@martinrinehart said:

I've also finished the design of the multi-instance animator. Simple and light. Will get to it as soon as I finish YARC (yet another Ruby console).

Any chance for SCF to have a look at the "Simple and light multi-instance animator".

Those who downloaded the Mac version of cgScenes should have seen something like this on opening:

Unfortunately, I understand you actually saw an empty dialog with a small red square.

Not an auspicious start to getting the first web dialog based plugin to work on Macs as well as PCs.

But you know the reason was John ["driven"] who made the conversion also was keen to get it working on an iPhone and left a link to one of his local testing files. (Aside - think about manipulating a Sketchup display from a phone!). The upshot was that his testing of the plugin we published went fine on his machine with the linked file but not of course for anyone else.

So if you would like to download the new version (with sample model) please go here, and please don't remain silent again, be good enough to post any problems; it just might benefit the community.

@anssi said:

The good thing about SU is the way we can sort of directly manipulate the model by pushing in and moving right until we are satisfied. Using BIM packages still resembles more filling tax forms than sketchupping. That's why I am still dreaming of a SU with a more direct link into BIM rather than increasing the BIM'ishness of SU.

Anssi

Yes that is exactly why I was attracted by Sketchup. I just want to make it better by capturing information at the very moment it's needed to make a model. In this way you have both the model and its data available for scrutiny all the time. If you want to delay a decision about placement or procurement you can test the financial and temporal consequences prior to doing so - perhaps a basis to detach the building industry from its outmoded ties.

@honoluludesktop said:

Chris, what you propose is conceptually elegant, but beyond my ability to grasp "the mechanics of".

The mechanism is the concept. I am sorry I find your post surprisingly paradoxical and reactionary, so cannot really comment further.

@driven said:

I see Chris's tool as a PushPull tool for digital information.

Yes I think that it is a good way of putting it. The key, like bar coding, is to give components identities and link them to a digital record. Given today's amazing communications technology data can be pulled and pushed around to provide pertinent multimedia displays.

@unknownuser said:

Each project contains all it's own ideas, content, ingredients, I find that fantastic.

Not just the project but also each component.

Thanks for your support and particularly your efforts to make it Mac compatible.

@solo said:

Looks like y'all are shy, so let me go first then.

Is it possible to have these as direct attachments to SCF for the Imageshack blind.

Would be appreciated, thanks

Here is a first step solution I have come up with:

It does not use a curve because I want to give the animator something to identify intermediate stops - clicking on the last leg required. The lines are 'loose' but can be regenerated from the vertices stored in the name's record. I can also make the start finish points for the animation from them in Javascript. They should also be useful to avoid clashes.

I understand vertex sorting better now and intend to implement that after I can get some actual animation going

Anyway it is a start that I can understand - thanks to TIG.

@thomthom said:

Why so many files? From different sources? Can you describe what each is? People are a bit reluctant to use download sources like that.
Are they large files? You know you can upload to this forum if they aren't all too big.

Must have got shunted here by mistake.

Also have you made the walls components?

Have you tried viewing your model using the standard views and parallel projection? Sometimes this helps to sleuth out the problem.

Go metric - you're in Blighty.

Yes that's how I am thinking too - but it takes time as I have to go back to first principles both with procedures and code - not being properly edjamacated. I hope to post something more soon.

Thanks

First thanks for the speedy reply.

@tig said:

So, you haven't welded all of the edges into a single curve - use weld.rb to do this - this will ensure that all of the vertices are ordered...

I see I should have done that, but I was hesitant because I don't want to impose too much on the animator (person designing the animation). At least I know now the results of not welding. Actually ideally the animator should just mark the destination and the curves get worked out by the device - early days.

@unknownuser said:

Then the first entity in the definition/group [?] will be an edge, and that will be part of a single curve [I always think 'polyline' would have been a better name but we are stuck with 'curve' even when it's something else]

Yes I agree about polyline. Pages instead of scenes is another oddity. But clearly I need to think more about this and understand all you have told me to date. I will have to return no doubt!

Thanks

@unknownuser said:

Try the Grebble2 by Chris Fulmmer or Protude by Jim Foltz !
It's more easy that a simple Push pull and will give you more complex result in the space in a second

But not alleviate his boredom

I thought I got the hang of it but it seems I am still missing a few bits. If I use edges = curve.edges it returns 6 which marries with the 7 sets of vertices, but as you can see from the end points there are 7 sections.

Also I was expecting vertices to be returned for each of the arc_curves segments, which has somewhat thrown me because I think I need them.

If you, TIG or anyone could help that would be very splendid - thanks.

@honoluludesktop said:

As far as I have experienced, a program that is capable of doing everything compromises its parts.

Please understand that I am not talking about a program but a scheme, something more akin to the characteristics of the web. People use specialist devices to participate in the process of creating or even using a building. Models - components, sub assemblies, buildings - attract and hold data and interpret it for various needs. There is no passing of output. The only physical output is the real thing.

I think, if I might say so, you see computer programs as solutions.

They are not, but they could become enablers once the method of the working was changed. This would define the real objective - for Architects I hope this is the creation of a building not a beautiful set of drawings - and open up use of the web with multimedia to communicate the instructions that get buildings designed and built.

@kgr said:

@chrisglasier said:

...Building and allied industries and consultants need a complete change of approach...

As I read through the entire thread I was thinking something similar. Rather than asking, "How can we use Sketchup like BIM to get 2D drawings out of our 3D models?," maybe we should be asking, "How can/should we use Sketchup to successfully document our design?"

What a welcome first post. I think we are of like mind. Please have a look at this 3.5 min video, and if I am right I would like to start a JV-type topic with the caption "Using Sketchup to communicate instructions."

We can agree on the exact wording but I want to get away from document and emphasise instructions. I say this because buildings get built by instructions, simply put, "buy this, put it there". These instructions are currently drawn from interpretation of orthogonal drawings. The form of instructions is not so important as first realising their significance.

I think the forum will benefit from a fresh look at this subject.

Thanks

Edit: These instructions are currently drawn from interpretation of orthogonal drawings.

Thanks TIG. I changed the code for the instance curve as you suggested and spread bits out to help me understand it. It only provides seven vertices; I need to check that out, but I've got the hang of it.

Next step as I wrote above is to get the mover to snap to an end point when it gets within say 1 meter. An endpoint for example would be created outside each hoist. Is there some ready-made code for such a SU inferencing type action?

@chris fullmer said:

... Is it common?

I am not really qualified to participate in this debate but my experience may be helpful in the light of Chris's comment.

I have published two plugins - cgScenes and nset SketchupAPI and I am working on an expansion of these to provide deeper hierarchies and greater control of scenes and components, unlimited links to data from local and remote sources and analytical animation.

These use web dialogs, which seem to me to be an important link to get Sketchup models to the general population to serve as transporters of reusable data. cgScenes works on a Mac only because of extensive work by John [driven]. The problem with the other two seems (I think) to come from conversion of data stored in JSONotation.

So whether or not you acknowledge my approach, problems with two important parts of current technology - the web and efficient data transfer - should be recognised in relation to Sketchup, Macs and PCs.

Incompatibility may indeed be not common. If so perhaps the reason is fear of the unknown, supported by many threads here recounting the horrors. I think John has a great and noble idea how to overcome or at least find the causes of these problems and I sincerely hope you will all work together to find the means.

Please don't shout or shoot at me; I am only an aging reluctant (and amateur) coder.

It is getting a bit late but I thought I would quickly try out TIG's suggestions. Here are the results (maybe I have done something stupid again and can't see it).

Thanks for that Tig. I would like to think about it overnight; but in the meantime it seems that the mover that marks the destination should snap to an end point when it gets within say 1 meter. An endpoint for example would be created outside each hoist. Is there some ready-made code for such a SU inferencing type action?

Thanks

I think have stumbled on a way to find the 3d points of the lines on the path as

but I am not sure about the link to the center of the bounding box of the mover.
Seems a bit headachey to me.