@ianscroggins said:

Hi Gang, this is my first post and hopefully I'm bringing an easy n00b problem to solve. I've been using the Wall Cutter and Flex Door tools to place doors in my model. At first, they displayed the arcs for door swing in Plan View. However, I ungrouped my wall at some point and regrouped it and the flexdoors stayed dynamic, but I can't get them to show the door swing. Any ideas on not having to redo the doors or is that just a "deal breaker"? Thanks for any help in advance!

Hi Ian,

1. I checked out the model you uploaded. It seems that the door swing arcs were erased at some point. Normally the arcs are hidden (along with a few other sub-components that FlexDoor uses), and they could be erased if the 'Cleaner' tool were used on them, or if any other cleanup plugin that erases hidden geometry were used. In this case you would need to replace the doors with new ones.

2. If you try to move some of the wallcutting components you will see that their openings won't move anymore. If you want the door and window openings to remain dynamic, the wall must be a component. Groups just don't work well - Best to always use components.

If you need to explode and regroup (re-component!) the wall, to keep the dynamic openings working as you would expect them to, you will need to follow a quick 3 step procedure:
Remove Cuts > Make the changes you need > Refresh.

You can read a more in-depth explanation about this with animations and examples at:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

Hope that helps,
Yoni

@unknownuser said:

Thank you Juju,. I will try that next time.

I have suggestion.

I often use CleanUp3 plugin to clean my files for unecessary geometry.
The door arc in FleTools Doors should be locked to avoid disappearing when cleaning for stray lines.

[img][attachment=0:2iqdcvlq]<!--%20ia0%20-->LockArc.jpg<!--%20ia0%20-->[/attachment:2iqdcvlq][/img]

I don't quite remember why now, but something tells me not to lock components by default. Maybe it's the red color every time you select the component...

Other than locking, another thing you could try in order to avoid the lines getting erased is to open the arc component and draw the radius lines so a surface is generated. Then hide the lines and the surface.

See if that works.

After which ever change suits you, you can then save the component aside with ComponentFinder for future use.

@unknownuser said:

Flexwindows are mirrored from one side to the other cutting new holes but removing the original holes from the side copied from..

[img][attachment=0:3bf4o6r3]<!--%20ia0%20-->FlexToolsMissingHoles.jpg<!--%20ia0%20-->[/attachment:3bf4o6r3][/img]

Hi Epix3d,

Like Juju mentioned, this a good example where the refresh button/s come in handy

A quick explanation:
When you first place a wall cutting window, it is automatically glued to a surface and it generates an opening. When you mirror and copy it, one or both of the components (The original or the mirrored) can become unglued, and the WallCutter algorithm doesn't know that the mirroring/copying happened, so it doesn't try to cut through anything. Moving the problematic window a little left and right OR doing a refresh, OR re-opening the model will jolt the window back to behaving as expected. Note though, that one of the windows will still be unglued.

I think it also depends which mirroring plugin you are using. I just tried to re-create this, and the original component's opening closed up, where as the copied component worked correctly and generated an opening... This seems to be the opposite of what is happening in the image you posted.

There are a few more 'advanced' situations where the refresh function is very useful. There are some good examples with animations at the learn pages:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

I just added a few mentions about the Mirroring situation.

Thanks for finding this!

@unknownuser said:

When I mirror Flex doors and windows with copy the cutholes on original disappears..?
Same happens if I modify a wall with flexcomponents.
Is there a way of updating so the cutholes comes back?

Can you upload a jpg or an skp example or send either to yoni@flextools.cc so I can better understand where the issue is.

@stadistoya said:

Hi

First of all thank you very much for these VERY useful tools! Life/Timesavers.

Hi Stadistoya

Very glad to hear this! We're doing our best.

@stadistoya said:

And is there any future projects for a garage door? I am not good at all with programming dynamic components, so my projects with folding doors/panels and garage doors are all static for now.

Thanks!

We have quite a list of components and other Flex tasks on our table now... but we are ALWAYS open to new ideas and suggestions. Shoot me an email to yoni@flextools.cc with example components of what you need.

A new update is out!

You can now browse and search through your In-Model Components and Groups with ComponentFinder!

Read more details on the FlexBlog.

Good news!

You can now browse and search through your In-Model Components and Groups with ComponentFinder!

Read more details on the FlexBlog.

Here is a new video explaining ComponentFinder by TutorialsUp:

I think I have what you need - Please take a look at the (Experimental ) FlexLabs section:
https://flextools.cc/flexlabs/

I just added now a 'FlexDoor with glass divisions + Side panels'.

***** Make sure to install and activate the FlexBetaPack.

***** Since it is rather experimental, turning off any of the side panels might screw things up.
If you want to remove a side panel (by clicking on the sides of the frame) without sub-components flying around, double click into it until you reach a component called 'Panel Right' or 'Panel Left'. Delete the component that is within either of those. After that click (With the interact tool) on the frame sides to turn off or on the panels.

***** To edit each of the panels and the mullions you have to double click into the components a few times till you reach the right settings.

Let me know how it works out.

@unknownuser said:

How can I make a swing glassdoor with glass sidepanels?

Hi Epix,

Take a look at the video in the link - It's currently the closest to a glass door that you can get with FlexDoor:
https://youtu.be/LvJJq04AWV0

The settings that were changed in the video:
Doorstop - Height => 0
Sill - Height => 0
Clearance Bottom => 0

Hinges => 0

Door Panel - Thickness => 1cm
Axis - Move => 10cm

The door handle was also changed (with some parts deleted).
You can make your own custom door handles following the tutorials here:
http://frandzel3d.com/flexdoor/flexdoor-hardware/

Hope that helps.

Hi there,

1. I think most of the issues you are encountering are related to the wall geometry not being in a component, so please make sure that the walls are in a component. Not in a group! And that the cutting components are placed outside of the wall component, and not on bear geometry.

If you need to convert a group, that already has wall cutters on it, follow the 3 step workflow of:
Remove Cuts > Convert the group to a component > Refresh.

You can read more about the various situations where you would need the 3 steps:
https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

2. Make sure all the wall face normals are facing out, i.e. if you change the model's style to 'Monochrome' all white faces should face outwards ,and colored faces should face inwards.

3. It could be that because the wall was a group (If I'm not mistaken), some unwanted lines were created on the bottom of the wall. Those can interfere with punching the opening through when placing the door all the way on the bottom. If after converting to a component you still have issues with a specific wall, it could be some of the lines are divided and hard to find. Best to recreate the wall in that area and refresh the component so it punches a new opening.

When the wall is a component, it should work a lot better, without extra lines being left behind or other unexpected behaviors that you mentioned above of sometimes cutting and sometimes not.

If you still encounter issues, please send us the model and we'll gladly take a look.

4. Regarding having open doors on one layer and closed doors on another, I understand the benefit and we will try to integrate an option for that in future releases.

Currently, the solution is to select all the doors (you can also select components that contain doors, or select non-doors indiscriminately, or even select the entire model) and run the 'Open-Close' tool. It will open (or close) all the doors in one click.

It’s Black Friday time!

We’re glad to offer you €25 Off FlexPack Pro! - Speed up your modeling workflow with dynamic windows, doors, WallCutter, the most powerful wall cutting tool in the Sketchup world, and more.

This offer is good starting now, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday - Nov 23-26.

Spend less time modeling and have more time for actual designing with FlexTools!

Hi Wenzhi,

We have seen this error come up a few times before. Please see the following explanation and solution:
https://flextools.cc/help/load-error-127/

The new Flex Double-Hung Window is released!

Check out the video to see how it works:

You can now use FlexTools in Japanese 日本語 !

Translations usually come in with a bit of a delay after each release. In this update we've added some translations for the FlexSlider component. Japanese is available for FlexPack Pro and FlexPack 2017 too.

Many thanks go to our devoted translators who keep contributing their precious time and expertise:

Takahiro Terasawa for the new Japanese translation
Pilou - French translation
Rafael Teresa - Spanish translation
Rebeca Rabia - Portuguese translation
Charles Tom from Geographic Information LTD 幾何資訊 - Traditional Chinese translation
Shaun 肖万涛 - Simplified Chinese translation

If you can help to translate FlexTools into your language - Please let us know!

Glad to announce ComponentFinder was updated to version 0.8.0

The highlights:

• Folder scanning depth is now increased from 5 levels deep to infinity! (and beyond...)

• The maximum number of components in an open folder tab is now up to 6000!

• When opening a new folder tab, the scanning will be going on in the background so you can continue working while it's scanning. Components will be added as they are discovered.

• You can now cancel the scan anytime.

• Faster loading of open folder tabs during CF startup.

• An additional larger zoom level was added.

• You can click on the folder name and it then shows the full path instead.

• When hovering over components, a tooltip appears with the full path.

• The annoying bug where components' thumbnails would suddenly break? Squashed!

To see the full list of release notes => https://flextools.cc/release-notes/

How to update => https://flextools.cc/learn/updates/

@pbacot said:

Does this show components in model or only saved libraries?

Currently only saved libraries. ‘In model’ is on our list...

@jkoll66 said:

Hello, Component Finder is a great extension. In a future release could you please allow a way to see the file path somewhere?...

Done!
Check the 2nd and 3rd points before last in the previous post.

Glad to announce ComponentFinder was updated to version 0.8.0

The highlights:

• Folder scanning depth is now increased from 5 levels deep to infinity! (and beyond...)

• The maximum number of components in an open folder tab is now up to 6000!

• When opening a new folder tab, the scanning will be going on in the background so you can continue working while it's scanning. Components will be added as they are discovered.

• You can now cancel the scan anytime.

• Faster loading of open folder tabs during CF startup.

• An additional larger zoom level was added.

• You can click on the folder name and it then shows the full path instead.

• When hovering over components, a tooltip appears with the full path.

• The annoying bug where components' thumbnails would suddenly break? Squashed!

To see the full list of release notes => https://flextools.cc/release-notes/

How to update => https://flextools.cc/learn/updates/

@sally said:

Hi Yoni,

when I looked at the CF screen and clicked on all the icons, (I think it was the eye one) I saw a message saying please re-start SU to rebuild the toolbar. So I restarted and voila, there they all were. I had 6 lots of the same folder, presumably they had loaded each time I had tried but just didn't show. Su version 18.0.16976 by the way.

Happy bunny now, looks like a great tool. Many thanks, best, Sally

Not sure what caused the folders not to show, but great to hear it's working fine now