I've since found another plugin that does a similar job - Eneroth 3D Rotate, from the Extension store.

So it's not so important to get this one working, but a pity it no longer works in later versions of SU.

I'm still curious as to what has broken it - some Ruby update? Something else in the environment like graphics driver or OS?

I do have two accounts, and posted by mistake using the one I share with Steve Baumgartner (slb_jwm). But I thought I had deleted it immediately I realised I'd used the wrong login, and reposted in my own account.

Sorry for the confusion.

@tig said:

If you run it with the Ruby Console open are there any error messages ?

It is 'open-source' so if you are up to it you can try editing the code to see what happens...

There are no messages at all in the Ruby console, either when it is working in 2017, nor when it crashes in 2020 and 2021.

A different plugin (PointTool.rb by Matt666) crashes in 2020 onwards, and Steve Baumgartner looked at it as I got no response from Matt. Steve said it blew up something in the graphics driver, but could get no further than that.

I'll try it in Windows 10/SU2020 and also on my Mac Book Pro, to see if a different OS or graphics card allow it to work.

I've published several plugins, but only with help from a more experienced Ruby programmer - several with Steve, and a couple with help from ThomThom.

I could have a look at the code but its unlikely I can spot anything. And I half-remember reading somewhere on the SketchUp forum that Ruby shouldn't be able to generate a bugsplat, but I'm not sure if that's right.

But thank you for such a prompt response.

In an ancient SU Forum post there was reference to both your plugin (which in 2017 does exactly what I want to do) and another which I'll try again to track down and see if that works in current versions.

I've looked at the thread about this plugin, and it seems development stopped in 2013, with a comment in the 'release notes' that it has been future proofed.

It's just the thing I was looking for, but it doesn't seem to work in either SU2020 or SU2021.

I get first a hang (Mac OS X Mojave 10.14.6) then a bug splat in both, after starting the plugin and making the first click. The black ball for the rotation point appears, but jumps of of its own accord to a point near the cursor, then freezes SU. I wait for a minute to see if it clears, but it doesn't.

@TIG, is it fixable? I'd REALLY like to be able to use it in later versions of SU.

I'll try it in 2018 or 19 to see if I can get it to work in one of those, or even an earlier version or two that I have installed.

I love this tool for its simplicity and convenience in use.

Unfortunately, it freezes the newly released SU 2020, and needs a Force Quit (on Mac Mojave) and I can't see why. It fails, and freezes SU 2020 when you try to add a point. No error message in Ruby console, either.

Any chance, Matt, you could update it to work in the latest version of SU? It worked fine in 2019.

I’ve used the original parametric.rbplugin from the Sketchup team in two of my plugins, SU Draw Parametric Shapes, and Polyhedra (both hosted on the SketchUcation Plugin Store).

It suffered from two drawbacks, which I’m pleased to say have now been fixed by Steve Baumgartner (@slbaumgartner).

1.Parameter order was not preserved when Editing an already-drawn component, as the parameter key/value pairs were stored in a hash, not an array, and would be returned in an arbitrary order.

2.If I installed both plugins, then I would get duplicate entries in the context menu when right-clicking to edit a drawn shape or polyhedron.

To preserve key/parameter order, each derived classin the calling function now needs to define a new function which passes an array of keys to parametric.rb in the required order. Here’s an example from the Shapes plugin, for a Helix shape:

  
  def keys
    ['start_radius','end_radius','start_height','end_height','start_angle','rotations','num_segments']
  end

To preserve backward compatibility, the revised parametric.rb implements a default keys method which returns nil, if not overridden by the derived class as in the example above.

I’ve updated both my plugins on SketchUcation to use the revised parametric.rb plugin, which will be installed along with the parent program when you update the plugin.

You need to restart SU after updating the plugin.

If you use this script in your own code, CHANGE THE MODULE NAME to use your own initials and calling program name instead of JWM::Shapes.

@einstein said:

Great thanks, johnwmcc, for this plugin!

Thanks for your appreciate comment.

@einstein said:

Did you consider designing a toolbar for it? I'm sure for many users it became one of the very basic tools in SU. Having it accessible on top of the screen would be nice

Not sure I know how to do that, but will consider it when I have time (probably not for at least weeks) - I have several other higher priority projects on the go at the moment, leaving me little time to update this one.

Useful plugin to name the materials taking a lot of space.

Would it be possible to list, as well, the component containing the material? On a Mac, particularly, there's no easy way to list or search to FIND the material just from its name.

Thanks, SD Mitch, for this very useful plugin.

Just installed this on iMac El Capitan. The input box dialogue is truncating the field names.

This is a known bug in InputBox on Mac, and can be fixed by adding extra spaces in the Prompts line of the call to inputBox.
prompts=["Step Width: ","Tread Depth: ","Riser Height: ","Num of Steps: ","Step Depth:","Rail Height:", "Rail Offset:","Height of Stairs:"]

The text above displays only one extra space added but in reality there are several - HTML is collapsing multiple spaces into one.

Result

I've incorporated this change into my own copy. Could it be fixed for any future plugin updates?

I have a model of a rotating plate with simple pivots and cranks. I've simplified it a bit, manually, into three different planes, and can if necessary use that.

But I wanted to flatten it completely, and tried this plugin for the first time, installed, along with Workplane.rb, today via the Sketchucation plugin.

Here's an image of the simple three-plane model, with pivot pins in 3D.

Here's the result of running Flatten to Plane:

The elements have all got misaligned.

Here's the simple model itself:
Simple Model

And here's what I tried originally while it was part of a more complex model:
Original model

Is this a bug in the plugin used in SU 2017?

When I first tried the plugin on the original component inside a more complex model, I got only an empty group returned.

Is there a workaround? Would it work if I use it in an earlier version of SU make? I have different ones back to SU8 M2.

Seems like a very useful plugin, and I for one would be happy to see it working again, if it does have problems in SU 2017. I'm using it on iMac 5K 27" with AMD Radeon R9 M395 2048 MB graphics.

[EDIT}
I did eventually get the original 3D model to flatten, but it too moved the pieces around relative to each other, including rotating the original round plate back to its original location, rotated back 165 degrees, and way off centre.