@dave r said:

That's scaling with Cardinal Points and it is is both handy and it seems, little known. You won't get a perfect cone but it'll be close. It works for polygons, too.

Scaling with cardinal points is certainly a more accurate term than mine. Wanna try something difficult? Try to find it explained without knowing what its called! Takes a bit of googling.

i didn't know about the polygon part. I'll have to play with that.

Thanks

M

This may be hard to explain but a little known tip I use is what I call "move without selection" It works on cylinders to make cones...

Draw a circle.
Pull it up into a cylinder.
Rotate so you can see the top.
Now with nothing selected choose the MOVE tool

Now hover your tool around the top edge.
If the edge turns blue you are NOT on a cardinal point and if you move, the circle will move in the direction you move it.
BUT if your point is there as an endpoint and the circle is NOT blue you ARE on a cardinal point.
Moving from there causes the circle to get smaller or larger.

i use this method to make cones rapidly.

@chris fullmer said:

This might not be completely relevant, but Chris Dizon from Trimble wrote a station point importer that is pretty cool.

SketchUp Extension Warehouse

Your library of custom third-party extensions created to optimize your SketchUp workflow.

(extensions.sketchup.com)

Chris

Thanks Chris! It's interesting that you post this because I was just this week in Pittsburgh meeting with a Trimble guy. He was at a local distributor giving them a class and he agreed to meet with me to discuss Trimble total station purchase options.
We talked extensively about Sketchup integration and he said "Chris just wrote a point importer that's really nice." I said "Fullmer?" he looked confused and said "Umm, no. Chris". I decided him explaing his Chris and I explaining mine was not worth it, so I said "Well send me a link to it." Which he forgot to do.

We are trying to decide between a Field Link which uses Sketcchup and CAD or an LM80 which doesn't but has a really easy point entry interface. If I can use Sketchup in the same way I used to use LM80 then it's a lot easier decision which to buy.

what I need to do is a two step process.
Take points shot with an RTS and develop new points based on the shot points.
I.E. "From point 3 turn 90 degrees (based on a line that is drawn from point 4 to point 5) then move 4 feet and make a new point.

Step Two: Load those points, that were both shot and created, into an RTS to be staked out.

So I am rambling. I'm sorry. Thanks for your information I heard about it but didn't know where to find it.

Thanks!

@krisidious said:

I have to put finished grade and finished floor elevations on my drawings... could this deliver only Z height in a text tag?

I don't profess to be an instructor of any kind but in the settings you can set XY to "none" and it will just display just Z (or Z with any extra prefix you had specified), OR maybe go look at this...

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=193238#p193238 [Plugin] Add Height from Datum v1.3

I stumbled on that in my search. There's a nice video there for ya to watch. It's a plugin that adds a Z tag. (height)

TIG,
The more I play around with this plugin the more useful I think it will be for me.

This plugin actually made me realize I needed to upgrade to Premium.

I currently am playing with the CSV import/Export and I want to make sure I have this right.
I use tags with descriptions I.E "Pipe CL=" and when I export the saved format is # X Y Z in columns but when I Import the Import format has to be X Y Z # or it doesn't import.

Am I correct in this? In excel its a simple function of moving the entire column but I always have to keep this in mind. I constantly make changes to the CSV then import then make changes 'in model' then export and load CSV into the Total Station.

Is there a way to have the format ALWAYS be XYZ#?

Also how do i have the tag JUST show the # but store the XYZ while in the model? When I have many tags in close proximity the text overlaps to the point where you can't read it without a lot of mousing around.

Thanks for this great plugin.

M

@dave r said:

Maybe TIG's [Plugin] Coords Text Tag from Datum v2.3 20130611 would work?

Yeah, there is a way to set that up so that it would work. The Add Coords by tag works when I change the value. The plug in does way more than I need but that's fine by me.

Thank you for your help.

Now I need to see how the Trimble Field Link software sees the Cpoint when it loads it.

It's a shame when you are looking at a 40 thousand dollar machine and need to get plug ins from the web to make them work easier but when they took "input plan" out of their software these are the hoops I have to jump through.

Don't pay any attention to my complaining it's nice to have these high tech toys to take home on the week end to lay out the neighbors new garage.

Again thanks for your help! And if anyone else has any tips please leave them, I need to be able to enter coordinates in feet or feet inch fraction and have a guide point at the co ordinate. But it's going to take a pretty specific plug in to do it better than the Text Tag one.

thanks again,
M

Here is the situation:

I am a sketchup user who also uses Trimble robotic Total Stations. We are looking into a new Total station and the 773 uses a tablet with a software called Field Link.

This software can load sketchup models and then the RTS can have you stake out the model locations in the real world. The issue I am having is I want to be able to put 'points' in my model while in sketchup. Not a line or shape but simply coordinated points that have a N,E,Z

I can import CSV files with a point cloud plug in and it will have points as simple black dots but I would like to be able to enter coordinates somehow while in sketchup and it make a point (node?) at that location.

They are waiting for me to advise them on what model RTS to buy. I can get the scaled down one that I know how to run with the basic LM80 software but I am leaning towards the 773 that can use 3D models but this point thing is an issue and since the 773 is a considerable amount more than the 655 I'm concerned.

Thanks for any advice you can give me,
M