[REQ] Rotated Rectangle to Merge with Model

JQL

Hi,

I wonder if any of the good Ruby folks around here could help me with an issue Trimble created with 2017 and I don't think they are going to revert it. Maybe it's a "by design" decision, even if a poor one.

SU had the rectangle tool forever. Then the Rotated Rectangle plugin example was created. I used it since the day I found it, as it's a much more clever way to draw rectangles in 3D space (also parallel edges and other stuff that is really useful...)

Then Trimble developed the rotated rectangle tool as a native tool in SU2015 (I think).

At the time I didn't understand why they were developing something that was already achievable with a plugin they developed themselves, but then I understood it:

It had an amazing amount of ways of finding angles for planes and edges and more planes... I never used those but it was nice to know they were there for someone else to use.
Even if it allowed for complex uses one could also draw rotated rectangles with the simplicity of the plugin as always. So it was great!
Even better was the fact that the generated face and edges merged with existing faces and edges, which didn't happen with the existing plugin most of the times.

So I adopted it since then.

However, for Sketchup 2017, Trimble decided the rotated rectangle wasn't really working nicelly and so they turned one of their most clever tools into a headache for people like me that want to draw fast and visually.

Now, if we want to define the second edge by a distance from the first, we first have to introduce an angle in the VCB for the second edge plane even if, like all the other SU tools, we have already found that plane through inference system.

I really cannot get the idea... so I had to revert to the old plugin.

The tradeoff is that when I draw a rectangle now, it's edges and face don't merge with coplanar edges and faces, it also makes double faces sometimes and requires a lot of manual fixing that also create a huge mess as faces and edges aren't merged. Sometimes I have to trace around all edges of the new rectangle, generating all sorts of double faces.

I now have to choose between the rotated rectangle that least breaks my workflow and I cannot decide which one it is.

Bottomline:

Can any one of you take a look at the old plugin and find a way to make it merge faces and edges with existing geometry everytime?

I'd be really really grateful.

Thanks in advance,

João

sdmitch

Check PM for possible solution.

Pixero

Have you tried my 3pt rectangle plugin? Not sure it does what you want though.