Posts made by halroach

@sally said:

Hello,

I too have installed the rbz file, have the toolbar and component browser window but can't load any components or folders. I'm on a Mac running Mojave 10.14.1. No messages on the ruby console.

Thanks, kind regards, Sally

Hi Sally,

1. Was ComponentFinder(CF) working at any point in time, or it wouldn't work when you first opened it?

2. Is the CF screen completely gray, or do you see the interface normally?

3. Please check if purging the model (Window > Model Info > Statistics > 'Purge Unused') helps in any way.

@edson said:

ok. problem solved. there were parts FlexTools in more than one location and I had to delete all of them for the installation to work.

thanks.

Ok great. Glad it worked out.

@edson said:

thanks. this is what I had done before. and it worked.

what is happening is that when I try to instal Component Finder the installer installs the whole package. this installer is ft1.6.1_component_finder_pack_0.6.0. I am probably not being able to download the correct installer. how can I get it?

You have the correct RBZ - ft1.6.1_component_finder_pack_0.6.0

Before installing make sure the C:\ProgramData\F3d_FlexTools folder is gone.
After restarting Sketchup and reinstalling you should have a toolbar called FlexTools with 2 icons on it.

It should look like this:

@edson said:

I installed Component Finder but, since I once had FlexTools installed, it was installed as part of its long toolbar. It did not ask for my license number either.

My question is: what files do I have to delete to get rid of the FT toolbar? Since I do not use the other tools I would like to have the short toolbar that shows only Component Finder.

Thanks.

Hi Edson,

To completely remove the rest of the FlexTools toolbar:

1. Close Sketchup

2. If you have no need for FlexTools at all - Delete the following folder: C:\ProgramData\F3d_FlexTools

3. Open Sketchup and reinstall ComponentFinder.

4. Open the FlexTools manager (gear icon)

5. (re)Activate ComponentFinder with your license key.

One of the features in the new FlexSlider Window/Door is that you can hide parts of the frame in order to make various configurations.

In the following example is a 4-panel door made by combining two FlexSliders.

This can serve as a temporary solution for those who need a 4-panel door component Right Now!
We plan to make a dedicated 4-panel door component at a later time.

Meet the new FlexSlider window/door!

Customize the sashes! Set the number of divisions, choose from 3 muntin distributions: 'equal divisions', 'prairie style', 'from side+equal spacing'.

Hi Sander,
Unfortunately with the current FlexWidnow component it is not possible to create a window like what you need. We're currently working on a new set of windows/doors (slider,awning,casement,hopper...) and eventually I imagine we'll make something similar to what you need too. You can sign up to our newsletter to be notified when the next components come out.
https://flextools.cc/subscribe/

Flex Slider Window/Door - Coming soon in the next update!

@ivan k said:

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

This is absolute perfection! screams in excitement

THANK YOU!!!!

Very glad it's helpful Ivan

We released this new FlexDoor feature yesterday as an auto-update to the plugin. I think it will be useful for everyone.

@somebodyelse said:

This is great. I just have a quick question about pivot points. Say I want to create a pivot door, how does one go about creating the function of a pivot door?

Hi Ivan,
If you mean to turn the FlexDoor into a pivot door, up till this very moment it was not possible...

But it is now!!!

I made a few internal changes and added a setting called 'Axis - Move'.

Consider this a hot-fix, not completely polished. You must turn the 'Arcs' off and set the 'Hinges' to 0 for things to look normal when changing the axis position.

You'll find the updated FlexDoor in the zip attached below. Drag and drop the skp into a model for it to work.

---

flex_door_ft_1_19-pivot_hotfix.zip

@optimaforever said:

2. I know, it's just I didn't know yet if the wall had to be componented in order to be mirrored so I left the door inside the group. Otherwise the door will be "forgotten" when mirroring the wall...
   Well, I understand what I mean

You could always surround the wall and door with a new component and that should work fine. The only thing to watch out for is when wanting to make the component later unique. You will need to Remove Cuts (openings will disappear) -> Make Unique - both the surrounding component and the wall component -> Refresh.
More on that here: https://flextools.cc/learn/wall-cutter/#Advanced-Operations

1. If you move the door in the new file you will see that the wall becomes corrupted. It's because of the groups. The minute I converted the groups to components, everything was fine! Use components only!

2. BTW. You can place the door outside of the wall component's context. It doesn't have to be inside.

1. Use components instead of groups for the walls. That should solve it. (You may need to recreate that first opening again)

(We tried to get WallCutter to work as much as possible with groups, but unfortunately they are very problematic - Components is the way to go!)

@optimaforever said:

When I try to paint, the geometry gets corrupted.

Can you post the model before and after? I'll take a look.

@optimaforever said:

It is indeed magic.

I realized that juxtaposing a flexdoor and a flexwindow as wallcutters is problematic as one of them sometimes loses its wallcutting abilities.

I had the habit of nudging my windows/doors when they are supposed to be close to a wall's edge, to avoid corrupting geometry (SketchUp's face cutting components tend to corrupt mesh if too close to the edge when exported).
Here as well, nudging the door by 0.5cm from the window suffices to keep the wallcutting properties, and the difference remains barely visible.

Yes, placing two WallCutters side by side doesn't always work well. You can 'unlink' one of them and it may help in some specific cases. Some of the cases we may be able to fix in the future.

@optimaforever said:

Idem, when I stretch a flex window on the whole height of the wall it is supposed to cut, I sometimes loses the wallcutting property. Then I have to stretch down a bit and the wallcut come back. Must be due to Sketchup's internal aprroximations.

Can you post an example of this here?

@optimaforever said:

I also realized that painting a material upon the wallcutter component explodes the geometry. I need to double-click the wallcutter compo to be able to paint upon inner sub-compos. I guess this is a normal behaviour?

Painting explodes the geometry!?? Please post an example of that too.

If you mean that the materials aren't saved with the component when saving into CoponentFinder, than the behavior is normal. You need to apply the materials inside the component if you want them to keep.

@dpaul said:

This is a crucial addition to a very powerful plugin.
Thanks.....!

Great to hear!

@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? I have 2 folders on different servers containing the same components. One is a personal folder for my components and the other is a user folder. I've on occasion had the wrong folder open in the Component Finder window. Thanks.

Hi Jkoll, Thanks!
When we first started working on ComponentFinder we thought of showing the full path, but we found that it added a lot of unnecessary clutter to the screen, and in most cases it seemed like it's not needed.

We may add the possibility of viewing the full path in future versions...

If possible, you could try renaming the folders to avoid confusion. If you can't rename, for the time being, you can click on the little hard disk button every now and then which would open the source folder. It would serve as a double-check to make sure you're in the correct place.

@dpaul said:

I look forward to hearing about the update soon.....!
With my thanks.
David

Here it is!

New update for WallCutter!

In this update we've introduced a much requested and significant enhancement for WallCutter - the ability to exclude sub-components from affecting the cutting algorithm. That means you'll now be able to have wall cutting windows (and doors) with Trim!

And yes, it will work with trim on both sides as asked by David here.

This update also includes a couple of bug fixes:
One of the bugs found by Pixero (posted here) should now be fixed. Sketchup won't crash now when having 0 faces in a WallCutter component.

The other bug fix addresses another similar crash that could happen if the faces in a cutting component had the thickness of 0. This could happen when a flat WallCutter component was created with the wrong axes orientation.

1. How to auto-update

2. Remember to restart Sketchup after the update!

Happy Flexing!

New update for WallCutter!

In this update we've introduced a much requested and significant enhancement for WallCutter - the ability to exclude sub-components from affecting the cutting algorithm. That means you'll now be able to have wall cutting windows (and doors) with Trim!
This update also includes a couple of bug fixes:
One of the bugs found by Pixero (see two posts above) should now be fixed. Sketchup won't crash now when having 0 faces in a WallCutter component.

The other bug fix addresses another similar crash that could happen if the faces in a cutting component had the thickness of 0. This could happen when a flat WallCutter component was created with the wrong axes orientation.

1. How to auto-update

2. Remember to restart Sketchup after the update!

Happy Flexing!

@pixero said:

I have a couple of questions.
I've made a quick test with a simple grouped wall and a simple rectangle that is made into a component.

Now I tried to make a hole in the wall (no window just a hole) I delete the face and keep the edges in the component. When trying to make this a wall cutter SU hangs with a spinning wheel and finally bugsplats.

Hi Pixero,
I just recreated that on my computer. BANG - Bug Splat. It's good you found it. We'll look into a fix. In the meantime... don't do it.

@pixero said:

Now I tried to make the rectangle (with a face) to a wall cutter and that works and creates a hole but if I then delete the face and keep only the edges in the component I can't move the wall cutter object.
How do I create a dynamic hole with nothing in it?

Second question is if it would be possible to make wall cutter work with Fredo Scale?

Try hiding the face instead of deleting it. It will then work as you'd expect it.
Let me know how it goes.