@tt_su said:
The classifier system was such a big change that it was in the works close uptil release which didn't leave us with enough time to implement a proper API for it.
Ah! Too bad... That's why I couldn't find it in the documentation. 
I really would like to have API access to the new classifiers.
Apart from the existing unofficial :add_classification and :remove_classification I would also like to have a :get_classification method.
Cheers!
Jan
@tig said:
a good classify_point result for the .origin ...
Didn't think of that, you are right, you need a classify_point otherwise it could glue to a face on the same plane a mile off! 
@thomthom said:
Though... not quite sure how to work out what face to glue it to...
Checking every face in the active collection for a common plane with the component could probably get slow...
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/geom.php#intersect_plane_plane
If that's too slow, maybe only check if a cutting component AND a face are selected?
Great little plugin!
Found it thanks to the new Extention Warehouse, should have seen this years ago!
It would be great if you could add a "glue" option to the context menu(below the standard "unglue" option).
Cheers!
Jan
@jql said:
However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside
What about(for now) putting the profiled wall "caps" into the cutting window component? I know it does not(yet) hide the lines where the profile meets the wall, but that's something I could easily fix.
Check out the attached image and demo file(I roughly borrowed the window shape from ThomThom, because it nicely illustrates a complex profile).
window.skp
@jql said:
When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;
I'm unable to reproduce this one, and also have not yet been able to crash SketchUp, but I will try some more(and bigger) models.
@jql said:
If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.
Yes, I do like to see these models! Might make reproducing the errors easier.
I did notice another bug.
Sometimes when I create a new model without closing SketchUp first, newly created walls are not seen by the plugin(and so cannot be modified from the plugin).
I will figure out where this comes from...
@jql said:
Are you still aiming at that or have you stopped developing it?
Yeah, I'm still working on it! Thanks for taking the time to point these things out.
I got a bit sidetracked for the last... couple of months I guess. 
I have been working on a very cool new feature, but I can't get it to work the way I want yet.
@jql said:
The things I find difficult to handle are the following:
- The plugin is great in defining thickness for any kind of geometry I throw at it. This for itself would be a great addition to Sketchup if only the remove BIM Properties button would do that. The problem is that, when I remove those properties, somethings still remain there and mess with the model later. Sometimes it creates a bugsplat, sometimes it shows new geometry.
I will do some tests on the remove BIM properties button. I didn't notice it's leaving properties behind, and it should not be hard to fix this.
@jql said:
Would it be possible to remove everything and keep only the groups the plugin created?
I have been thinking about this myself too, it would be a useful option to "just" generate geometry. If you(or someone else) have a good suggestion on how to add this to the interface without making it too cluttered or complicated I will add this. I could for example make a pop-up that makes you choose what properties to remove, but I am reluctant to add too many steps to the process.
@jql said:
- Sometimes when changing wall thickness Sketchup simply crashes;
I'm aware of this and this is probably the biggest problem at this moment. It makes the plugin difficult to use. I added the option to disable automatic updating of geometry(mostly to prevent it from interfering with other plugins). When this is disabled I get no crashes, If you do, please let me know!
The downside is then you have to update every object manually, and I think the most fun thing of the plugin is that it automatically updates the geometry after modifying the source-faces.
The observers I have used for this still seem to cause bugsplats, although much less frequently as they did at first. I will have to work around these observers but that may make editing less "smooth".
@jql said:
- When one applies different materials to the inner and outer faces, they disappear if you insert a window or redefine thickness;
I will have to test this, I will come back to you on this one.
@jql said:
- When inserting a window it correctly creates the opening with thickness. However if one wants to define a different opening inside and outside, the best way to do that would be by inserting the opening in the inner wall in a process similar as the one shown in the next link:
http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/36-intermediate/321-window-cut-hole-thick-wall
The problem is, if you insert any kind of component on the inner wall, it will soon disappear in the workflow and lead to a bugsplat in the long run.
I think the new feature I have been working on would be great to solve this, but this will take some more time because I intend to pick up the problems you have pointed out first.
@jql said:
If you want I can submit you some models for examples of what I am trying to tell you about.
I let you know if I have trouble re-creating the errors!
Is there anyone out there using this plugin for creating IFC-files? That's what I have been mostly using it for lately, I can create shapes with it that are not easy in our CAD/BIM-software...
I have also been working on a connection with THE BIM server (http://bimserver.org), I was wondering if anyone is interested in that...
@unknownuser said:
Depending on how you organize your modeling in SU, there are many aspects of SU that inherently create a BIM model. The components and how they are tracked are wonderful in maintaining instance count as well as descriptive information. The fact that SU works off planar geometry is also a powerful tool for quantity take offs, by area or material.
I like what you say here.
@dale said:
Do you think it is feasible to be only partially BIM integrated? A kind of BIM lite?
Every bit of useful / meaningfull data that can be attributed to a building model (in any part of the building process) makes your BIM better, don't you think?
Making an energy calculation won't use all your BIM-data either, it's just part of the process...
I wouldn't speak of BIM-lite, but I think SketchUp can be a very useful part in a larger OPEN-BIM process.
Just create the basic building model using sketchup(new building parts), upload it to a bim-server and expand on it using all other kinds of software(construction(tekla?), MEP software).
I really like the approach of http://bimserver.org/ I'm trying to figure how to make a connection with that at the moment...
I am a "architectural engineer"(i hope it's correctly translated , and in my spare time I try to make a BIM plugin for sketchup, but it would be great if the SketchUp team would make a real SketchUp BIM-addon(without losing sketchup's coolness and simplicity )
I think BIM should be all about cooperation, between parties in a construction project AND between all pieces of software used to realize and manage a building.
Thinking in revit=BIM won't help anyone in the long run, because Autodesk is only interested in information exchange between different autodesk products.
I know there is a long way to go before information exchange using the IFC file format will be perfect, but I think IFC is the only way to go.
SketchUp should not be cluttered with too many different IFC entities, just the basics. So a design made in SketchUp using these elements can be the base for a FULL building model hosted on some kind of BIM server for access by all project members(and softwares).
And even these basic elements can be very simple:
For my plugin I try to stay as close to the sketchup-workflow as I can while adding the needed properties to export useful elements to IFC(and in the process to Revit, Archicad Tekla and whatever). But I still have a long way to go before it is really stable, the observers I use to monitor the base-geometry are still a bit tricky/unstable. I bet the SketchUp team could do a way better job!
If someone likes to check it out, especially the "workflow" (which I think is pretty sketchup-like), check out: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=34007
@dan rathbun said:
What is wrong with class
PStore? .. or JSON string files ?
BIMserver.org is implementing a JSON interface!
I have absolutely no idea where to start, but lets see if I can somehow make a connection from my BIM-Tools plugin to BIMserver using JSON
@ivreich said:
I've tried many times to create self-cutting components, but it never ever works.
The most simple example to see it work is to draw a big square face(this is the "wall") and inside draw a small square(the "window").
Then select the window-face including it's edges, then right-click --> make component. Now all the options for a cutting component are set automatically(because the face is actually already "cutting").
If you remove the window-face(keep the outer edges, they will cut the hole!), now if you close the component you should have a hole in the wall!
@ludnid said:
Removing the recent installations found bim tools to be the culprit
I have changed a few things in an attempt to prevent the crashes you experienced.
I have added a new button that enables/disables all observers(which I believe to be the problem).
I hope you can try this new version(0.12.2) to see if it's fixed, especially when you put it in "manual-mode"(top-left button=red).
And thanks for reporting the problem!
EOL and BOM seem as different things, other than they are probably both part of the used UTF format(microsoft or Unix).
Is that correct?
@hygicell said:
when starting sketchup after installing BIM tools I get an error
Hi Frank!
Can you give this version a try?
I removed the offending file , see if it helps...
bim-tools-0.12.1.zip
Cheers!
Jan
@tig said:
Do a find in your .rb files' code for a loose `
Perhaps someone open the .rb in a wordprocessor and added formating to the text
While searching for a loose ` with grep, grep showed some strange characters before the first character of the script in the file mentioned in the error. I checked the formatting, and this file seems to be the only one encoded in UTF-8 with BOM(some microsoft addition to UTF-8: "Byte Order Mark"), while the others are without BOM. Could this explain the error?
I have not yet found a loose `, but I will also check the rest of the files.
I found that the "normal" ruby error is something like "NameError: undefined local variable or method `a' for #", where it uses two different markers surrounding the method/variable name. Only in the case of my plugin there is nothing between the markers...
@hygicell said:
when starting sketchup after installing BIM tools I get an error:
Error Loading File C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/bim-tools/clsBtEntity.rb undefined local variable or method `ο»Ώ' for main:Object
Too bad that I can't reproduce the error, and I don't really understand it either.
It seems that it tries to load an unnamed method for the main ruby object.
Is there anyone who can give me any tips on troubleshooting this?
I learned a thing or two about better usage of "modules".
I'm currently implementing this, I hope it will fix this error too.
@thomthom said:
Is it enough with view.invalidate ?
No, Too bad... That is not enough to fix it.
@thomthom said:
view.refresh called that often will slow down SketchUp as it forces it to completely redraw on every call regardless of how quickly it's repeated.
I didn't test it with big operations yet, but so far the reduced speed does not bother me, better than having to zoom every time I click somewhere
Do you consider the "view.refresh" command also as a dangerous usage of observers(like that it could crash sketchup when running at the same time with other plugins?)?
@tig said:
Remember too that
view.refreshonly works on more recent versions, >=7.1, so a trap forSketchup.versionmight also be in order if the tool is usable on anything earlier...
I hope I made this "trap" in the correct way...
Any more improvements are welcome!
Consider this a hack for if all else fails
# wine-refresh.rb
#
# Copyright (C) 2012 Jan Brouwer <jan@brewsky.nl>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
module Brewsky
module WineRefresh
# run only on SketchUp versions newer than 7.1
if Sketchup.version.to_f > 7.1
# This observer refreshes the view every time the selection is changed
class WrSelectionObserver < Sketchup;;SelectionObserver
def initialize
@view = Sketchup.active_model.active_view
end
def onSelectionBulkChange(selection)
@view.refresh
end
def onSelectionCleared(selection)
@view.refresh
end
end
# Attach the observer.
Sketchup.active_model.selection.add_observer(WrSelectionObserver.new)
else
UI.messagebox("WineRefresh needs at least SketchUp 7.1 to run")
end
end
end