@cphillips said:

@gata said:

CPhillips was playing around with somethng similar http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2570&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a but SketchyPhysics is a bit distracting. It's good to see this sort of tool revived.

I semi-finished that thing I was working on. Problem was that it was really slow a reasonable size model could take minutes to update. Maybe someday I'll go back an optimize it.

Shear looks like a handy tool to have!

I think your Free Form Deformation ballon is really one big step forward, because I guess it implies to handle the individual deformation of faces and edges, and then to re-arrange the topology of the model to keep meaningful geometrical continuity. In comparison, PlaneShear is just a linear offset of vertices that keep faces as faces and edges as edges, without any individual complexification.

Bon courage! I am quite admirative and impressed by what you can achieve with SketchyPhysics!

@pixero said:

I think it would be a good idea to let the plane shear also have a "deformation box" so that you could use it more like a tweak tool and try different amount of shear (something like the scale tool).
The current version is more suited for use with a known amount. In my humble opinion.
Anyway, thanks again!

It would be very difficult to consider an interactive deformation of the model. Keep in mind that the transformation reconstructs the selected portion of the model, face by face, edge by edge, etc...., as there is no native transformation in Sketchup doing a shear (i.e. a non uniform offset).
However, what I have done is to show interactively the deformation of the selected model in wireframe mode. This is much lighter and performance seems acceptable.

You need to download the 2 attached files nult.rband LibProtractorTool.rb.

version with interactive wireframe deformation

version with interactive wireframe deformation

@urgen said:

...Unfortunately I have former problems...

Could you turn on the Ruby Console and see what it says (or does not say)

Thanks

@greyhead said:

Fredo, I do think that there is something here that is not consistent with "as if you would also extrude the neighbouring face." See this diagram (plan view of an extruded dodecagon). Notice that the two end extrusions of the five contiguous faces are different. (I did these both on the same dodecagon for simplicity but I get the same result if I do them on separate objects so I don't think there is interference between them.)

Scratching my head here but I don't see an obvious pattern.

Bob

[attachment=2:2u7nlb8r]<!-- ia2 -->push-pull.png<!-- ia2 -->[/attachment:2u7nlb8r]

This abnormal behavior is actually almost 'normal'.
Because the polygon has 12 segments, the angle between the normals of 2 contiguous edges is exactly 30 degree, which is the default value of the Angle of Influence. So depending on the rounding up, some outside faces do influence, some others do not.

You should change the value of the Angle of influence to either 29 Degree (to have strict perpendicular borders) or to 31 degrees, to have them all radial.

@urgen said:

Very good script , but in SU5 unfortunately does not work ...

Can you try this version. It may be slower however!

Supposed to work in Sketchup 5 too

Serieux. Je suis a la recherche de cas ou il y a des problemes, pour savoir si on peut y faire quelque chose (de mon cote j'en ai quelques uns!). La methode que j'utilise est plutot empirique et en plus Sketchup est assez capricieux question creation et orientation de faces.
Si ca se passe pas trop mal, direction Ruby Depot, avec ta permission.

Juste pour ne pas oublier mes chers compatriotes, j'ai publie a l'essai un script de push pull jointif dans la section Ruby. La doc est pour l'instant en anglais.
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4840&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
Une petite image pour illustrer l'intention:

@greyhead said:

Fantastic, enjoyed playing with it. Now I need to find a place to use it.

Thanks, Bob

PS Confirming bellwells image earlier, if you use Joint push-pull on non-contiguous faces of an polygon block then the side of the extrusions have a mix of angles, some are rectilinear (as from the Vector extrusion) some are aligned to the center of the block.

GreyHead

Thanks for appreciation.
Regarding the non contiguous faces, what you get is normal, because it depends on what you want to achieve. If you wish the borders to be perfectly normal, you must select NO in the option "Extent influence to non-selected neighbors", as explained in the Tutorial, in section 1.7, p.12. Otherwise, the macro compute the direction as if you would also extrude the neighbouring face. Unless I missed something....

Fredo

@daniel s said:

Edit:PS. Yes.. like bellwells says... there are hidden edges.. in a lot of cases don´t looks good... would be better to use "soften edges"

Actually, I did not know what was the most appropriate, hidden or soft, because there are advantages for both in any situation.
This is easy to fix (see attached file modified).
The question is whether I leave this as an option

version with soft / smooth edges instead of hidden

Here is a very first version of what I call Joint Push Pull, which is a compromise between the classic Sketchup push pull along individual face normals and the Vector Push pull whihc keeps faces contiguous. In other terms, how to extrude faces along their normal, but generate a contiguous shape.

I guess the pictures attached are self-explanatory on what the script tries to achieve.

The ZIP archive should be unzipped in the Plugins folder and create in the Plugins folder:

• jointpushpull.rb, the main macro
• LibPlaneSelectorTool.rb, to select a custom plane
• LibVectorSelectorTool.rb, to select a custom vector
• LibTraductor.rb, for language translation and dialog boxes. This is a new version (you must use this one, but it is compatible with the previous version published with Bezierspline)
• LibTraductor.def, an optional configuration file allowing override of language
• A folder JPP_Dir, which contains the 2 icons for the toolbar
  The script creates 2 menu entries in the Tools menu
  The script also implements Classic Push Pull and Vector Push pull

There is a full doc in PDF, but it is too large to upload on this site. So I put it on the Google forum at http://groups.google.com/group/Ruby-API/browse_thread/thread/6ae80c5c688083fb.

to unzip in the Plugins folder - Update with smooth / soft edges

Coincidentally, I am currently working of this type of transformation which I call Non Uniform Linear Transformations (NULT), that are not native in Sketchup and end up recreating the drawing element.

I had completed the Plane Shear a while ago and need to finish the box shear.

Plane Shear is actually a transformation that would deform a rectangle into a parallelogram (in 3D space). Box shear, is a variant that allows non uniform scaling, typically transform a sphere into an egg. The question here is more how you specify what you want to do (my current idea is to do it via a transformation box)

Attached in the Plane Shear. You specify the plane, the reference direction and the angle. This is why the tool behaves pretty much as a Protractor tool. The tool applies to the Selection, but you can include what you want in it (groups, components, images, etc...) at any nested level. It preserves and deforms textures, as well as layers, attributes and properties. The only restrictions are:

• Components are transformed into Groups, because there is no way to preserve the component definition for all instances, as they may be rotated and scaled
• Images are transformed in planar face, with the image texture sheared (Sketchup does not support images in parallelogram as far as I know!)
• Dimensions are not transformed because Sketchup does not provide a Ruby API for these objects
• Interestingly, the transformation preserves Bezier and other Spline curves

Here is a basic example with a simple parallelepiped, but you can find a more complex situation at http://escargot-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2299 (a French site, but the image is self explanatory). For this kind of objects with 1,400 faces, it takes longer (the macro has a progress bar anyway).

There is no documentation at the moment, and this is why I do not publish it yet.

The Zip archive attached contains 5 files, all to go to the Plugins Directory:

• Nult.rb, the main macro
• LibProtractorTool.rb, a utility to emulate the Protractor tool (if anyone interested, it can be used as an independent tool for other purposes).
• LibTraductor.rb, a utility to language translation. You may already have it with the Bezierspline macro, but this one is more recent and anyway compatible.
• LibTraductor.def, an optional configuration file to force language.
• **iconshear.png**which is for the toolbar button
• **cursorshear.png**for the cursor shape

Feedback welcome. Thanks

Fredo

to unzip in Plugins folder

@daniel s said:

The only problem is that every time i make a shear... the new object appears with hidden lines..

My mistake, as the macro is not fully tested. I reloaded the Zip file with correct behavior (I hope).

@daniel s said:

This plugin can be converted into a Lattice tool?

Yes. That's what I call the NULT Box, which is a downgraded version of lattice tools you can find in many 3D design tools (such as Blender), as the deformed box must keep its 6 faces planar. What I am working on is the GUI to specify the deformation. The transformation algorithm is exactly the same as for Plane shear (i.e. based on vertex non uniform translation).

Can someone check if Sketchup changed the version of the Ruby Interpreter (normally 1.8), because these messages maybe a sign of an evolution on the Ruby side.

Just use e.material, where e is an instance of a Group, as a Group is a Drawing Element.
This set the material for the group, used as a default by its elements if they do not have a material by themselves.

Sorry, I meant e.typename == 'Group'
If you prefer to use class id, then you must NOT enclose it between quotes
--> e.class == Sketchup::Group

You should check the type too (e.type == 'Group') as there may be other drawing elements with the same name

Then you need to add one line of code (in the When 'Face' section)to change the "soft" property of the edges bording the faces. This slows down the script a little bit, but I undersatnd why you need it.

def process_faces
	model = Sketchup.active_model
	model.start_operation "erase all faces"
	process_faces_at_level model, {}
	model.commit_operation
end

def process_faces_at_level(grp, hcomp)
	list_entities = []
	grp.entities.each do |entity| 
		case entity.typename
		when 'Group'
			process_faces_at_level entity, hcomp
		when 'ComponentInstance'
			edef = entity.definition
			next if hcomp[edef.to_s]
			hcomp[edef.to_s] = edef
			process_faces_at_level edef, hcomp
		when 'Face'
			list_entities.push entity  # or do what you want with the face
			entity.edges.each { |e| e.soft = false } #Keep smooth edges
		end
	end
	grp.entities.erase_entities list_entities
end	

I am not clear on what you want.
Do you want to keep faces which have at least one edge smoothend or softened?
Or do you want to change the property of these edges, and still erase all faces?

If you need to earse all faces at all levels, then you must do it differently
Here is a code sample

def process_faces
	model = Sketchup.active_model
	model.start_operation "erase all faces"
	process_faces_at_level model, {}
	model.commit_operation
end

def process_faces_at_level(grp, hcomp)
	list_entities = []
	grp.entities.each do |entity| 
		case entity.typename
		when 'Group'
			process_faces_at_level entity, hcomp
		when 'ComponentInstance'
                        edef = entity.definition
			next if hcomp[edef.to_s]
			hcomp[edef] = edef
			process_faces_at_level edef, hcomp
		when 'Face'
			list_entities.push entity  # store faces in the list
		end
	end
	grp.entities.erase_entities list_entities #or do what you want with the faces
end	

Note the specific treatment of component instances, as you must delete the face only once in its definition (which will propagate then to all instances)

Here is a simple code to select all faces at the model level

def select_all_faces
        model = Sketchup.active_model
        model.selection.clear	#empty the current selection
        model.entities.each { |e| model.selection.add e if e.typename == 'Face' }
end

Note that you cannot select entities at different levels, for instance in the first level of the model and at the same time within groups or component instances