Plugin to make a hole in a group?

JQL

Several copies of a group are considered as components (same definition) until they are edited somehow. That is the point they become individual entities (different definition).

Try double click to edit each group and they will become individual groups. I expect the plugin "wich seems great" will then behave as expected.

Feature suggestion?

Could that hole be turned into a double face cutting component?
Could that second face be diagonal to the first?
Could that hole cut through corners?

That would be the mantra for sketchup windows...

KrisM

That is interesting and unknown to me up to this moment. Good to know. You should learn something new every day...Guess I'm good for today. I think this is another case of SkecthUp doing something which somebody thought was a good idea but which is contrary to logic. If I want something to behave as a component, I will make a component. I could make the same comment with regard to the Solid Tools.
KrisM

fredo6

Kris,

By coincidence, I am working currently on a plugin that is dealing with holes and that would do this sort of cut across multiple groups / components, whether solid or not by the way.

Here is a first shot, but still some good efforts to come

Fredo

KrisM

Fredo6,
This is great.If you wouldn't mind, could you do a test on the attached file. The walls were created with Building Structure Tool. The wall groups are composed of some solid group wall parts. There are some underlying attributes attached to the group to identify it as a BST structure which allows the BST tools to do various things. I don't know what this stuff is and don't know if your tool will work on the wall parts. It would be great if it did.
KrisM

MWall Test.skp

cotty

@fredo6 said:

Here is a first shot, but still some good efforts to come

Sorry, I don't know an english word to describe this...

fredo6

@krism said:

Fredo6,
This is great.If you wouldn't mind, could you do a test on the attached file. The walls were created with Building Structure Tool. The wall groups are composed of some solid group wall parts. There are some underlying attributes attached to the group to identify it as a BST structure which allows the BST tools to do various things. I don't know what this stuff is and don't know if your tool will work on the wall parts. It would be great if it did.
KrisM

[attachment=2:25vefbvo]MWall Test.skp[/attachment:25vefbvo]

Kris,

Looks like it works on your wall.

[attachment=1:25vefbvo]VisuHole - KrisM wall.gif[/attachment:25vefbvo]

[attachment=0:25vefbvo]VisuHole - KrisM wall 2.gif[/attachment:25vefbvo]

Fredo

VisuHole - KrisM wall.gif

VisuHole - KrisM wall 2.gif

rv1974

@dave r said:

A group of solids isn't a solid so the plugin won't work.

It is a solid in other programs, in Max for instance. And it makes life way easier.

@Fredo: This new coincidence looks amazing
Could the Cutter have multiple (not connected) shapes?

rv1974

@rv1974 said:

Could the Cutter have multiple (not connected) shapes?

is it planned to support the native Shift Projection mode?

sdmitch

With Fredo on the job, I can stop wasting my time!!!!!!!!

KrisM

Fredo,
This is really good. I will wait patiently for your work to progress although my anticipation is at a high state at the moment.
Kris

fredo6

@rv1974 said:

Could the Cutter have multiple (not connected) shapes?

Yes, it should. Actually, I still have to buld the GUI to pick a stencil pattern from faces in the model, but multiple shapes is possible

Fredo

fredo6

@krism said:

The walls were created with Building Structure Tool. The wall groups are composed of some solid group wall parts. There are some underlying attributes attached to the group to identify it as a BST structure which allows the BST tools to do various things.

I noticed a strange thing in the wall. It seems all normals are reversed and Sketchup is messed up with that. Very strange!

EDIT: this has to do with how the groups were created. If you explode each group and then make them group invidually, this odd behavior disappears.

Fredo

KrisM

Fredo,
The only problem with exploding the walls is that they would no longer be recognized as a structure by BST and then you can't use the BST tools on them. The BST tools allow you to extend walls to other walls, extend to faces and mitre the corners. These are great tools but don't work on non BST objects. The only thing missing was a way to make holes in the walls which doesn't work with Hole on Solid but appears to work with your plugin.
The wall in the sample file comes with BST (its called MWALL). You can actually create your own mwalls which is really the power of BST. I will look at a mwall I created and see if the same issue is present.
KrisM

fredo6

Kris,

I don't suggest you change anything. But it seems that all of these BST groups are systematically 'mirrored', that is one of their axes is reversed.

And when you create a group within such 'mirrored' groups, it is also mirrored.

Fredo

pep75

Fredo....when can we kiss your feet?

mitcorb

Just a question:
Does the punching shape have to address a face? Or, in the examples above can the punch start midway down a wall. Why? No reason. I just saw that the cutter can turn as it changes position. And I saw it align on an edge/corner as if resolving the normals for the adjacent faces.

fredo6

@mitcorb said:

Just a question:
Does the punching shape have to address a face? Or, in the examples above can the punch start midway down a wall. Why? No reason. I just saw that the cutter can turn as it changes position. And I saw it align on an edge/corner as if resolving the normals for the adjacent faces.

VisuHole is based on a projection plane (I may address draping later on).

So the plane is determined, in a similar way as MoveAlong, that is: