[Plugin] Slicer v4.3 20110619

TIG

Hi,
I'm interested in using the slicer plugin. I'm using the trial version of Sketchup Pro 7.1, and have downloaded Slicer31.rb. Whenever I try to use the plugin, Sketchup crashes. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Karen

First try testing it on a simple group and make a modest number of slices - say 10...
When you get the hang of what it does you can then up the 'fineness' of the slicing... BUT be patient...
If you try to make hundreds of slices it will take a while and it sometimes 'whites-out' and appears to stall... BUT it will usually complete if you leave it for a while...

TIG

@xrok1 said:

@unknownuser said:

I have a [privately written and hopefully paid for] 'Slicer v4' that has such lines added etc for CNC work - watch this space.

hey, are you finally going to make your own and bust that slicemodeler @&&hole

I have written a paid commercial version [private] - Slicer_v4 - for someone for CNC use etc... it [or some of its ideas] might leak out to you too...

xrok1

awsome!

kwalkerman

Thanks for the response. I have tried the slicer on a simple block, and only requested a few slices, but sketckup crashes completely and closes after it asks whether to add numbers to the slices. Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks.

TIG

A mystery...
Your details please:
Platform & OS
SUp version
Version of Slicer [open file with Notepad and read first section...]
Other plugins loaded [only anything unusual?]
Can you upload a simple skp that you have the problem with and a description of what failed - e.g. Z axis, 12" c/c etc...

It usually works painlessly for most users...

mariocha

@tig said:

@xrok1 said:

@unknownuser said:

Slicer_v4 - ... it [or some of its ideas] might leak out to you too...

So as to plan my work, is there a time estimate ?

eco_artbarn

hey I have been looking for this for ages to help my pupils with our laser cutter but i have been trying to down load slicer 3.1rb but i cant work out where to put the text version.
is there a slicer 3.1.rb file that i can just save and load into plugins folder?

cheers

TIG

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=16697#p16697
Save the linked file as Slicer31.rb into the Plugins folder - done...
If your browser insists on making it another file type you can always use Select All on the page and paste it into a new empty plain text file and rename it with a .rb suffix NOT .txt ...

mariocha

In our work, we often deal with terrains modeled as surfaces, not volumes, often very irregular. Making a volume out of them is sometimes quite hard, even with Joint Push-Pull.
Is there a "slicer" that can make slices from a surface ? Slices would then be only segments.

TIG

To give a meshed surface a volume requires a bit of planning...
You select all of the perimeter edges.
Then use my tool ExtrudeEdgesByVector to extrude all of these edges vertically downwards (-ve Z / blue) far neyond the lowest one.
Check that the faces are 'outwards'.
Leave the extrusion in its group for now.
Edit the group and draw a large flat rectangular plane facing down [reverse if necessay] located below the geometry, but so that it intersects with ALL of these new vertical faces.
Select All inside the group and 'Intersect with Selected'.
Erase the unwanted bits of the rectangle and change your view so you can easily 'select by fence' the bits of the vertical faces below it - delete them.
Close the group-edit and select all of the mesh and Edit-Copy.
Edit the group again and Edit>PasteInPlace
Now you have a 3D volume with the top as a mesh...
Move it to one side or copy the group and paste it into an empty model - and you can Volume or Slice, or whatever you need to do...

If you have two meshes - e.g. existing and proposed land surfaces - you can do a 'cut and fill' volume etc by intersecting them together and making a groups of what's left - there's a tutorial on that somewhere...

eco_artbarn

Thanks TIG that works a treat.
i am sure i have seen a slicer tutorial before where it adds the slots half way up and half way down, is there a way of doing that with 3.1?

i slice in the x and then sllice in the y and lay the sections out flat, but if there was a way of adding the midway slots that would be a huge advantage

let me know cheers ash

eco_artbarn

cool, when's it gonna be ready to unleash on us?

mariocha

Tig, I have tried your method to give a volume to a mesh surface. Not bad. But not it, for us.
Having to do all these extrusion just kills the gain. (btw I used the term terrain where I should have used cliff and hill sides.)
What we need is to replace our manual process of generating slice from the meshes, group&number them, and offset to get rib (& face) for cnc.
Or maybe just a rb to make numbered groups of our slice lines and then flattened copies ?

TIG

mariocha - I don't fully follow you...
To work out Volumes there are Volume Tools - Slicer is a different thing ?

TIG

There is a paid script SliceModeller that I unwittingly helped develop !
That adds slots to the slices... Slicerv4 might do that too...

mariocha

Sorry, I meant
Slicer only works on volumes, so you suggested to make volumes out of our meshes (with ExtrudeEdgesBy Vector).
We would like to automate mesh slicing to rib.
(giving an offset value to make the face)

TIG

Wouldn't it be quicker to make the 'curtain' and then use JointPushPull on it to give it a Volume then Slice it ?
Or are you looking for a Slice at Nodes option ?
Can you give a before and after example, with steps so I can understand your issues better...

mariocha

Indeed we tried with JPP. And we use it on simple meshes before Slicer. But often the mesh is too complicated, with acute angles, JPP results in a mess then. So an offset has to be done after the slicing.
But I realise that the overlaps that Offset often do are going to be a problem that will need manual work anyway.
So we only need the part of the script that generates the slices, numbers and flattens them, like #16.

TIG

So if I understand correctly, you want a version of Slicer that can make slices through a '2D-mesh' - a 'curtain' of faces [that have no 3D values in plan - or the equivalent 'other' dimension] - and then represent these as group of lines forming 2D slices laid out on plan. I assume that you don't want any 'thickness' to these 'slices' as they are initially 'lines' anyway ?

Are these always in plan ?
If so there already is my ContourMaker ?

I see you seem to 'make faces' of the results - this could be added as an auto-offset by a desired distance of the lines closed into a face...

What is the exact use of these later on ? CNC work ?

Is this what you want ?

mariocha

Yes Sir TIG, you got it right.
But these overlaps Offset creates (when some lines are shorter than the offset distance, I think) are going to be impossible to handle automatically, no?