They answered:
http://forum.asgvis.com/index.php?topic=9491.0

@andybot said:

No. IES lights currently are point lights like the spotlight and omni-light. I mentioned having an option for linear ies light source in the wishlist thread a little while ago. I don't know how involved it would be (or how high a priority) it is from the developer end.
-Andy

@thomthom said:

Note that the forum is not an official support channel, but use the email instead.

That's good to know! Thanks Thom!

@thomthom said:

Have you asked ASGVis support?

שׁAnswers in the sketchucation forum are usually quicker and more to the point, But I posted the question there too now.

Hi,

I've also been facing this same problem. I've tried changing the ies light geometry but that didn't help in any way.
Have you found any solutions?

Hello!

I'm looking for a plugin/set of plugins for layer handling - would be used primarily for autocad DWG imports- for quick cleanups without the need of autocad.

1. "change to current layer" - select plugin - select geometry/component/group... => the layer the geometry is on is now the default layer

2. "highlight current layer" - select plugin - select geometry/component/group... => the layer the geometry is on is highlighted (not set to be used)

3. "layer isolate" - select plugin - select geometry => the layer the geometry is on is the only layer visible.
   all other layers are turned off.

4. "layer un-isolate ...

5. "turn off selected layer" - select plugin - select geometry => the layer the geometry is on is turned off.

6. "layer search and highlight" - type a name of the layer in the layers window and as you type it narrows down the layers until you find the one you want to select - would work like the keyboard shortcuts dialogue.

(I imagine that point 6 would be something that google would have to implement for changing the UI!?)

suggestions and pointers are welcome.

good day!

An observation:

1. There are plugins (most plugins) that load a toolbar automatically when first installed - and in most cases cause a lot of havoc - moving all the other toolbars all over the place.

2. On the other hand plugins that need to be initially "checked" ('view''toolbars''plugin name') or from ('preferences''extensions''plugin name') usually load somewhere in the middle of the screen that way they can be placed easily without messing everything up. I am not a coder, but maybe the initial placement of the toolbar is something that can be coded into each plugin... (i.e. make it load somewhere neutral at first load) or is it just by chance?

It's a nice idea, but I think for it to be useful it needs to be a lot simpler!

When I first run the plugin it selects the center of the component as the axis point. In most cases, I believe, the center of the component is quite a meaningless point.

I think the initial pivot point should be one of two:

1. If the idea is to 'select geometry' => run plugin => pivot point and direction automatically selected - it should use the original component's axis point along with the blue orientation. The components axis point is a point that can be changed without the plugin running, and without the object swiveling all over the place before I even know what it's doing.

2. If the idea is similar to most of the original sketchup tools, like the "rotate tool" where you 'select geometry' => run plugin => 'select pivot point' => 'select second poingt' => 'select direction point'. then that's the way it should be! let there be an option to first select the pivot point before anything happens.

Just my opinion...

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

I've installed select instancev2 by M. Bekhor, downloaded from:
http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/plugin_details.php?id=365

(I find this plugin one of the more powerful instance selection tools).

I am trying to assign a keyboard shortcut, but I can't find the command in the shortcuts list.
How can I do this?
Is there something I'd need to update in the plugin to make it reachable in the shortcuts list?

Thanks!!

you probably have to select (something) prior to going into the shortcut list.
ie- select what the script requires you to select prior to activating the script.

Thanks! that worked!
come to think of it, it's the same when you want to assign a shortcut for flipping along axis of components!

I've tried installing to sketchup 8 the SCF toolbars:
http://www.special.eclipse.co.uk/sketchup_training.html

And all sorts of errors came up when running sketchup 8. Has this happened to anyone else?

I've installed select instancev2 by M. Bekhor, downloaded from:
http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/plugin_details.php?id=365

(I find this plugin one of the more powerful instance selection tools).

I am trying to assign a keyboard shortcut, but I can't find the command in the shortcuts list.
How can I do this?
Is there something I'd need to update in the plugin to make it reachable in the shortcuts list?

Thanks!!

@unknownuser said:

Hi Fredo,

I know the plugin contains the word curve in it ... but would there be a way to get it to work on any geometry that isn't necessarily a curve?

I may have confused the plugin's functionality.
I guess I was thinking of something a bit different for ramp creations. You would push a curved surface onto a straight plane. Like Joint Push Pull but to a horizontal surface. You would use it when you have the ramp already created but don't have the base for it... how does that sound?

Hi Fredo,

I know the plugin contains the word curve in it ... but would there be a way to get it to work on any geometry that isn't necessarily a curve?

If it is possible to get it to work on any geometry, I believe this plugin should eventually work like the Joint Push Pull series (with preview and all), and even be added as one of them. I'd call it something like "joint push/pull to surface"...!?

Fredo! You make Great Stuff!

In the latest version when I run extrude lines along vector I encounter two problems:

1. In many cases the extrusion direction doesn't lock onto red,green,blue axis unless I am in a certain viewpoint which I am not sure which it is supposed to be.

2. When I extrude a simple arc or curve, the extruded curve's EDGES come out soft, yet the surface normals are not smooth. When there are combined curves and lines connected to each other, the smoothing makes things quite confusing on the eyes, and makes selection difficult.

You mentioned in this thread having trouble with the smoothing, until it is solved, I believe it would be better if it worked like the previous versions of the plugin, where it would extrude all the lines and leave them them simple and clean - it eases on viewing and selecting them. let the user decide if to soften/smooth them later.

Did I mention your plugins are great!?

As all of your wonderful plugins!
Very nice fredo!

I'll be glad to test it!

@jim said:

It does sound cool, and it is certainly possible.

What I am not sure about is whether it would be heavy and slow like copy & paste, or fast like the outliner.

I'll write a prototype "insert into" tool if you don't mind testing it.

-- On second thought, it would be simper to write a "Pull out of" tool for if it's for testing performance.

Many times I need to nest components into others, and then take them out again. (if it's for editing, or for rendering, or for regrouping for this or that...)

Instead of remembering the names of thousands of components and remembering where they are in the outliner, I just use the "copy" -> "paste in place" as a quick way to insert components into other components and the same for taking them out into the "model space".

The problem arises when the component I want to move in, or out is very heavy, and it takes a long time to move it into memory and out of memory. Using "outliner" doesn't use copy/paste memory and is usually a lot quicker, but having it open with a lot of components takes memory. And as I mentioned I don't name my components, and finding the component I want to place into, is quite difficult and time consuming.

So, what I'm suggesting to be developed is a tool with which you select a component/group/geometry and then select it's destination. The destination could be another component/group or if you click on the background it's moved into the root/"model space". It's sort of like a visual "wysiwyg" "outliner".

There would be 2 ways to get about using it (similar to the move tool):

1. select "place into tool" -> select desired components/groups/geometry -> select destination.

2. components/groups/gemotry already selected -> select "place into tool" -> select destination.

Sound cool?

I imagined seeing a plugin that removes inner faces... and there it is!
Thanks Pilou!

@unknownuser said:

This old one also

Thanks Thom,

What you described is the exact problem - when importing 3DS and DWGs the "discoloring" is caused by soft and smooth/hidden edges that aren't uniform because of the overlapping faces.

Your cleanup 2.0 (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22920) plugin definitely does the job for removing extra faces.

I don't have any examples at hand right now for overlapping faces on import, but rather an example for recreated overlapping faces with another plugin.

Here is an example of a simple (& not very pretty) chair that was imported improperly. running "make faces 1.4" (http://www.smustard.com/script/MakeFaces) closes the holes but creates some overlaps. using cleanup I remove the overlaps. manually remove internal faces, resmooth and repaint the surface and that's it. the chair is good to sit on, in no time.

wonderful!

@didier bur said:

Note: the "Points are not planar" error can also occur if 2 points are very very very close to each other. It is a Sketchup "add_face" method issue, IMHO.

There is a way to overcome the problem of very close points not closing faces. scale the the model x10. add the faces, and then rescale by .1. It usually works.

Thanks guys!

Very nice TIG! You're the man!
It works wonderfully!

Could you have the text that's added, with arrows just like in "straylines.rb". I think it would make it easier on the eyes to find the points. I've added one arrow to demonstrate the difference, see attached image.

Thanks! really great!!

Using points_cloud_triangulation.rb

In some cases there are whole areas that aren't triangulated, or areas that the triangulation is overlapping. (see images)
following the error message in the console, I figured that the problem occurs when there are points that share a common X,Y coordinate (on a different Z).

It is a tedious task to find these points throughout a large model. I was wondering if there might be a script to label points that share the same Z? something similar to labeling stray lines - in "stray lines.rb".
Or if anybody knows how to write a script that would do that!?