.mm,2,10.mm]etc and then skip changing the results with.to_fand also later on no.mmis needed etc - that way anyone can use it inputing in mm or cm or inches etc, depending on their current unit settings...Also you should stop if the user 'cancels' a dialog thus:
results = **inputbox**(prompts, values, "Roof Settings") **return nil unless results**Also some other 'tips' - wrap the whole 'creation' part after the dialog in a
model.start_operation('lamella')...create...model.commit_operationat the end, to make an easy one-step undo !Also you can easily protect you code inside a module thus:
**module TimWarner** def **self.**lamella_roof()
...
rest of code
... adjust the closing menu item to use the now modularized method:
plugins.add_item("Lamella roof") { **self.**lamella_roof() }
...
[ruby:14pvbkvc]end#module[/ruby:14pvbkvc] goes after everything else...If you implement these general changes this has the basis of a useful toolset...
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I recommend you read the guidelines to SketchUp Ruby Plugin developement I wrote down so that your plugin play nice with the shared plugin environment it runs in. Avoiding potential conflicts.
Golden Rules of SketchUp Plugin Development
The Ruby language is very easy to extend to suit your needs. Some very pretty looking code can be written. However, when you write plugins for SketchUp’s Ruby API you should be careful. The e…
Procrastinators Revolt! (www.thomthom.net)
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Will the routine allow the creation of in-line lamellas, without the slight offsets?
Thank you much for sharing, Tim.
(bmike, you didn't forget the bookmark feature here?)
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@brookefox said:
(bmike, you didn't forget the bookmark feature here?)
bookmark, what is that?
i usually post, then it is in my threads.
will have to try to bookmark...
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reply to keep this in my list of threads.
i'll peek back once the ruby gets improved.nice looking plugin.
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Dear Tim,
You and your colleagues are to be congratulated on your achievement. How long did it take start to finish, and did you have building experience before starting the project?
Kind regards,
Bob -
@brookefox said:
Will the routine allow the creation of in-line lamellas, without the slight offsets?
Thank you much for sharing, Tim.
(bmike, you didn't forget the bookmark feature here?)
Simple answer, no. The plugin assumes the use of dimensional lumber and common bolt connectors, as in the original Zollinger concept, and in recent examples like the Rural Studio dog shelter http://apps.cadc.auburn.edu/rural-studio/Default.aspx?path=Gallery%2fProjects%2f2006%2fhalecoanimalshelter%2f. But it's a natural option, and easier to model. Thx for the (implicit) suggestion.
PS I'm attaching a brief monograph on the underlying geometry.
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