Skalp - Dynamic Sections Plugin released

TommyK · 8 Jun 2014, 09:12

@jql said:

@jql said:

Tommy,

I'm curious about skalp but there's no "test drive" for it. Tell me something hatches seem group separated right?

@tommyk said:

No they are not, actually - each 'skalp' is a group with individual faces. The hatches are really not meant to be edited directly.

That's a shame as that's my aproach to detailing with sketchup...

@jql said:

Is there island detection in groups like a column inside a wall?

@tommyk said:

Not sure if I understand you exactly. If you mean if you have a solid wall, and put another solid, such as a column into it, the two hatches of wall and column will overlap and clip:

That is also a shame as I could see myself using skalp for finding interferences on different models related to engineering projects...

I think the way to look at Skalp is as a section plugin for solids modelling methods. I am not sure it is good to think of it as anything other than a tool that gives you accurate, Construction Drawing-style sections of models of realistically modelled objects.

Krisidious · 8 Jun 2014, 11:28

If the system only works on solids it will be more cumbersome than helpful.

TommyK · 8 Jun 2014, 16:12

@krisidious said:

If the system only works on solids it will be more cumbersome than helpful.

It works on non-solids, too, but I think you get more reliable results if you stick to the discipline of using solids. If you think about the AddSectionCutFace plugin, it often adds faces over spaces you would rather have blank. I often get this when using AddSectionCutFace on vertical section slices, and I have to edit the resulting section slice. The point of Skalp is that it is all dynamic, and always represents the materiality of objects that it cuts through; nothing more, and nothing less.

It requires a certain degree of discipline, but it happens to work quite reliably with my way of working.

JQL · 9 Jun 2014, 10:00

Do you feel that with solids you have an easy enough way of redoing parts of your projects?

I feel the standard face solution in sketchup, to be the best aproach to a sketchup model.

For me it's all about faces and groups/component of faces I have almost no project where all the inner and outer faces of walls are in the same group. Thus, Supersection+Sectioncutface+Edgetools2 are the perfect combo so far for generating sections in SU.

Richsection seems to be a great alternative though, for when I have time to explore it further.

Bruce Watt · 9 Jun 2014, 10:38

Thank you Jeroen (skalp) for your email.

I have downloaded the updated plugin and things are looking to work better (version 1.0.0038), Unfortunately I have limited time to test this currently. I look forward to Skalps progression. Keep up the good work.

Skalp · 9 Jun 2014, 13:04

@tandem said:

This plugin does look "promising". However, I am not comfortable giving $69 to an anonymous developer for an early beta release where some advertised product features are missing, unstable or not implemented yet with no indication of stable release date.

Hello Tandem,

We will start offering free 14 day trial versions of Skalp asap, but it might take a few weeks.

Skalp Team

JQL · 9 Jun 2014, 15:40

Hi Skalp Team...

Nice of you to drop by.

Until your trial is out, I'd be willing to ask you a few questions if you don't mind:

Would you consider that Island detection feature on your plugin?
Is your plugin somehow able to deal with layout exports, converting those 2d skalp hatch images to dwg hatches? Are you considering this in the future or is it impossible through layout?

Thank you,

João

caronte01 · 9 Jun 2014, 21:10

Hi all,

I don´t want to spam this topic, but, anyone with experience with both skalp and richsection, how do they compare?

I´ve been using richsection for about two months (using it with layout), and found it works really well. It also seems to work better with solids, but once that is dealt with, you get section materials by layer/material, projections, 2d section slices separated by layers, ready to export to dwg. Sections have to be manually updated (rs redraws them automatically), but that is simple enough.

I´ve seen videos of skalp, but without a demo, there is no easy way to know.

Santiago

Tandem · 10 Jun 2014, 06:17

@skalp said:

Hello Tandem,

We will start offering free 14 day trial versions of Skalp asap, but it might take a few weeks.

Skalp Team

Thank you Skalp, that sounds great.

JasonWD · 25 Jun 2014, 18:57

I have been using Skalp from the moment it was released and it has changed my workflow dramatically

I tested it out last week with a furniture project in LayOut (scrap of one of many sheets attached). I did this without even reading any literature but not using patterns (our practice uses colours to represent sections) and now I am doing all the building GAs and details for a new project using it.

After meeting Jeroen and Guy at Basecamp last year I didn't hesitate in laying down the cash; these guys have a lot more up their sleeve and I am keen to support their efforts.

If anyone is interested in a workflow gotomeeting I am thinking of doing one next week to discuss Skalp?

JQL · 25 Jun 2014, 20:47

Well, I need something like this...

TommyK · 29 Jun 2014, 11:00

@jql said:

Well, I need something like this...

[attachment=0:2ggeenww]Alves de Sousa - Desenhos Parciais.png[/attachment:2ggeenww]

You can make something like that with Skalp for sure. You would have a thick outline around each material that is cut through though, instead of the outline around the outer edge of the walls/floor/stairs as shown in your drawing. Also, no clear way of showing cuts of rough sawn timber (the one with the single cross), but you would expect that, I guess.

I haven't experimented with using textures instead of hatches for section cuts yet, but I know it is possible.

JasonWD · 29 Jun 2014, 14:22

@tommyk said:

I haven't experimented with using textures instead of hatches for section cuts yet, but I know it is possible.

It is actually easier to simply use a SketchUp material for the section cut in Skalp - create the section texture and name it appropriately then assign it as you would a hatch in the pull down menu. Normal SU materials appear below the Skalp hatches.

Skalp dynamically creates SketchUp materials, that live in the normal materials pallet, on the fly. You can see this if you change the scale in Skalp.

Skalp · 19 Jul 2014, 17:30

Skalp v1.0 beta 6 is released...

NEW 'Pattern by Texture' Skalp Style option to use the material attached to a group / component as it's section pattern.

NEW 'Define Pattern by Layer' dialog.

NEW 'Pattern by Layer' Skalp Style option to map section patterns as defined in the new 'Define Pattern by Layer' dialog.

NEWdefault layer setting: 'Skalp Pattern Layer'. It places the section results on layers named 'Skalp Pattern Layer - <pattern name>'. these Layers are auto-created on the fly when needed. 
Intended for advanced use in combination with SketchUp 'Color by Layer' setting. You need to manually attach a pattern / texture to each of these created layers. Click on the color box to the right of the layer name in the SketchUp layer dialog. This process can't be automated because the SketchUp API does not have a function to attach textures to the layers.

NEW 'Create Skalp Pattern Layers' added to the menu. May be used in conjunction with the new default layer setting: 'Skalp Pattern Layer'.

NEW **'Skalp Scales'**changing the scale of a scene will now correctly scale its section patterns. This is applied to the active scene only.

NEWYou can use different units for setting the size of the pattern in the dialog

JQL · 19 Jul 2014, 22:44

Hi Skalp,

I'm still very curious about your plugin... Have you got island detection yet? So we can hatch a column that is inside a wall automatically?

That might be the key feature that would get me on board...

Thanks,

João

TommyK · 25 Jul 2014, 10:18

I think there is a minor design flaw / bug with the Skalp sections planes. Skalp section planes contain visible edges around the material that it cuts through. This can be a pain in certain situations.

In the example below, each wall on each floor is in its own group (to allow working on separate floors more easily), but the bottom and top faces of each group are hidden. Sketchup's native Section tool ignores hidden faces (doesn't create a thick line denoting a cut), but these hidden faces are picked up as Skalp leaves edges around its patterns.

I would think Skalp would better make all edges in its section planes hidden, and let Sketchup's native section tool create the visible lines.

... although that may cause problems with object snapping in Layout... I'm sure a solution can be found.

Skalp · 31 Jul 2014, 18:01

Skalp Holiday Sale. Get 25% off until August 10, with the following coupon code HOLIDAY

[attachment=0:2v68r0yr]Holyday sale[/attachment:2v68r0yr]

The Skalp Team

Skalp · 31 Jul 2014, 18:02

Tommy,

For faster response please send feature requests, questions, bugs, ... directly to support@skalp4sketchup.com
We will look into this problem.

Regards,

The Skalp Team

rfox · 21 Aug 2014, 05:34

I was having an installation problem since the day i purchased, I use "regular" Windows 7 Ultimate. email the issue to them, got couple of feedbacks but it didn't seem help. I try to contact them several times....no respond.such a bad developer. at least they give me some good technical explanation regarding the issue.

Skalp · 21 Aug 2014, 05:47

@rfox said:

I was having an installation problem since the day i purchased, I use "regular" Windows 7 Ultimate. email the issue to them, got couple of feedbacks but it didn't seem help. I try to contact them several times....no respond.such a bad developer. at least they give me some good technical explanation regarding the issue.

Can you give me your support case number. So I can look to it. I know we have some open cases regarding unicode problems (special characters in path names) and we are still looking what causes the problem windows?, ruby?, sketchup? or Skalp?

regards,

The Skalp Team.