Why do you need a plugin? It is already hard coded.

Open "Components" window, click/highlight required component, rt-click, "Select Instances". Job done.

I have a Scene that turns off all layers apart from layer zero. If you do the same then you can just step throught turning on each layer one at a time and grouping what is on screen (Ctrl-A then group). If there are entities on layer zero you may need to group and move them to a new layer, as layer zero will keep reverting to default and become visible.

The above assumes you don't have any entities "Hidden" in the scene as they won't be picked up in the grouping process.

So simple it could take longer to write the plugin, but TIG hasn't commented yet...

Hi Joel, I got it to work first time on the pro version by only selecting the lines to offset, then cleaning up. As the required offset is equal to the "clamp" thickness I thought it may be testing SU's logic to do a straight face offset.

Just a couple of general observations on your model:

1. Your back and front face colour is white. Change the back colour and you will notice some faces that shouldn't be showing for a solid object.
2. You have some hidden lines which should have been coplanar and deletable if you had modeled accurately.

Hope that helps.

@pb22 said:

Also, when placing arcs in Layout, it creates a closed surface area that blocks the imported model. Is there any way to make that surface "hidden" or "transparent" so that I can see what's under the closed area of the arc?

Select the shape and then turn off "Fill" in the "Shape Style" settings. If you are going to repeat drawing the line pick it with the style sample tool otherwise it will retain the previous settings.
You should look at a tutorial for using the built in Scrapbook which may help your workflow.

@a_iverson said:

There are no cylinder, cube, pyramid, sphere exc. I try to draw them but it gets my time. All the 3d programs have them. If sketchup means easy draw then have to be in Sketchup.

Save yourself some time and add the ones you made to your own library. The reason you may not find them included is the way SU works with curves, or rather lack of, as everything is created with straight lines. Not a problem if you accept the limitations but the resolution of a curve can have a big impact on model size and processing speed.

@a_iverson said:

And the interface must be changed. Because when i open the program it looks like a child program. It must be like proffesional.
I quite like the icons for their clarity of function, but you never know, under Trimble they MAY be refreshed soon.

I haven't checked because it's not an issue for me, but have you tried saving the setting with your preffered template?

Oh no, pun humour... resistance is futile

I get the same thing. It can possibly be summarised as: If the tape measure picks up an inference point first then it won't generate a new guideline. I've tried it with other inference points and the result is the same. Not a disaster but maybe a minor bug that could do with tidying up. I know there are worse things for SU to worry about.

The other variant to TIG's observation is if you draw a guide between two existing points e.g. the corners of a rectangle you will then get an infinite guide rather than a length limited one.

For anyone interested there is a graphical example here...

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=47493#p425008

I'm not in agreement that we need a "custom view", I believe the required view handling is already processed through Scenes in SU. What need resolving is LO's Ortho implementation.

Having checked this out for myself I was very suprised to find the LO "Ortho" button wasn't flattening the Scene if the view isn't aligned with the standard axis, so dimensions would report a 3D distance rather than the relevant plane view dimension.

This is a dangerous implementation of "Ortho" as it would not be unreasonable to assume dimensioning an aligned view was flat but find things had gone to manufacture with unidentified and significant errors in the drawing dimensions.

The only reliable workaround is to explode the view, but that destroys the link between the model and LO.

Fix needed urgently!

Makes you wonder if some of these court cases are mutual publicity stunts. Looking at some of the claims and counter claims then the final balance is probably quite small in relation to a global advertising campaign that would raise both companies profiles to the same level, although that last USA decision looked eye wateringly expensive for Samsung.

Wasn't there a company called Micro$oft that had some new product in development...

I thought the "Ortho" button was already doing that job in LO Greg, looks like it hasn't been fully implemented!

An octagonal shape applied to TIG's design would sort out the seat backs.

Well this came as a shock! I always thought that an aligned view was automatically "flattened" in LO for dimensioning purposes. I personally think it's something that should be fixed in the next update.

The obvious workaround is to dimension without autoscale and introduce lines etc in LO to provide 2D points that then give the correct dimension. An alternative which could be suitably managed with layers is to create a vector viewport and then explode it. The resulting geometry is automatically flattened. It shouldn't take too much effort to replace it following a model up date, but not sure what it does to the dimension connectivity. The exploded geometry could sit over a "raster" viewport if you want textures.

If as you say you have checked with several files including some that have worked previously then it may be worth running the reinstall of SU. Have you upgraded to the latest V8 M4?

You can turn off the "animation" transition between scenes so you get an almost instant jump between views if that helps?

They are called "scenes" and are already built into SU. You should do some searches and look for tutorials as they are an essential link to get the best out of LO.

@rumcajs said:

Thanks. It works. Just it take me a lot of effort to zoom exactly to the joint.

Funny thing about the SU inference engine, it can sometimes find the end point etc quicker from a zoomed out view than than you can trying to zoom in and find it!

Preaching to the converted I fell out with Autodicks arrogance a long time ago.

To be fair SU/Layout need to put some time in on the 2D side of things, but I think that's down to layout still being on a learning curve. Keeping my fingers crossed for good things in LO4.