Where to start?

Dan Rathbun

Things are going bad, I cannot move on.

Because you NEED to read "Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide"

You need to take a WEEK OR MORE getting comfortable with Standard Ruby, before attempting to learn to use the SketchUp API.

I wrote the "Ruby Newbie's Guide to Getting Started" to help you and others avoid the frustration you are experiencing.

Follow the guide and you will be much happier.

thomthom

When it comes to the Ruby API I have a few articles on my blog - don't think they are liked in the sticky threads.

I recommend new plugin developers to read this one first: http://www.thomthom.net/thoughts/2012/01/golden-rules-of-sketchup-plugin-development/

rumcajs

I run this "Ruby" in Browser, this is not in SU. It is tutorial - interactive online guide which is called "15 minutes tutorial"
http://tryruby.org/levels/1/challenges/0#levels/8/challenges/3

So I am not sure if the ruby runs there or it is just simulation of Ruby in Javascript or Flash. So as they say, the path is preconfigurated, and I checked before that the path and files were there. Now I am on next lesson.


 blog = [entry, entry2]
=> [#<BlogEntry;0x72e8e4f7 @fulltext="I can't believe Mt. Hood was stolen! I am speechless! It was stolen by a giraffe who drove away in his Cadillac Seville very nonchalant!!", @time=2012-09-16 15;55;25 +0000, @title="Today Mt. Hood Was Stolen!", @mood=;sick>, #<BlogEntry;0x18104f11 @fulltext="I am
  never going back to that mountain and I hope a giraffe steals it.", @time=2012-09-16 15;55;25 +0000, @title="I Left my Hoodie on the Mountain!", @mood=;confused>]
Success!
> next
> blog.sort_by { |entry| entry.time}.reverse
[#<BlogEntry;0x263b3097 @title="I Left my Hoodie on the Mountain!", @time=2012-09-16 15;57;13 +0000, @fulltext="I am\
  never going back to that mountain and I hope a giraffe steals it.", @mood=;confused>, #<BlogEntry;0x77f31d1c @title="Today Mt. Hood Was Stolen!", @time=2012-09-16 15;57;13 +0000, @fulltext="I can't believe Mt. Hood was stolen! I am speechless! It was stolen by a giraffe who drove away in his Cadillac Seville very nonchalant!!", @mood=;sick>]
Success!
> back
> blog.find_all {|entry| entry.fulltext.match(/cadillac/i)}
[#<BlogEntry;0x68f04725 @title="Today Mt. Hood Was Stolen!", @time=2012-09-16 15;58;56 +0000, @fulltext="I can't believe Mt. Hood was stolen! I am speechless! It was stolen by a giraffe who drove away in his Cadillac Seville very nonchalant!!", @mood=;sick>]
Success!
> blog.find_all {|entry| entry.fulltext.match(/Mt.{2,10}/i)}
=> [#<BlogEntry;0x5ac78f1f @fulltext="I can't believe Mt. Hood was stolen! I am speechless! It was stolen by a giraffe who drove away in his Cadillac Seville very nonchalant!!", @time=2012-09-16 15;59;49 +0000, @title="Today Mt. Hood Was Stolen!", @mood=;sick>]
Success!
> back
> blog.map { |entry| entry.mood}
[;sick, ;confused]
Success!

So want to ask what is the entry in pipelines? |entry|

I defined entry and entry2 as instance of my little blog class. Blog is array containning entry and entry2, but I ask about what is meanning for |..| in these methods. It looks like it is name of class.

rumcajs

@dan rathbun said:

@rumcajs said:

Follow the guide and you will be much happier.

The frustration is from the Interactive guide, because it didn't work in the fully meaning of ruby console. SO I could not check what I did. But I closed the window, and moved.

rumcajs

@thomthom said:

I recommend new plugin developers to read this one first: http://www.thomthom.net/thoughts/2012/01/golden-rules-of-sketchup-plugin-development/

Well, helpful. I found one plugin in my folder, which is in global namespace.


#this part is taken (after a little modification) directly from the script Skin by Darrel Belvin so all credit is his (hope he doesn't mind me posting this)
def clean_up
	Sketchup.active_model.start_operation "Clean-up"
	ss = Sketchup.active_model.selection.collect
	erasee = []
	ss.each {|e|
		if (e.typename=="Edge")
			if((e.faces.length==0)|| (e.faces.length==2 && e.faces[0].material==e.faces[1].material && e.faces[0].normal.parallel?(e.faces[1].normal)))
				erasee.push e
			end
		end
	}
	erasee.each {|e|
		e.erase! if(e.deleted? == false)
	}
	Sketchup.active_model.commit_operation
	return
end
if not (file_loaded? "cleanup.rb")
	clean = UI.menu("Plugins")
	clean.add_item("Clean-up") {clean_up}
end

rumcajs

I go through SU examples.

So Utilities - Create Faces ... utilitiestools.rb


ss = Sketchup.active_model.selection
   
# Get an Array of all of the selected Edges
edges = ss.find_all { |e| e.kind_of?(Sketchup;;Edge) }

So here the "e" means output of the find_all method, so what the loop produces in the moment of its cycle. I thought that it is definition of the input or some argument for input! But recalled that I asked on it on previous page. It seems to me that it is like loop, similar like .each { |e| e.some.action.here}

Dan Rathbun

edges holds the output of the find_all method, which is a new Array of the items that were found.

|e| is the block parameter list, which is passed into the block by the Ruby keyword yield.
The number of block parameters can vary from one block method to another.

This is an example of what the find_all method would look like, if it was written in Ruby (but it is actually written in C.)

class MyArray

  def find_all
    raise(ArgumentError,"no block given!",caller) unless block_given?
    found = []
    self.each {|item|
      # call the block using yield, passing in item
      # if the block returns true via yield,
      # push the item into the found array.
      found << item if yield(item)
    }
    return found
  end

end

thomthom

@rumcajs said:

Well, helpful. I found one plugin in my folder, which is in global namespace.


> if (e.typename=="Edge")
>

Not only is it in global namespace - it uses typename to identity the type of entity (which many plugin does because the API docs sets a very poor example.) .typename is very very slow - avoid at all cost! More details: http://www.thomthom.net/thoughts/2011/12/never-ever-use-typename/

rumcajs

@thomthom said:

Not only is it in global namespace - it uses typename to identity the type of entity (which many plugin does because the API docs sets a very poor example.) .typename is very very slow - avoid at all cost!

Exactly. I am reading it just in the first link (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=10142) in the first response in this thread.

Dan Rathbun

Use puts statements in the code, to output to the Ruby Console.

Dan Rathbun

@rumcajs said:

I would like to see what contains @iptemp.

It is an Sketchup::InputPoint instance object. See the API dictionary.

rumcajs

What debug tools and methods can I use to debug method?

Example, utilitiestool.rb
class TrackMouseTool
method onMouseMove


@iptemp.pick view, x, y

I would like to see what contains @iptemp.

Is it possible to show dialog box or pause code?

rumcajs

If I change code of the plugin, will it be refreshed automatically or must I reload the plugin and how?

thomthom

@rumcajs said:

If I change code of the plugin, will it be refreshed automatically or must I reload the plugin and how?

Reload it manually.

load 'myfile.rb'

Though I think Jim created a utility to autoreload after changes where detected. Never used it though as I prefer the manual control.

rumcajs

OK. Works. So I tried:

@iptemp.pick view, x, y
puts @iptemp

#Sketchup::InputPoint:0xd0fe6fc

So the input point is in hexadecimal format? If I would want to read it, I would need to add method to convert to decimal, right? I tried:
puts @iptemp.hex
returns error

thomthom

No - the hex number you see there is the hexadecimal version of the object id. Ruby convention.

Refer to the API manual and you find InputPoint.position
https://developers.google.com/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/inputpoint#position

rumcajs

Ah, now it works.

puts @iptemp.position

Something I miss in the reference manual. From different languages I am used to see above every method a list of similar or related methods/links.... Is here some similar page which gives such kind of information / organized in different way? Or is this the only source?

rumcajs

What does mean $ is it global variable? I thought it is array, but now I see they use it in different way.

This:

results = inputbox prompts, values, $exStrings.GetString("Cost Estimate")

What is inputbox, does not look like method of global scope

thomthom

@rumcajs said:

Is here some similar page which gives such kind of information / organized in different way? Or is this the only source?

Each class list all its methods.

List of classes:
https://developers.google.com/sketchup/docs/classes

List of methods:
https://developers.google.com/sketchup/docs/methods

Object Diagram:
https://developers.google.com/sketchup/docs/diagram

thomthom

@rumcajs said:

What does mean $ is it global variable? I thought it is array, but now I see they use it in different way.

This:

results = inputbox prompts, values, $exStrings.GetString("Cost Estimate")

What is inputbox, does not look like method of global scope

$ is global variables, yes. Avoid them.

inputbox is an alias for UI.inputbox defined in sketchup.rb which comes with SketchUp. (I use UI.inputbox simply because of potential problems of relying on the methods in the global namespace.)