Posts made by a4chitect

i have already let a few of you down, sorry. i promise to look into it and hopefully fix all main issues asap. you are free to do the needed changes yourselves, i think that currently there are 2 possible problems>

1. the script is unable to call the qhull program to compute the actual result, and/or is unable to read the exported points or unable to write the results to a file or unable to read the results

(all of this is probably due to incorrect paths in the script/or system incompatibility)

2. the problem is due to a specific points placement and the nature of the qhull algorithm (is often unable to find the correct result and therefore end without any...)

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so when you run point exporter first, check if the points.txt file gets created in the Plugins\Tooling

then when you run for example 'voronoi' - and nothing gets created, check if there is a file named qvoronoi.txt at the Plugins\Tooling location

if all of the above works, the problem lies probably with the geometry, try with fewer or different points

if you are desperate, please wait for a change by me..

all right - I guess that the 'missing' normal to blue axis is not available in the graphical JPP.

this is what fredo6 says about setting privileged plane in his visual edition:

@unknownuser said:

For Joint Push Pull, you can set the privileged plane by using short cuts Ctrl+Arrow, or just pressing Ctrl to enter a mode where you can specifiy any plane visually.

dtrarch which version of the JPP script are you using? because mine doesn't allow to set "normal to blue axis". is it a different version, or am I just doing something wrong?

thanks for your perfect workaround for creating 'correct' roads. I suggest using this approach to generate appropriate surface for the road (from simplified road contours) and then draping the exact shape of the road on this surface to get precise road surface

I found a way to import patches of terraing using a pregenerated grid in google earth, and have prepared a script to create this grid http://a4chitect.webng.com/

further info>
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=753

you will however still get 'unclean' stitches - but this is impossible to avoid since the imported terrain/imagery from ge isn't always rectangular.

remus if you found a quick way to create a road on a curved surface without the disadvantages of simple draping (road is not always horizontal in its cross section) please show us how!!! (I can only achieve acceptable results with lot of hard manual work and there is lot of complicated geometry involved)

thanks

Perfect, perfect!!!!

one of the best integrated script
perfect 'sketchup' feeling
fantastic results!!

thank you very much!

Xrok1: using the smoove tool along normals (~any direction) is part of the tool functionality, it gets activated by pressing and holding the Shift key while the tool is active

one more thing: maybe it would be useful to integrate 3dwarehouse into sketchup since sketchup is the sole purpose of the warehouse at the moment, and then we could browse the warehouse in a 3d environment native to sketchup and wouldn't have to think about switching between sketchup and the browser, and thinking about where to save the downloaded file (then care to delete the file it it doesn't fit)

~like using the google-earth streaming technology but not for the GE but for sketchup instead

[but I know that the web and google earth is more important to google and therefore don't expect the 3dwarehouse concept to remain off-browser]

this thread got me thinking even harder and I think that the entire 3d warehouse concept could be evolved even further:

1. there should be a dynamically generated system of hierarchy (the system could be self-organising by analysing the nesting of collection and perhaps the component names at the same time) for directory browsing
   space (root) --> galaxies --> solar system --> .... --> city --> street --> .. --> room -->

2. by analysing all components(geometry) with similar name and/or parent collection we could extrapolate the average volume of the component to compare against each member of the group to find any odd-postings

3. components should have a parametric functionality and dynamic links, now I'm thinking about Will Wright's new game Spores where you can create a creature from elements like eyes/hands ... and the system is intelligent enough to make a 'possible' organism. this inspires an idea: each uploaded component should be desintegrated into subgroups/subcomponents - each of those should be downloadable separately and you should be able to replace any of subcomponents by any other component or subcomponent from the warehouse in real-time

3.1 example
you find a great laptop model in the warehouse but don't like the included mouse next to the laptop so you just click on the mouse and the system brings up a gallery of mice and allows you to choose a different one

note: this could work with building - but you should be able not only to change the subcomponent but also change the number of subcomponents - to add more windows to a wall, to change the number of the columns, etc.
note2: all of this could work from within sketchup - is probably possible to code in ruby at the moment

4. another thing is that I hate to mix components of different accuracy next to each other - like when designing a kitchen and using a very detailed sink and a rough sketch of a faucet.
   I remember that there was an accuracy chart next to the models (now i can't find it) - so as to overcome this issue but it is always a struggle to really get the difference before you actually download the file

hi craig, thanks for bringing up this topic. I had to rethink my opinion about the warehouse, and I came to the conclusion that the main reason for me not using it, is that the preview images are often not very appealing. I know that you've done a lot to improve the site design and graphics, but the site itself is no longer the problem.

1. I would like to have a possibility to select a visual style for the warehouse model preview (like in sketchup) [for example to evaluate the pure geometry of the model unobstructed by textures]

2. And/Or show the preview in a higher res. or in a zoomable preview window

3. Separate user generated content from the official manufaturer's stuff - now I don't know if this is good or not, but seeing models of poor quality in the search results often makes a bad impression

EDIT: i know that generating different previews for the models would mean a lot of server-side action but maybe you could devise a format to stream the data to the user and have the sketchup engine make the preview? or just stream the .skp's? is this post all bullshit ?!
EDIT2: sorry craig and al, now I realized that it was al who originally brought this up

jim - wonderful idea!!
I just think this should be implemented by the official sketchup team and integrated more tight with the sketchup GUI (to allow managing menu commands, icons and stuff like this)

so that anybody could configure which scripts to load and which to leave unloaded for the moment

i know that ruby is capable enough to handle most of the stuff mentioned but I think that sketchup deserves a further development of the original Preferences\Extensions idea.

-because my plugins menu is getting crowded, it takes too long to find the right command, especially when the menu reorganizes itself when adding new rubies.

-because the top menu bar has a lot of space free (60% and more)

-because it is hard to keep your plugins organized and 'tidy'

thanks a lot! the tutorial by itself is a masterpiece, and you are definitely breaking new ground with your Choleski linear resolution matrix

yeah thanks! how comes I forgot I had this downloaded thanks jim

@jim said:

@a4chitect said:

nice tip didier, thanks. btw is it possible to have the ruby console accept entire paragraphs of script instead of only a line?

Maybe WebConsole. I use it sometimes for testing longer snippets.

http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-webconsolerb.html

nice tip didier, thanks. btw is it possible to have the ruby console accept entire paragraphs of script instead of only a line?

my current workflow is:
1.writing scripts in notepad++ (pretty good syntax highlighting, but haven't found any autocomplete functionality)
2.each change of a script has to be saved
3.after each change I have to load the script in sketchup with the script_loader.rb
4.run the script with open ruby console to debug

I have come across sketchup bridge by tbd, but I would like to here from you about your workflow and possible enhancements to mine.

the sketchflat program is great - it provides features which could make sketchup so much better for design! in fact i have planned to add parametric functionality to sketchup for a while - i wanted to create a parent - child relationship based on attributes describing the id-s of parents and describing the relation like (distance, angle, ...)

what do you guys think about this method? do you have any tips before i waste my time on something impossible?

try http://labs.plugins.ro/ - but that seems to be offline as well for now

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this is downloaded from that site about a week ago

re: macs
no it's not gonna work, since i don't have any mac at hand there is no way to port it myself (i guess there is a qhull for mac http://qhull.darwinports.com/)