With a little de-bugging and a lot of trial and error the MatrixProximity shuffle works nicely.

Create a 'Components/Proximity Components' folder and save copies of unique components into it. Mine were named 'container-001-.skp' 'container-002-.skp' & 'container-003-.skp'

Create a new SketchUp drawing with only one container in it (the shuffle will not work if the proxy containers are already in the drawing).

Create your stack and, if all is well, you will see a second dialogue asking you if you want to Merge copies of the other components. Say Yes.

I had to make a couple of small changes to the script to get round the Error message below. If you need them I'll post them here.

Bob

PS Creating 'zero-height' containers and adding them to the mix worked well. Using Sketchy Physics to drop the columns was a spectacular disaster . . .

I think you ought to be able to do the random part of this using the Proximity Components part of Matrix Proximity. Putting the three different colored containers into the Proximity Containers folder should trigger an option to randomise.

@unknownuser said:

The matrix copied component might belong to a Proximity Component ‘family’ (one of the trio-sets – typically the ‘Far’ type – see later). If so then Matrix realises this and looks for related family components of the same type (e.g. Far) that are already made within or loaded into the model or are in the Proximity Components folder. If it finds them a dialog tells you how many alternatives are available for use and asks if you want to swap and
randomly scatter them within the matrix copies (this is in approximately equal proportions). This is useful for introducing randomness and naturalness into groups of trees etc – use a Proximity Component family ‘Far’ tree to make the matrix initially (e.g. tree-001-) and if you have say three others available tree-002-, tree-003- and tree-004- then the result would be a randomized mix of the four types.

I also wondered if a fourth container with zero height - a flat plane might let the others drop - I don't think so, but perhaps if you turned Sketchy Physic on . . .

Unfortunately I cant test as I get an error message with the version of Matrix Proximity I downloaded
@unknownuser said:

"Error: #<Errno::ENOENT: No such file or directory - F:/PROGRA~1/Google/GOOGLE~2Components\Proximity Components>"

• there's a slash missing and I can't see how to fix it

Bob

Hi - the correct name is 'Joint Push Pull' and the download link is here (though I actually used the dialogue driven version for some reason). A fantastic tool for manipulating shapes in ways that just aren't possible, or are very tedious, using the standard tools.

Bob

Here's a better step-by step tutorial.

Bob

curved_trellis.pdf

It's Glastonbury Tor in the South West of England.

Bob

51°8.677'N 2°41.944'W

How does this look? I did this with the magic Vertex push pull - stretched your existing panels out to look like planks, stretched the top curve you have in place down the z axis and intersected them. Plus a lot of cleaning up.

Bob

PS It doesn't stand up to close scrutiny as the left & right slats should have slightly different curves.

PPS I left the wip components there off to the left of the bench - I think that's why the file is quite so big.

bench_1.skp

@unknownuser said:

under your eyes in the board has been driven to a flop
Keep going, I learn a lot by trying things out here and experimenting.

As far as I can see Smartsizer did it by creating that grid of lines on each side and drawing in diagonals by hand.

Bob

PS I'll take a look at Spiraliser

PPS I'm experimenting with a script to do some of this but it's slow work - a first script squeezed in odd moments. So far so good.

Hi simon,

I'll try to add the extra step later this evening.

K2 Graphs seems to be here but I think I got it as part of whole bundle of scripts that I downloaded from here but now can't find.

Bob

I like that baluster sweep, much nicer to my eye than the intersected plane. Will have a look at the spiral script later and see if I can do anything useful. There has to be a first ruby script I guess.

Bob

Well perhaps I'm nearer than I thought I was . . .

To give you the short version I cleaned up your main version, put a cylinder in place for the center, then drew a volute spiral using a RubyScript (K2 graphs - sorry about the maths).

Added a few lines to make a closed face, scaled it to size, pulled it up with the Push/Pull tool, then intersected it with an inclined plane to line up with the top surface of the main balustrade.

Easier to see than describe, there's a 'pictures only' tutorial attached -- too late to add words tonight.

Bob

horseshoe_2.skp

I had a go - but it's tricky, you need an volute(?) spiral where the spacing between the lines reduces as you get nearer the center. The spirals in both the other examples are equispaced. And that's before you get to the three dimensional part.

Here's a version that moves in the right direction but is clearly wrong.

Bob

Dante - You'll find the script and installation instructions in this post. There's a Tutorial pdf included in the download zip.

Bob

PS I experimented with stamp but found it lost the contour shapes. Drape worked OK - provided that I'd smoothed the surface I was draping on. Then the draped shape stayed in one piece and could be selected and Push_Pulled in one go.

Do you have a sketch or a photo of what it 'should' look like? What are the constraints? For example, it looks as though the center should be a circle centered on the line of the outside of the main banister and the same height as the end of that line?

Bob

Looks like the Vector Push Pull script might help.

This is a Bezier curve offset to give width, dropped on the landscape and Push Pulled back up in the Z direction.

Bob

Here's a version done with Alan's suggestion for Vector PP. The model looks good.

Bob

Here's an example - the method is pretty much the same as Dave R's except that I intersected one link of the chain with the plain band to get curved surfaces. Looking at it the band is a perhaps a bit thick.

Bob

Debs ring 2.skp

I was looking around the Kerkythea forums and found a few images of the blue Kerkythea logo but no model. So, as an exercise, I made this one. The main shape is a bit thin but overall it's not bad.

Bob

File includes skippy and a KT materials library

Working OK at the moment - images attached.

Bob

Made level 10 and 366,000 - but some lucky guesses in there!

Bob

Sounds like a case for geotextiles, there are now all kinds of woven and non-woven fabrics available - typically in polyester or poypropylene from memory.

Bob