Select Only Solids

KrisM

I need to have only solids (groups or components) in some of my models. What I need to do is select the whole model but only those objects that are solids. I have looked at various selection plugins but nothing does what I'm after. I need to find the non solid objects in the model so that they can be fixed. Any ideas out there?

KrisM

Wo3Dan

@krism said:

..... I need to find the non solid objects in the model so that they can be fixed. Any ideas out there?KrisM

I don't know of a plugin that selects just solids.
But hovering over geometry with the 'Move' tool "temporarily" highlights what the cursor is over, as if it were selected. At that time 'Entity Info' displays whether the geometry is a group or component and if so, whether the grouped geometry is a SketchUp's solid. This without actually selecting anything.
Maybe this will help you out.

KrisM

I already use the entity info box to identify the solids. What I want to do is select the whole model, filter out the solids and deal with the remainder. If I have a couple of hundred objects to go through individually, it is a bit of a task.

pilou

Maybe this ?

KrisM

This looks like it provides information only but doesn't allow me to select a group of objects and do something to them.

slbaumgartner

Something like this? SLBTest::all_but_solids clears the selection and then adds everything except solids to it. I assumed you wanted attention to the non-solids to fix or eliminate them, but if you want to select the solids the logic could easily be reversed by replacing "unless" with "if".


require "sketchup.rb"

module SLBTest
  def self.all_but_solids
    sel = Sketchup.active_model.selection
    sel.clear
    Sketchup.active_model.entities.each {|ent|
      unless ((ent.instance_of?(Sketchup;;Group) || ent.instance_of?(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)) && ent.manifold?)
        sel.add ent
      end
    }
  end
end

TIG

Here's a one-liner... Copy+Paste in the Ruby Console + <enter>
This highlights all solids in the selection.

s=Sketchup.active_model.selection;a=s.to_a;s.clear;s.add(a.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)+a.grep(Sketchup;;Group).select{|i|i.manifold?})

This highlights all solids in the active_entities context.

m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;s.add(m.active_entities.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)+a.grep(Sketchup;;Group).select{|i|i.manifold?})

KrisM

slbaumgartner & TIG,

Thanks for your help. A few problems.

My procedure -
Select all entities (84 entities total, 7 non solid components, 1 line, rest are solid groups and components.
Run script.

slbaumgartner - I get an error message

Error: <main>:9: syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting '}'
end ^
SketchUp:1:in `eval'

TIG -

First script - Get 83 Components/Groups in Entity Info box, the 1 line is deselectd, the 7 non solids are still selected.

2nd script - Get 84 Components/Groups in Entity Info box, which is weird since the 1 line looks like it is deselectd, the 7 non solids are still selected.

Solid Test1.zip

slbaumgartner

That sounds like a cut-and-paste error, as the code worked without that error on my system. The attached Ruby has that method and also the inverse one that selects all solids.

all_but_solids.rb

KrisM

Feeling kind of dumb here. Put the ruby in the plugin folder but cannot for the life of me find where to use it from?

KrisM

Also tried opening the ruby in Notepad and Notepad++, copying and pasting into the Ruby console. Nothing happens. I am obviously missing something.

Jim

I found myself frequently turning to the Ruby Console for making anything more than simple selections.

So I made a sel command, and now in the Ruby Console I can type things like:

sel ;all
sel ;edges
sel ;faces
sel ;groups
sel 0 [or ;none or ;clear] 
sel ;cons
sel ;invert

etc.

Quite efficient. It's too hackish to share at the moment. I'll try to remember to fix it up and post it.

slbaumgartner

@krism said:

Feeling kind of dumb here. Put the ruby in the plugin folder but cannot for the life of me find where to use it from?

It was a quick hack, not really a plugin. If you put it into the plugins folder, try opening the Ruby Console and typing SLBTest::all_but_solids or SLBTest::only_solids.

KrisM

Great. Works like a charm. Thanks very much.

Einstein

@tig said:

Here's a one-liner... Copy+Paste in the Ruby Console + <enter>
This highlights all solids in the selection.

s=Sketchup.active_model.selection;a=s.to_a;s.clear;s.add(a.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)+a.grep(Sketchup;;Group).select{|i|i.manifold?})

This highlights all solids in the active_entities context.

m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;s.add(m.active_entities.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)+a.grep(Sketchup;;Group).select{|i|i.manifold?})

Hello, TIG,
I know this thread is old, but the problem hasn't been completely solved.
Thank you for the script you provided. It works well with groups, but doesn't take components into account. When I run it on a selection, it will filter solids among groups, but not components. All preselected components will stay selected, no matter whether they're solid or not.
Tested on SketchUp 2021.
I would love to have a plugin that would consider both groups and components and could be launched from Extensions menu. Do you think you could do that?

TIG

The simple code snippets should select any component_instances AND groups which are solids...
Please post an example of how it doesn't work...

Einstein

I have prepared an example model with:
1 solid group
1 non-solid group
1 solid component
1 non-solid component

In this model your second script selected both components, regardless of their solid state, leaving both groups unselected.
Your first script has removed the non-solid group from selection (I preselected all entities), but didn't filter components at all.
So none of the scripts worked 100% as expected.

solid entity selection - example.skp

TIG

There was a typo in my code - to select all solids in the active entities context use this fixed version...

m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;a=m.active_entities;s.add(a.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance)+a.grep(Sketchup;;Group).select{|i|i.manifold?})

The other one, to select only solid components/groups in a selection, works OK...

Einstein

That's strange.
In my case, your new code still only filters groups. No components are affected.
Do you think that some plugin could interfere with it?

Einstein

I also tested it in SU 2020, where I only have a few basic plugins enabled.
I get the same wrong outcome.