@tig said:

@gaieus said:

@olishea said:

remus that picture is so funny

Ditto (although it took me a while to "see" those invisible d*cks)

You really must get out more....

Actually, it took me a while too. Once I got it, it seems to me that the visual association would be more obvious/automatic to those who do not get out as much as they should, now that one does not have to go to theaters but can see it the privacy of one's own Internet connection.

@xrok1 said:

(yes i'm still thinking about it. )

As I said, don't hurt yourself. I have a workaround.

For me it's now at the level of how to make these amazing tools even more insanely flexible while still keeping them intuitively useful. Maybe one of the extension ideas I throw out will stick to one of the developers the way this question seems to have stuck with you.

August

@xrok1 said:

(has to be a group)

Thanks. I "thought" it was, but 3D text gets created as a component, not a group. Explode and regroup and the menu options are are there!

Thanks,
August

@tig said:

@keithver said:

... I've downloaded a "file.php". ... What do I do now?

That's the 'link' file - not the zip file you need! ...

Every once in a while I get hit with the reality of how many layers and layers and layers of this stuff are all nested together and we who use it every day jump between levels without thinking.

Applying the same thought to cars -- there was a time when it took two people to most easily start a car, one with a strong arm to crank the engine at the front, hoping to not break their arm if the engine kicks back, and one to operate the manual choke to cut back on the air as soon as the engine catches. Fast forward to today and automatic starters, automatic chokes, automatic transmissions, automatic seat adjustments and power mirrors. Now pick up a manual for a gasoline powered lawn mower and read the line, "The choke on the mower operates just like the choke on an automobile." And then pause to wonder who wrote that and how many of their readers ever drove an automobile with a manual choke. Did that line help or confuse?

This is just my long-way-around-the-barn way of saying to Keith, don't worry, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Just ask. You did. Somebody answered. If the answer is not complete enough, ask again.

This is all ad-hoc conversation, no formal manuals, no marketing departments writing Getting Started guides. Just folks sharing something they love doing. And generally happy to help newbies find their way around.

To push the automobile metaphor, Plugins are like after-market kits. Yeah, they just pop into place, mostly, but it helps to have a clue how to use a wrench, or a buddy who can give advice, and it definitely helps to have an overview of how a car goes together so you have a clue what's what when you're shopping. Sometimes there's two of these add-on kits that you have trouble with because they both want to use the same mounting hole and you or the creators need to make some modifications so that both kits can be used at the same time.

For instance, Chris, a certified expert who also tries to stay on top of this forum, did not know that Didier, another expert, had posted a new version of his "kit" nearly two months ago, that fixed that "mounting bolt" conflict between their two kits that has had so many people upset. But it's fixed and folks know now, and word is going to get around, as long as people keep talking.

Sometimes the "kit" installation notes are less than perfect, sometimes you have to supply your own bolts and washers. But they are a lot of fun and allow you to do things you never could if you had to do it all from scratch.

For what it's worth, I hope it helps, (FWIW, IHIH)
August

I'm having no luck getting started with this. I suspect that I'm missing some changes in the directions for how to get started, but I'm pretty sure that I at least skimmed the whole thread.

1. Download and install the v1.6 script from the first post.
2. Open SU, create a test object (3D text my favorite for testing this kind of thing).
3. Plugin Menu has four new items, but they all appear to need c-points already added.
4. Right click (context click) on the group --
   No new menu items, nothing mentioning c-points, the options suggested at various points in the thread (I don't know for sure that I've found the most recent) are not there.

Any pointers to what steps I'm missing?

Thanks,
August

P.S. Windows 7, SU 7.1.6860

@tig said:

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

"Take time to appreciate the fact that thorn bushes have roses."

@huckrorick said:

... Since I like to use component spray occassionally, is there a solution to using both?

Also, I'm wondering if having lots of plugins installed slows sketchup? (I have quite a few and some I use infrequently). ...

Chris has set up Shape Bender to use the Window > Preferences > Extensions checkbox list. I presume that Component Spray does not.

If you have ever done any programming at all, of any kind, it's not too hard to follow how the Extensions are set up. It's a little obscure because there's an extra layer in all the Google Extensions to set the language file. But you "could" set up Component Spray to have the same kind of checkbox setup. Changing the file name is definitely easier.

FWIW,
August

Thanks for the enthusiasm Rocky,

@xrok1 said:

... c'mon people, i'm pullin my hair out here. ...
but dont' hurt yourself over it.

I woundn't even be thinking about it as a possibility if all these other wonderful tools hadn't set my expectations so high.

And I'm certainly not the programmer to do it myself.

I have not tried "TIG's extrusion toolset" but your phrasing suggests it's another one that does not quite go this far.

I'm just trying to work out a design idea. I have manual ways to try it out in rough form. If I get hooked on one that takes some tedium to execute in finer detail, I'll just put on some music and get into a "Tower of Hanoi" rhythm.

It looks from the PhotoShop screen shot like Adobe calls that particular morph "Fisheye". I had thought about using that term myself, but I didn't because I thought it would unnecessarily predispose people to thinking in terms of 2D-like solutions.

I like your notion of "Shape Bender on steroids". SB is still at Beta 0.55, so I might imagine this for SB 2.0. Where SB 0.55 has a single Guide line and single Target Curve, I could see SB 2.0 allowing two or four (or N?) matching Guide Lines and Target Curves. (1. Select Source Group. 2. Activate SB. 3. Select single lines or group of N lines. 4. Select Target Curve or group of N Target Curves. -- How do you specify the order of the lines and the Target Curves? Like most such development projects, if you can design a UI that lets the user intuitively and unambiguously specify their intent, you're part way there.)

That would be a lot like being able to apply SB or FredoScale to the guide points of SFFD. From a programming standpoint, extending SB to multiple Guide Lines seems like a smaller conceptual jump than extending FS to be able to move SFFD's guide points, but maybe "all" it would take is getting FS to handle nested groups. Maybe extending SFFD to align guide points to a target curve, like SB, would be the easiest of all.

But of course, I don't know the internals of any of these, nor how much interest any of these developers has in going out into the ionosphere here. Comparing relative "ease" of these tasks is irrelevant when there are three different volunteers involved. (I can see it now, this year's Ruby extension challenge, submissions due 12/31. )

Thanks again for jumping in, Rocky. At least I know I'm not missing the obvious (as I too often do).

August

@august said:

"Bumped too"?

I grok "bumped". Makes sense if you are paying attention to that context. I usually don't.

@xrok1 said:

wouldn't it be better to use an intersect with model for this?

Ahh... I was afraid my example would be too simple.

Here's another example, this time with Sketchy FFD 2-09-10, with the control points moved to the curve manually. I used 24 segments for FFD and selected and moved groups of points symmetrically, from the ends in toward the center, so there were only 11 moves to do. The effect is not bad, except for the places where it looks as if SketchyFFD lost track of some edges and didn't move them, breaking up the shape.

I discovered that you can group control points, manipulate the group, and then when you ungroup the deformation is applied. But you cannot use FredoScale on the group because Fredo only works with edges and you cannot use Shape Bender on the group because Shape Bender makes a copy and that loses the connection (however it is maintained internally).

I hope this is clearer,
August

@xrok1 said:

you might also try the control points plugin i just bumped too, but its not working for me right now.

Thanks. Which? Where? "Bumped too"?

I've been poring over the deforming/reforming plugins, Shape Bender, Fredo Scale, Sketchy FFD, and the only one I see that might be able to do what I want looks like Sketchy FFD, but even it would be very laborious.

What I want to do is like FFD but with the control points pulled out to align on a curve like Shape Bender. The result would have one side of the object following the curve while the other side stayed put, with points in the middle balanced between the two.

The only way I can see to do it right now is to use lots of control points in FFD in one direction and manually pull them out to line up with the desired curve. OK for a rough trial, but to do a smooth curve with 40 or 120 segments would be painful.

Have I made my idea clear? Does anyone know of a technique, script, or combination of tools that could do this kind of thing?

The attached drawing (hopefully) shows the concept.

Thanks,
August

Here's a similar drawing for a horizontal (red-green plane) Target Curve.

@august said:

... Shape Bender slices up the Original Object with vertical slices, according to how many segments there are in the Target Curve. One of the keys to predicting how it is going to work is that it will keep those slice faces vertical. It will rotate them in the Red-Green plane, but the slices will stay vertical. ...

It's a little more complicated than that. The slices stay vertical, but it's not a straight linear projection, as I was implying.

Based on the attached drawing, I think the Guide Line gets evenly divided into the number of segments in the Target Curve, so if the segments in the Target Curve are not evenly spaced, different segments in the Result will be stretched or compressed horizontally.

In the drawing, a straight projection of the Target Curve onto the Guide line results in uneven spacing, but where the Source Object is divided is different, those places are evenly spaced along the length of the Guide line.

I hope this helps,
August

Thanks Chris,

I found this to be a very readable script for learning a little more Ruby. It's pretty clear from context what it's doing as far as finding a perpendicular direction, creating a temporary "z" from the original two edges, etc. I assume the ".cross" function is the Cross-product from vector algebra, which I vaguely remember, but I'll have to look up what that actually is and why it's called "cross".

Thanks again,
August

@tig said:

... Chris Fullmer also made a script to find the center-point of an 'exploded' arc... see this link http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=155504#p155504

Thanks TIG,

Chris' script is working great for me. It's also a very readable script for learning a little more Ruby. The function "cross" in it I assume is "cross product" which I remember as having something to do with vector math, so I'll have to look that up to fully follow the inside workings of it. But it's clear that it works by the same method as described for manually above -- create lines perpendicular to the centers of the two selected edges and place a point where they cross.

Thanks again,
August

@benjamin22 said:

... you guys are legends ...

I am honored and humbled that you put me in the same category as Chris and Xrox.

August

@jean lemire said:

To get the center of an Arc, a Polygon or a Circle, hover the cursor over any endpoint on the curve untill you get a pop-up message stating "endpoint", then, move near where the center should be and you shall get a pop-up message stating "center".

Hi Jean,

It's not working for me with a polygon. Obviously I'm missing something.

I have a shape that used to be a circle but isn't anymore. It's now a 240-sided polygon. I can right-click and convert it between polyline, polygon, curve, and exploded, but I cannot convert it to arc or circle and no matter what state it is in, I cannot get a popup saying "Center".

Jean, when you say "hover the cursor" I don't get any Endpoint popups if I just have the select tool, so I'm using the Line tool. What tool are you using?

I made sure the Extensions > Ruby Script Examples plugin is installed, but I don't get the Point At Center option in the context menu for the polygon. I do get it for arcs/circles.

If there were a Draw Perpendicular tool I would just cross a couple of diameters.

This is such a basic operation, yet it's stumping me tonight.

Suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
August

I'm trying to use 3D text to design a logo and because some single letters will be used in fairly large size, I'd like to smooth the curves of the letter forms.

However, there does not seem to be any way to do this. The letter curves seem to be built into the font description and are not influenced by the default number of segments of a circle or anything else that I have been able to imagine. Sometimes, as when a curve turns through nearly 180 degrees in 8 segments, the curves can look pretty rough.

The only thing I've come up with is to generate the text with the standard tool and then go through the forms, curve by curve, and convert them to Uniform B Splines.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Any suggestions on which spline tools would be better for this?

Thanks,
August

Hi Ben,

@benjamin22 said:

... The circular parts of the pipe are staying vertical rather than arraying around the arc, thus crushing the pipe and flattening it out!

Thanks for uploading the sample file.

Back in March, I showed an example of using Shape Bender with vertical curves, in this post, where I attached a picture that shows the target curve in the Green-Blue plane and not flat at all.

In that sample, the vertical faces of the original shape stay vertical, they don't fan out on the convex curves and compress on the concave curves. That's what's happening to your pipe too.

Shape Bender slices up the Original Object with vertical slices, according to how many segments there are in the Target Curve. One of the keys to predicting how it is going to work is that it will keep those slice faces vertical. It will rotate them in the Red-Green plane, but the slices will stay vertical.

The result is that for vertical curves Shape Bender projects the shape onto the curve vertically, for horizontal curves, it fans out and compresses, which is typically what you expect.

@unknownuser said:

Also how can I get more segments into my circle to smooth it out?

The number of segments in the Shape Bender Result is exactly the number of segments in your Target Curve. So you just need to draw your Target Curve with more segements. Whether you are using a Circle and cutting it or if you are starting with an Arc, when you select the tool, you can tell it the number of segments by typing a number and following it with an "s" to tell SU that the "units" for the number is segments.

Sometimes you can get away without the "s" if you have not started drawing yet, but SU can quickly decide that you are drawing at which point any number with no units will be the radius in the default units. So I always put the "s" in. I'm already typing the number anyway.

I hope this helps,
August