Hi guys,

is there a way to replace groups entities (splines in ths case) with other groups entities (splines too) but keeping the original groups names?

Like selecting the "to copy entities" and paste the aligned (centered) in the "old" groups while deleting the "old" groups entities??

I know I could replace groups (or selection) with components but I need to keep the groups unique names..

Any idea?

Best,
Niko

Hi guys,

I have a similar thread running, related to axes as well, in that case about negative scaling issues when used in other softwares.

In THIS thread its a little different, I searched the whole web up and down and tried several plugins, with no luck.. yet.

I have modeled many objects which need to be rotated upwards by 90° - and now Im left with lots of groups (no components for a specific reason) where the up-axis (z, blue)b is pointing forward.

I cant go through all of those objects to reset the axis manually.

I know about TTs axes tools plugin and I can use it very well later in this case to place the axes at the proper place - but this doesnt change / reset the axis orientation itself..

One way could be to rotate the objects to the right orientation and reset the axes based on the world's axis orientation or some plugin where I could choose from z-up, y-up, x-up or sth alike.

I used the trial version of su4u's axis plugin and I would buy it if it solves the issue, right now it did only change the top level axis orientation, leaving all the nested group's orientation untouched..

ANY IDEA??

Thanks a lot!

Niko

Found TTs "Transformation Inspector" which seems to do something alike.
First showing the transformation matrix and second giving the opportunity to change values, eg. swapping a "-1" for a flipped object with a "1" - resulting in a reset.

Seems like its only possible for one group/component at a time..

IF I was able to globally set the "-1" to "1" (flip along the green axis) I guess Id be totally fine already - in this particular case.

(Strange enough flipped geometry from SU does not come in negatively scale on that axis only, but on all axis.. Don't know if this is relevant or not though..)

Hi guys,

I'm working on a project where I'm exporting spline objects (groups) and polygons (groups) to other 3D packages (3DS Max). Splines will act as parent objects and need to carry over its name and position - and sometimes even rotation transform (spline objects gets rotated in SU, linked child objects will follow that rotation in 3DS).

Unfortunately some of those spline objects have been created by mirroring existing ones - resulting in a negative scale in 3DS Max. And thats kind of bad for the later use...

Question:

Is it possible to reset transforms on selected objects, ideally seperated in reset transform/rotation and reset scale?

(3DS Max it is possible to reset transforms - unfortunately it does some weird stuff, resetting the scale results in rotation of -180 degree around the X axis (and so forth..))

Do you know about an existing plugin that could handle this task - or could it be done with some short ruby code snippet?

Eg. for selection do reset transform/scale (means I'd select the objects to process first by hand)

Happy to hear from you, thanks a lot in advance.

Best,
Niko

Thanks a lot for your super quick support!

I'll try it when I get back to the office.

Another TIG tool that comes right on time..

Hi @TIG,

I'm working on modeling a bunch of objects from photo reference. Therefore I used your plugin to mass import image files.

They come in nicely arranged next to each other - unfortunately they're all in random order..??

Their original filename is DSC_XXX, I tried batch renaming it to incremental numbers but that didnt solve it.

Any idea how to solve this?

Many thanks as usual Niko

Hm,

that did it, working fine SO FAR - but now I'm left with components of that little shape object instead of groups. But I need to rename these shapes individually and kkep them as groups for later. There are several plugins to convert groups > components but I dont know of any that does is vice versa.

Any idea how to solve THAT now?

Hi,

thanks for your quick reply!

You mean: duplicate the groups, convert those duplicates to components, convert the single object to component too and then swap the duplicates with that component.. that could do it.

I give it a try!

Hi guys,

I did not find the right tool / workflow for this quite simple task:

• A selection of groups, all having their own certain group origin.
• Another object should be selected which then is copied to all pre-selected objects to match the origins position / rotation.

None of the tested or found plugins do that or I'm a bit blind to see..

There are many aligning plugins, alining to line along vertices or spacing, matching the aligned objects axis, or scattering on faces or on vertices - BUT not really the one I'm after yet. If I had several objects in that place and if all were components I could just swap them, but thats not the case too..

Any idea how to solve that?

Thanks in advance, best,
Niko

PS: The selected object on the screenshot should be aligned to all the other's origins.

Hey guys,

thank you for your responses and ideas

I guess this wont work for the intended use in the pipeline to 3DS Max..

First, thanks @Dave for clarifying the correct term, great I can get back to guide point as the proper term, just read "construction point" pretty often in SU context and therefor though it should be like this. Better to stick to guide points though

I totally get the point that in a SU context there would be many workarounds - and using a component, e.g. a cross of lines with some "meta"information would be ideal and I would have done it that way.

Wouldn't work in 3DS Max like this - and the programs that follow. I need to set up a certain hierachy in 3DS, linked to guide points. And I have to process a bunch of objects from the same file - ideally e.g. exporting FBX with autmatic naming of the linked elements based on the guide points name. Thats why I was asking for guide point naming informations in SU.. And actually in 3DS all guide points come in in a numerical order, which makes it hard to identify the correct relating guide points.

If I'd use components in SU I maybe could realign guide points in 3DS to those components - but then I'm left with the same: guide points in a numerical order without any name..

Maybe some scripting could help but this is beyond my knowledge, sadly.

So I guess I have to stick with whats given and resort / rename the SU guide points in 3DS as I did it now.

But dont you know of any option to change the viewport representation of guide points in SU, to eg. make them larger? As I need to keep going with the SU guide points workflow this would make the working with them a bit easier.

Just a rough guess: Maybe I could nest a single guide point in a group and name that group - MAYBE that could be used for carrying over some information - but I guess it's not helping as guide points come in loose, no matter if they are inside a group/component or not.. At least through the native .skp file import in 3DS.

Maybe any other ideas?

Best,
Niko

EDIT Ah, shoot, putting a single guide point a group won't work.. If I have eg two lines in a group (+ a guide point, guidepoint + one single line won't work) - as soon as I delete the lines the group disappears, and so does the guide point..

EDITEDIT It DOES work indeed.. The guide point disappeared as it was somehow connected to the line I drew from it. Putting all objects a bit to the side and adding another guide point at the worlds origin worked. Dont know if this helps me in 3DS - but its something.

Hi guys!

Sketchup's construction point feature is a little limited
A little..

Is there a way to add information to a point which is carried over to other applications (in this case native SU V7 import to 3DS Max)?

• Would be great if construction points could be named but the entity info window is empty. As construction points relate to a certain object its hard to find the corresponding object in 3DS, only possible visually in the viewport..

• Finding construction points through outliner wont work either.

• Construction points are hard to see / select.. in styles > edit I can change the color to something more visible, which is something.. but a larger point representation in the viewport would be great.

Any idea where I could find some more information about this topic or if there is a way to achieve the features above?

Thanks a lot!

Niko

Thanks again,

@Dave: Ah, sorry, now I got it. I'll keep that in mind for future imports!

@Box: Thanks for that offer, normally I can import plans properly after a little try and error. I guess I shouldnt post those plans as they're not created by me and therefor might be confidential.

Btw. great to see you guys are still around here

As Dave said, there are too many different softwares and export variations out there so you're never sure what you'll get (only if you've worked with a client before - and even then). If it's really not working you'll sometimes have to ask the client for different file variations.

Actually in this case I got results with various processes in Autocad eg. the following actions: open dwg - command: flatten - command: units - command: setvar > insunits > 0 - command: qselect > all text - express tools: explode text

Got the right scale in SU, text was readable and after some cleanup I could use those plans.

Further workflow: grouped each floorplan, then selected only the relevant visible layer(s) and grouped them as well. Used Thomas' cleanup tools on those elements. After using make faces plugin and some cleanup by hand I got pretty well working results.

IF there are some odd problems where the shouldnt be any (like the screenshot I posted above), I could sometimes solve them by eg. selecting the face when it is still working, copying it into memory, getting rid of that geometry, closing a larger area face -> and pasting that geometry back in. Sometimes works as properly intersected geo then.

Overall I get along with it like that this time. Still the model ist pretty complex and it takes a lot of investigation. Maybe I'll post a shot of the final model here after.

Have a good day guys!

Thanks for sharing your workflows - and your solidarity!
This is really a bummer, one of the most hated things in SU (for me).

Whenever its possible I do like to redraw the whole plan, or better, the parts which are relevant for a 3D model depending on detail level by myself.
This gives me better control over grouping and layers - and in many cases there are some little unprecise parts in the drawing which messes up everthing in the end. Best if you have repeating elements and if you draw them by yourself you get a perfect result.

But: in some cases like this its just impossible (or e.g. if you have some complex freeform things or logo or whatever you just cant redraw (easily / properly)). I have to reconstruct a theater of Hans Sharoun. And if you know his philhamony in Berlin, Germany I hope you feel with me He could have left some things simple, at least where you dont see it.

Anyway, thats the task, and for sure it's an interesting one.

That's why, Dave, your tip is a good one but I cant use it here. There are millions of vertices.

It's odd as you even dont know what you import even though it looks OK in other softwares. Sometimes parts of the plan are at other levels even though they are not in the software they come from. Or you change some export filetype and you get something different (scale, parts, whatever). That's why your tip, HornOxx (nice name), is a good one too.

The very main problem is SU itself. Because it just gets weird handleing (big) plans. Because even if EVERYTHING is OK, same plane, closed face, all perfect - it's not working. Guess it's some code thing. It just can't. That's why I called it "teach" SU what's the face, and then SU is like "Ah, now I get it." ..and forgets its again a minute after and messes everything up again.

Seems like I have to deal with it as is. Go through this pain, get myself some of those balls you can hang from your desk (called niceballs, on kickstarter, WHY?) and push through. Maybe I should add those balls as a solution for this problem.

So, thanks guys for your support!
If you search for me, you'll find me here, closing faces.

Niko

Guys,

I love SU but sometimes I really hate it. Seriously.

I have a pretty big and complex projekt to rebuild in 3D.
So as usual I start with importing DWGs to SU, checking them, if neccessary going back to Autocad to make some change, explode things (text) and such.

Then after import I try to find a way through the mess, using several useful plugins like Thomthoms edge tools and find faces plugins to get a start. Then it's a lot of redrawing, tedious closing faces, flipping faces, erasing lines which results in flipped faces which I will flip afterwards again - and so on.

This is what it is, this is not great but still SU is the best choice. You can't automate everything and there IS just always some mess in plans.

BUT, what REALLY stresses me out is the fact, that SU seems to have a devilish sense of humor when it comes to properly closing / preserving faces from properly connected edges.
There is this problem that you can (for some reason as SU's intention is to work different from this) actually have two or more lines in the same place which even makes it more difficult or impossible to close a series of edges to define a face. BUT even if there are only single connected lines making up edges of a face, SU is just NOT drawing it..

Like you have to connect various endpoints and triangulate the area until SU LEARNS that it is a face. This is issue No. 1.

But then even, if you manage to get a stubborn face to appear it might happen that you close a face and suddenly at another place proper faces will be mixed with another surface. This is like fixing things on one end while breaking things at another. This is issue No. 2.

For sure, this does not happen when you start building up your own models, clean and from scratch. But sometimes you have to import plans - and you end up with a mess.

Any tips or hints what could be a solution to this? It does take so much time and nerves, I really have to stop this odd face-fight and get a beer.

Appreciate everything.

Niko

Ths image shows this situation. Should be a proper face. Used to be one even. But as you can see - it's not.

PS: One "hint" I know of is that there might be tiny (tiny!) stray edges with in face areas which will prevent the face from being drawn. Sometimes you can track them, sometimes plugins like eg. Thomthoms edge tools are really time- or lifesavers.

Ladies and gentlemen - no idea?

Except for some specific plugins in most cases you can probably just copy the "master" plugins folder over to the two "slaves" folders which will at least save extra searching time.

Won't work for some plugins related to third folders data though.

And some plugins store local information (settings, custom data) you wouldn't have access to from the two "slaves" computers.

Hi folks,

long time no post.

I have to produce an simplified (not super precise) after-built documentation of a theater as 3D IFC model.
Now I struggle a little with labeling the entities (name, description and so on).

To organize a model within SU (2016) and generate reports from there is working pretty well, except one thing which is not really clear to me. And this is

Question no. 1:

To show the proper "Entity Description" in the report you have to enter it during creation of a component and you CANT add or modify it later. Neither inside the "Entity Info" window nor in the "Component Options" window.

After ex- and import as IFC to other softwares (eg. BIM Vision Viewer or REVIT) it actually does not show up at all anymore under "description".

I would be grateful if someone could help me getting that clear if I'm on a wrong track..

Question no. 2:

I then discovered that if I use the "Component Options" dialog from the dynamic components menu (or drop down window menu) I CAN add a description eg. as IfCText Value. This is, let's say, then hidden in the component as it's not directly visible in the "Entity Info" window. So it's a hard to keep track of what you've entered already, and so on.

But even worse, the drop down field within the "Component Options" window closes each time you change a selection! So actually to create an information that remains in the right spot / visible during export into other software you 1. can't propery set it up upon component creation, 2. not have an trackable overview of what you have entered already or change it and 3. hardly can enter the information to the right spot ("Component Options" dialog) efficiently..

Sorry if this post is confusing, that's exactly what the IFC functionality of SU is to me right now.

So, if I get or handle things wrong inside SU, PLEASE, tell me.
I'd really appreciate it!

If someone is aware of a (free) plugin that could work as a combined "Entity Info" + "Component Options" to have an organized view (and edit function) of all entered information this would be GREAT.

Thank you very much!
Niko

BTW: A little OT but in case you did't come across it: Black Friday Skatter offer by Ronen Bekerman: 50% OFF with code RONEN-BF16

Thanks, I'll check that.

Came across Didiers double line tool during research but thought it would be something like a wall tool.. Should have looked closer!

Hey,

is there a way to get a double line from a single line, e.g. for window seperation?
If you have only some divided faces you could use offset or multi-face offset.

I'd like to have two lines (maybe set distance in advance) generated from one line which if possible which overlapping part is cut off at the next intersection and the former line is removed...

Sure, send me some, I'd be happy to peek.

I'm on a crappy iPad now, I'll answer more indepth next week.