I did think it was a bit complicated myself. Most of my programming experience was years ago on 3rd GL stuff. All this is new, but I do have fairly good programming sense.I did try the CSV modifier, but I wasn't using it correctly. That's when I stumbled on JSON. It's only a one shot deal for me, but I have to admit, I do like Ruby! Will be studying your example.
Thanks again.

Everett

Hi John,

Got it working. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Had to do a bit of learning along the way. I used the CSV and JSON classes. My main script read the original data, processed it into 3d points, and produced an array of lines. After I got all the lines working, I added a block to write the array to file. The second script reads this file, draws a single line, removes it from the array, and writes the array back to file. Here's the pseudo code for the second script:

access the entities container

|
|

load required classes

[pre:2k0pic0s]require "CSV"
require "JSON"[/pre:2k0pic0s]

take a working copy of the file

check each time through

unless File.exist? <filename>
[pre:2k0pic0s]#take a copy[/pre:2k0pic0s]
end

load the lines into an array

[pre:2k0pic0s]line_arr = CSV.read(<filename>)[/pre:2k0pic0s]

convert points from string to array of floats

this caused the most grief until I got it right

[pre:2k0pic0s]line_arr.map! {|line| line.map {|pt| JSON.parse(pt)}}[/pre:2k0pic0s]
#draw a line
[pre:2k0pic0s]ent.add_edges line_arr[0][/pre:2k0pic0s]
#dump the line
[pre:2k0pic0s]line_arr.shift[/pre:2k0pic0s]
#replace the array in the file after checking for last line
if <last line>
[pre:2k0pic0s]File.delete(<filename>)[/pre:2k0pic0s]
else
[pre:2k0pic0s]CSV.open(<filename>,"wb") do |csv|
[pre]line_arr.each{|x| csv<< x}[/pre:2k0pic0s]
end[/pre]
end
#use the up arrow to execute as many times as lines

Hi John,

 Thanks for the suggestion.  Will see what I can do with it.

Everett

I have a number of 3D lines which I can load from a file and draw in the Sketchup window with a script via the ruby console. I would like to be able to step through the lines one at a time. I suspect it's not available because of the working environment. gets, chomp, STDIN does not work.

Code would look like this:

Until no_more_lines

    ent.add_edges line
    #wait for key board activity at the console

 next # line

Any suggestions appreciated

Hi Frenchy,

Thanks. This will do it.  I can create a marker which I can copy along the curve, and the segments between markers are what I'm looking for.

Thanks again. So helpful.

Fancey

Hi Gilles,

I'm using bezier and welded curves.

Fancey

Hi,

This is my first post, so I may be in the wrong forum. Sorry in advance if so. I am looking for the analogy to either or both the divide command and tape measure tool applied to a curved line. I need to divide and make measurements along a curved line. I am aware of the length in the entity info, and can make some use of it. Also, I tried the poly line segmenters, but the integrity of the curve changes. Maybe I don't understand the results. Any help to point me in the right direction will be much appreciated.

Thanks