Pilou,

Since you put a lot of extra effort into this problem, I'm going to as well. First however, I have to be certain nothing is getting misunderstood by either of us.

I'll begin by asking you to use the BoltMaker XII plugin and (using the model I provided), try the following steps:

1 - open the file I've attached. It contains: a component (a block) with a bolt in it created using BoltMaker XII and a 'Source' component made by me.

2 - From the Window/Entity Info dialog box, confirm that the 'Source' bolt I created is a component. Double-click on the 'Source' component, you'll see that it's z-axis is pointing up (standard convention).

3 - From the Window/Entity Info dialog box, confirm that the bolt created by BoltMaker XII is a component. Double-click it and examine its axis. You'll find that the z-axis is pointing down. This is not standard practice as a new component should have the z-axis pointing up.

4 - Now run SDMitch's ComponentReplacement plugin against the 'Source' and 'Target' components.

What you should see is that the 'Source' component replaces the 'Target' component at a location and orientation you wouldn't expect.

Try this and let me know what you find. If you have a procedure I can follow that results in a properly oriented target replacement ( using the model I provided) ...I'll be ecstatic .

Warm regards

Bob

Bob

SU8 format

SU2013 format

Pilou,

Very cool

It's also very kind of you to share this. Thank you

Bob

Pilou,

It's ok...I'm going to put this problem to bed. Thanks to all for your input

Bob

Pilou,

I love this plugin from SDmitch, but it does unconventional things to the axis of the bolts it produces, causing a lot of axis alignment issues for me. I posted my issues in the Newbie Forum, see subject 'Flipping Crazy' for all of the screenshots.

Bob

Techdave02

Sorry for the fuzzy answer: I was referring to a library of components I keep for all of my models

Dave R,

Great tip...I'll do just that and see what happens. It might be just as simple as what you say .

Dave,

RE: "I wouldn't ever make the same bolt or screw more than once". I agree, neither would I.

I use different bolts/nut components for different projects, but never recreate them from scratch each time.

I keep a collection of them for my wood working projects and import them as needed.

Ideally, I would like to be able to buy a plugin that would allow me to pick a bolt/nut assembly from a library (much like Autodesk Inventor) then with once click, place it where I want and with the correct axis orientation. After that, all should need to do is 'nudge' the component up/down the z-axis and/or push/pull the bolt to specs.

So far, I haven't found such a plugin and have had to resort to a manual process .

When you work with a multi-hinged project, doing this manually is very time consuming.

Bob

Gaieus,

Thanks for the the tutorial links. The last one was particularly enlightening.

Bob

Box: what ap are you using on your phone to monitor this forum? I have an Android phone, and I could use such an ap.

And yes, I can do all of the things you mentioned, however, I found that the BoltMaker plugin allowed me to create custom-sized bolts in very rapid succession. Granted, I haven't found a way to incorporate my own bolt/nut designs using it, but I'm hoping with time, that some clever developer will take up the gauntlet and give it a go.

Warm regards

Bob

TECHDAVE: Nope (but thanks anyway ), see the screenshot and it'll make more sense.

Dave: Not sure if I would call it "lousy" , rather 'more in need of some polishing up'.

It's really quite a useful tool. It's just too bad it uses an unconventional way to set the axis of the components it makes.

I've already chatted with the developer and he will permit 'anyone' to tweak it. He is no longer updating any of his plugins.

There's a LOT of smart coders in here, surely someone has the skills to tweak this puppy. I think it deserves it.

Thanks again to all for participating

Dave,

Thinking that I might have...I went back and created a new bolt with BoltMaker XII. I was correct in that the z-axis always points down when using this plugin.

Box:

I tried your suggestion. I can see the 'unglue' option in the context window, but it's greyed out. I also tried putting the bolt component ( seen in the block) in edit mode, but it made no difference. Using the file I attached, are you able to see it black and not grey?

Dave,

Yes that is 'precisely' what I was trying to do. The bolt shown in the block was created using BoltMaker XII and I found it's axis orientation odd from the beginning. That is why I've had to resort to finding a way to change the source component axis to match it.
Also, I stand corrected regarding the 'glue' button. Thanks for catching that

Tig:

I agree wholeheartedly that the 'blue' axis should be up. However, I was unable to do so with the bolt in the block. That bolt was created with BoltMaker XII. Why it's down, I don't know. All I know is that I can't change it to go up. I therefore tried to change the orientation of (my) source bolt to match that of the BoltMaker XII component.

You wrote "you can select > context-menu unglue to allow you to manipulate the location". Are you referring to the 'Glue To: None' option in the Component window? I searched all over but couldn't find anything with the word 'Unglue' in it.

Thanks to all for jumping in

Thanks to all for your responses.

Setting the gluing / cutting attributes is new to me so I looked it up. According to what I've read here:

http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114533

The 'set glue pane' option on the component dialogue box is only available to Mac users. I'm on a PC.

From what I can determine, the end result of 'gluing' would be the same as a 'change axis' operation. Regardless, I have found it impossible to get the source component z-axis to point downwards. It snaps to every orientation except down.

If you have a moment, please open the attached file and try for yourself. If you are successful in getting the source component z-axis to point downward, please attach the file with the change so I can attempt to duplicate your effort.

Man, I love a good challenge

warm regards

Bob

replace Selected.skp

Folks,

Using the 'replace selected' feature found in component window results in the source component being flipped upside down before replacing the target component. As shown in the screen shots, i guessed that the problem was that the z-axis of the target component (a bolt in a block) is different in orientation to that of the source z-axis.

I tried using 'change axis' in an attempt to flip the z-axis of the source component, but alas, no joy.

Surely there must be a way to do this.

Any help is gratefully accepted.

P.S.

I attached a SU2013 file to play with

replace Selected.skp

Basic constraints in order to build moving parts and jointed assemblies.

First:

Pilou,
Je voulais t’écrire en français mais mon français est très limité. Par contre, ma femme est québécoise alors je lui ai demandé de traduire ce message.
J’ai cherché et cherché pour trouver un moyen automatisé de substituer une composante pour une autre. Malheureusement, j’ai eu peu de succès. Avec l’aide que tu m’as apporté, je suis maintenant plus près de la solution que je recherche.
J’apprécie vraiment le temps que tu as pris pour m’aider et je t’en remercie sincèrement.

TECHDAVE02,

That's what I figured out 'after' I posted. I was likely viewing a page used by developers. Again..much thanks.

Bob

Pilou,

It seems it wasn't that difficult after all to use the RandomComponentReplacement plugin. The results I got with sdmitch's plugin were very much closer than those of ThomThom's tt_component_dropper plugin. By using sdmitch's plugin, I just need to address the 'manual' realignment of the source/target axis. As for ThomThom's tt_component_dropper plugin, it appears to rescale the replacement as well as not align the source with the target component axis.

I'll keep on searching for a simple two-click plugin that can change the source component axis to match the target component axis before swapping them out.

Bob

Thanks to all for participating. I haven't had such this much fun in while..

Component-dropper & SDMitch's RTC.skp

Pilou,

Since I'm not a ruby programmer, I've found the 'Random Replacement' plugin tutorial to be well above my knowledge of Sketchup. I have no idea how to use this plugin as it seems to involve copying code to a Ruby Console...whatever that is...lol

To Pilou and TECHDAVE02,

Thank you so much for your participation. Although I haven't achieved my objective, I'm totally enjoying the journey

I did try the tt_component_dropper (by ThomThom) but the results weren't at all what I was after (see attachments). Sadly, the tt_component_dropper doesn't automatically 'change' the substitute components origin to match that of the target component. The results are somewhat bazaar. I included a screenshot, and an SU2013 file for anyone who wants to see the results.

To explain the model: from left to right: there's a model of a board (component) counter-sunk on either side that is correctly sized to receive the custom bolt. To the right of that is the same board with a bolt placed in it using BoltMaker XII. To the right of that is my custom bolt and finally, to the right of that is the resulting output from using the tt_component_dropper -- in which I selected the bolt produced by BoltMaker XII as the target and my own custom bolt as the source.

I'm hoping ThomThom or some other clever coder has some insight

Bob

Component-dropper test.skp