This is clear as mud.

Does anyone know what Sketchup.dat is or what Sketchup.get_datfile_info does

@unknownuser said:

Sketchup.get_datfile_infoSketchUp 6.0+

The get_datfile_info method is used to retrieve the value for the given key from Sketchup.dat.

If the key is not found, default_value is returned.

Arguments:

key
    The key whose value you want to retrieve.

default_value
    The default value you want returned if key is not available.

Returns:

value
    a string value if successful.

 value = Sketchup.get_datfile_info(key, default_value)

I am trying to do the same thing - launch the 3D Warehouse pointed to a collection.

Does anyone have any ideas?

We're you able to use the Rhino iPad add without having to load the exported model into Rhino (or own Rhino?)

@unknownuser said:

By the way, do you know how to turn a normal map into a bump map? I want to use Bitmap to Mesh with a normal map, but first I have to turn it into a bump map...

[Edit - I presumed you wanted to turn a mesh into a bump map - I may have answered the wrong question.]

We wrote a (not free) app to turn a mesh into a bump-map. The trick is to look at the mesh from head on and make the closer faces either brighter or darker. A bump map does not have colors, but uses intensity of gray scale to represent Z-distance offsets.

We did this by extracting all the faces and running them through an OpenGL renderer which turned the distance from the camera into shading intensity. This worked well, but it was hard to find a good application for it.

You might be able to get a similar effect by making the object white, using a parallel projection, turning off all lighting, turning off edges, and adding fog. Then the amount of fog should represent the distance from the camera plane, and product the bump map.

I presume you have checked out Navicad?

http://www.navicad.com

I will be interested in your thoughts. We are considering a similar application which would let you make minor changes - such as changing a color or texture.

Also, has anyone checked to see if 3D adobe files (such as those from RPS 3D PDF) work on the iPad?

The latest version of IRender nXt has integrated the Lighting Channels adjustments directly into the rendering window. That, plus the ability to give names to each of the channels, has made this a much more powerful feature.

Take a look: On irendernxt.com web site, or on YouTube

The SketchUp model for this, if you want to try it your self, is available here: Lighting Channels Model
(Model courtesy of Boothy)

Lighting Channels:

Rendering with Balanced Channels:

@unknownuser said:

confused...

That's probably why they don't want to people to change the handles too easily.

On the other hand, I thought it might be fun to use a handle rather than an actual name.

My current signature contains an icon.

When I try to edit it, I get this message:

You cannot use certain BBCodes: [img].

Are images no longer allowed and/or is there another way to place an icon in the signature?

Can you change your user name, or handle, on the Forum. Or does it have to stay the same?

@thomthom said:

Right, so the raytest should have an argument to ignore hidden.

And, hopefully, they will make it an optional argument, so they don't break all the existing ruby files once again.

@kwalkerman said:

I can't currently think of a ruby workaround for this. The new version of raytest will limit the ability to get all objects at a certain location.

--
Karen

It would be fairly painful, but you could start an undo operation, delete each item as it is found (rather than changing the starting point of the ray, ot just hiding the object) and continue until all objects are found (saving their object IDs), then abort the operation to restore everything to the database.

Thanks tons, ThomThom, by tool is working again!

@thomthom said:

@al hart said:

It's what I do in my wrapper method that ensures the ray doesn't stop on hidden entities.

[EDIT: I see some code in a previous post. I will try it out]

Thanks,

Is there some code here in this thread already, or can you show me what you are doing to skip hidden geometry?

@unknownuser said:

@thomthom said:

Seems that they made it stop on any entity regardless of visibility - which mean we need to check that our selves and recast the ray.

EDIT: In my experience it was always the case.

@thomthom said:

But also managed to introduce a new nasty bug.

In reference to my previous post. Can I just move the ray itself past the point returned and "recast" it. Still, while trying to ignore an entire tree, or other component, this could be painful.

OOf...

Glad to find this thread. Several of our placement tools have started failing in SU 8.

We were using raytest to try to find a specific object behind the cursor, and then hiding anything we did not want to locate.

In this example, we are placing a component, and want raytest to ignore the component we are placing (We make it visible so the user can see it). This is from our "spray paint" tool which is trying to place trees randomly on the ground, but not on other trees which we just placed.

            item = model.raytest ray

            #Ignore any elements of the same type we are placing
            hidden_ents = Array.new
            while(item != nil && item[1].at(0).kind_of?(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance) && item[1].at(0).definition == definition)
                hidden_ents.push(item[1][0])
                item[1][0].hidden = true
                item = model.raytest ray
            end
            hidden_ents.each {
                |ent|
                ent.hidden = false
            }

However, in SU 8, hiding the component instance, when it is under the cursor - does not leave it out of the ray test. (We also discovered a nasty bug where we were looping forever if we are over the component being placed)

Can anyone think of a way to place components at the end of a ray, but ignore certain elements. Apparently .hidden will not work, and not even placing them on a temporary hidden layer. I haven't tried deleting them, (and then aborting the delete operation), yet. But it seems pretty painful.

Thanks to all for your help and advice.

We chose this one:

http://irendernxt.com/

SketchUp 8

SketchUp 8 incorporated a new version of Ruby which requires that you will need to install new versions of most Render Plus applications. You can download the latest version from: Downloads.

SketchUp Versions

When SketchUp releases a new version, you will need to reinstall your Render Plus Applications to use the new version. (Or you can copy some files from the old SketchUp plugins folder to the
new folder.)

See: http://irendernxt.com/forum/topics/instllation-into-sketchup-8

I was trying to get the function name in the trace as well.

It turns out that adding this line after every function definition may work well. It displays the rotuine name as well as the file and line number.

puts("TRACE: " + caller(1)[0].to_s) if $rps_show_traces

OK

I like the one with the "8", since my main confusion is between SketchUp versions.

However, this one is a .jpg and not a (hopefully transparent) .ico. So Windows will not let me use it.