Thanks Chris, extremely useful time saver.
I did have trouble creating a circle in a group, it didn't seem to work but after closing the group I found the circles outside the group. I was able to remedy this by changing your "Perpendicular Circle" script to read entities=model.active_entities which I found was the only thing different from your Perpendicular Square script.
Thanks for all your great work...

Hi all,
I have resolved this issue.
It appears a somehow I had removed my own access to temporary settings.
I discovered this when I tried to uninstall Sketchup in order to do a new install.
I got an error code on the uninstall which led me to the following link.

Object moved

(answers.microsoft.com)

I have no idea how the problem came about butI followed the instructions in the link and all appears to be OK again...

This also fixed a problem I had in AutoCAD producing an etransmittal folder.

Hope this helps someone oneday....

Hi All,
I have a strange problem.
When I go to use the materials tool only the materials IN MODEL are working.
Even if I load a new collection when I click on a material in the that collection, the material looks alright when I select it but then appears and acts like the default material. I am using sketchup pro 2015 but strangely I have the same issue with sketchup pro 2014 and 2013 which I tested.
My materials exist in their respective folders...
I am using an HP z200 workstation running windows 7 professional service pack 1
with intel x3450 2.67ghz 6gb of ram and an NVIDIA quadro fx1800.
I have restarted my computer with no effect.
Any ideas, Cheers, David.

Thanks sdmitch your query tool is perfect for what I am doing.
JQL thanks also your link to TIGs solution also looks like it will do the job, though I had a look and it looked way complex... I like simple, Kudos to sdmitch.
Incidentally I tried doing an import yesterday where I preserved the drawing origin and Sketchup seemed to handle it way better than I remember. Perhaps the new versions have rectified some of the early issues with distance from origin.

The next challenge is to be able to geo reference your model with rotation to get the full benefit of accurate shadows and still be able to read and export to a local co-ordinate system. Maybe TIG's solution is closer to this, so I will check it out.
Thanks again all, awesome work....

I often use Sketchup to model topographical surveys.
I use the query tool to show the coordinates of various objects within the model.
As we know if a model is placed to far from the origin it creates problems rendering, so generally I do not use "preserve drawing origin" when importing data (dwg files).
However this creates an issue for me in that the query tool does not give me the same coordinates as the original coordinate system used for the survey.

Can anyone give me a work around for this or would it be possible to have a "query tool"
that would allow a constant to be applied to x, y, and z coordinates so when used it would show the coordinates as they were in the original survey.

Ideally it would be great to be able to set up an independent origin that allowed me to query and export the data at the same coordinates as the original survey. Even if the model was geo-referenced to its Google Earth location.

Thanks, David.

Thanks for your feed back on this issue.
I have done some experimentation with this and am pleased to say I have found a satisfactory work around.

Using Document settings to produce High quality output and with my sketchup insert in hybrid mode I used the export to pdf option which produced an A3 pdf document of 11088kb This is too big to be useful, particularly with multi sheet plans.

I managed to produce a much smaller A3 sheet only 1235kb using the same Layout settings but printing to a pdf print driver (in this case PDFILL) using print settings of 300dpi and jpeg compression for colour images. This file was still very acceptable for quality and will be my preferred method from now on.

If this is possible I still think there is room to improve the export to pdf option with more choices to improve high quality with less file size.

Cheers, David.

Hi all,
I am finding the export to pdf function is producing much larger pdf files than some other CAD software. Often when producing A3 size plans with multiple sheets the file size is blowing out and the pdf is slow to view, particularly when using imagery. I notice that a pdf with layer control is the same size as one without, is that normal? Is it possible to investigate a more efficient pdf converter?.
Thanks, David.

Can this include a tools setting as well so when you download from the cloud it syncs not only your shortcuts but your toolbar settings as well.
Cheers...

My wish is to have a unit setting which allows you to set text size in metric(mm)instead of pts.

Same for line thickness or weight, so you can specify a line should be 0.2mm, 0.5mm, 1mm etc. rather than pts.

Thank you for your replies to my query, and this resource to make that possible.
Cheers, David.

Thanks so much Chris...

Hi Guys,

Neither SketchUcation tools 2.5 or Extension warehouse seem to keep track of all the plugins I have loaded in Sketchup Pro. Is it intended that they only keep track of plugins each of them downloaded or are they supposed to look at the plugins folder and identify all the plugins then work the updates, would that even be possible. The transition to sketchup 2014 has been difficult with some of the old plugins not working anymore and copying the plugins folder from one version to the other is becoming more unreliable. Can you offer any advice as to a good way of dealing with this issue.

David.

Hi Chris,
Have you updated your plugin REPEAT COPY for sketchup 2014.
Very handy script thanks.
David

I dont understand the licensing or legality side but SKETCHUP works as well as it does free or professional because of the great work you plugin artists do. Sketchup will continue to live and grow as long as a forum like this exists, a free version 8.xxx exists and great programmers continue to support it. Having said that, lets hope Trimble make it even better.

PS, will just check my profile is up to date, I am running windows 7 prof on an intel(R)Xeon(R) CPU x3450@2.67ghz 2.8ghz with 6gb of ram on a 64-bit operating system. Cheers.

Brilliant piece of detective work Mr Hart.
The last winapi.so file you made available works perfectly.
Thank you for all the time you have put into this issue.
Cheers, David.

Hi I am the one Al is talking about here,
I have tried the 20kb file and my error message has now changed to below
"Error Loading File C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Render Plus/RpImageFilters.rb
wrong argument type Win32API (expected Class)Error Loading File RPImageFilters_loader.rb
wrong argument type Win32API (expected Class)Error Loading File RpTreeMaker_loader.rb
wrong argument type Win32API (expected Class)"
This appears when sketchup pro 8 first loads.
Any ideas anyone.
Cheers, David.

@gaieus said:

Looking forward to the results - really curious how it works.

Hi there,
Just got back to this today.
The code worked really well thanks Tig.
Attached is the sketchup file I used to create the trees from LIDAR
Its a bit fiddly but the result could be useful.
More could be done to change the nature of the component to get a feel for different tree types.
Use the layers to turn off the constructino points to see what the trees look like. Note I havent done all the trees.
I added very basic lines as trunks and this helps visualise the tree a bit better.
Remember these are New Zealand trees so they might look different to yours.
Cheers.

SU7.1 file

Thanks for that code Tig. I will give that a try as soon as I have some time to experiment. Always wanted to have a go at scripts so nows my chance.

you have earned yourself a light beer Gaieus,
I am working with LIDAR information which gives me a point cloud and I want to represent the trees in the park. I would like to select a tree and replace the construction points with leaf components. (probably just green diamonds) A large tree contains about 450 construction points. This would give me an accurate representation of the canopy. If I was to make each construction point a component then replace them I would have to make 450 separate points into components (no thanks)then replace them. A script which simply replaces the selected construction points with the selected component would do that nicely. A script which relaces the component points and aligns the component to radiate away from a central point would be awesum.
Cheers.