Trouble understanding how Dynamic Components are created

Frankn

Hi everyone,

As the title says I just can't understand how to get DCs work. I've searched and read everything I could find but I just can't figure it out!

Here's a quick and simple example of what I'd ultimatly like to accomplish with DCs and webdialog...

I have a webdialog that creates a cube by entering the following info... height, width and depth, works fine. Now I'd like to be able to modify the cube I created from within my webdialog. eg: I create a cube that is 10h x 10w x 10d and would like to change the height to 20, making it 20h x 10w x 10d. Also I'd like to be able to do that to all the cubes created or just certain ones that I select.

I'm thinking I would need 2 buttons/fucntions to get this done, one 'build' button and one 'modify' button.

Can anyone give me a simple example I can go by or even tell me of a relatively simple plugin that uses DCs?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Frank

pilou

Normally DC don't need plugins for works

It's you that create A Dynamic component!

Seems this video is some easy no ?

Frankn

Thanks for the reply Pilou. And yes I could use the built in DC but I'd like to mimic the same thing in my plug in using ruby. For a couple if reasons, one it would be more convenient and also it gives me something new to try and learn. It might seem a little masochist but for me it's almost like therapy .

Chris Fullmer

Well then, the bigger question is does you component need to be compatible with the built in dynamic component webdialog, like for others to interact with it.

There is no need to actually make a "dynamic component" to do what you are asking. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of dynamic components. If all you want to do is manipulate components using your own webdialog, I'd recommend not using the term dynamic component a that confuses the question with the actual dynamic components.

The way I see it is that you have 2 main issues to tackle here.

1 - You need to learn how to work with components, and scale them or manipulate their geometry. You can learn this without the trouble of a webdiloag first.
2 - You need to master is how to converse freely back and forth from ruby and your web dialog. Once you get them talking, and you know what you need to do to your components, then its easier to understand how to put your webdialog together so it can reach into the model and make changes.

good luck,

Chris

Frankn

Hi Chris,

@chris fullmer said:

Well then, the bigger question is does you component need to be compatible with the built in dynamic component webdialog, like for others to interact with it.

I didn't think of that since I assumed the way of doing this was through Dynamic Components. So I'm not sure what being compatible with implies the DC webdialog implies either way.

@unknownuser said:

There is no need to actually make a "dynamic component" to do what you are asking. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of dynamic components. If all you want to do is manipulate components using your own webdialog, I'd recommend not using the term dynamic component a that confuses the question with the actual dynamic components.

Gotcha, knowing that now, yes that's exactly what I'd like to do is being able to manipulate the created components. eg: height, width, depth... along with other variables I have. And being able to do so to all the components or just selected ones.

@unknownuser said:

The way I see it is that you have 2 main issues to tackle here.

1 - You need to learn how to work with components, and scale them or manipulate their geometry. You can learn this without the trouble of a webdiloag first.

I have a pretty good handle on creating components already but manipulating tham after they've been created is another story which is what my original question should of been.

@unknownuser said:

2 - You need to master is how to converse freely back and forth from ruby and your web dialog. Once you get them talking, and you know what you need to do to your components, then its easier to understand how to put your webdialog together so it can reach into the model and make changes.

I've got the initial communication between WD and ruby working just fine. Actually My plugin is built with WD and also works great, well it needs a few 'fixes' but I'm able to get all that done, as best as I can for a newbie at lest. But getting my WD to then modify or manipulate as you say the components I create is a whole other story! I fugured integrating DCs was the way to go but seems like there are other ways of doing so.

That being said, from your reply maybe I should look into scaling my components? Or resending new values and some how applying them to existing components and redrawing? Am I even close in my assumptions?

Thanks,
Frank