I once did a patent drawing for a client. It was a 2d mechanical drawing with plan, elevations, and sections without talking to his lawyer. He got his patent and the drawing was never a issue. Any architectural or engineering draftsman should be able to do it. This however, was a few years ago and the requirements may have changed.

How about adding a pair of bifolds.

Are any other script.rb required to be installed in the plugin folder?

If someone can't help you do this inside SU, you can always edit the avi files in Windows Movie Maker (included in XP), place text at the bottom with info of the time as a subtitle. Not as integrated, but will do the job, let you cut and paste the video, add music, and a movie title with credits. Also greatly reduces the size of the file and be played back on TV via a DVD or CD.

As an ancient marina, the concepts of Ruby, and OPPS originally fail to easily register on my consciousness. The following is the degree to which I currently understand them as applied to SUs Ruby API.

A class is the generic form of an object. Objects within a class share the same class characteristics, the differences between objects are found in their variable differences. A class "box", results in objects, that differ in height, width, or length.

Methods nare procedures that dertermine a variable's value. For example, the boxes height = volume/(width*length).

A SU Ruby plugin is a program that utilized the SU Ruby API to affect a SU model.

SU entities include basic geometry, like lines (or edges), and faces. A SU group is a unique collection of entities. An instance is a SU component that is one copy of a component definition. Groups have instances, and have ComponentDefinitions like ComponentInstances does.

Images have component definitions as well, like Groups, SU treats them slightly different. You can see when you iterate model.definitions that you also get Group and Image definitions. ComponentDefinition has .image? and .group? that allows you to identify the type of component definition you are dealing with. This is important to check if you are processing all definitions in a model.

The difference between one instance and another, is its transformation; its spatial location, scale, and rotation. Editing the entities in a component instance, edits the entities in all instances of that component. Groups are unique instances. Caveat: when you have multiple group instances of the same group definition and edit one via the ruby API they are not automatically made unique. You must call group.make_unique first - otherwise you edit all the group copies. Besides basic geometry (lines, surfaces, circles, arcs, etc.), entities include groups, and instances (component instances).

The basic level of "collecting stuff" is an array of entities. The next level of collection is a group of entities, group.entities, and *instance.definition.entitites*. The final level is a collection of instance definitions, model.definition. Adding entities to the basic level is by entities.add_... where ... is a Sketchup::Entity (eg. entities.add_line).

Before adding a Sketchup::Entity to entities, groups, instances, and components, one must be created, or identified. Identifying the basic entities in the existing model is first by identifying the current model, by model = Sketchup.active_model, and then its entities by entities = model.active_entities. Adding new entities to the collection of entities is as previously stated, entities.add_... where ... is a Sketchup::Entity.

Adding entities to a new group, instance, or component, requires creating a new group, instance, or component by, entities.add_group, or [ruby:gcaqewus]entities.add_instance[/ruby:gcaqewus]. For example, [ruby:gcaqewus]my_group = entities.add_group[/ruby:gcaqewus] creates a new group, [ruby:gcaqewus]my_group[/ruby:gcaqewus]. Entities added to my_group are by [ruby:gcaqewus]my_group.entities.add_...[/ruby:gcaqewus], as noted above. The same sequence applies when adding entities to new instances.

New definitions are created by identifying the current collection of definitions by [ruby:gcaqewus]definitions = model.definitions[/ruby:gcaqewus], then adding a new one by [ruby:gcaqewus]my_definition = definitions.add "Description_of_definition"[/ruby:gcaqewus]. Adding an instance to my_definition is by [ruby:gcaqewus]my_definition.entities.add_instance(my_instance.definition, my_instance.transformation)[/ruby:gcaqewus].

The following code snippet changes a group into an instance, then adds the instance to a definition:

#get current model
model = Sketchup.active_model
#get current entities array
entities = model.active_entities
#get model's definitions array
definitions = model.definitions
#add new empty my_definition
my_definition = definitions.add "My Selection"
#make my_instance out of group
my_instance = my_group.to_component
#add my_instance to my_definition
my_definition.entities.add_instance(my_instance.definition, my_instance.transformation)

Addenda: Where the previous is italicized, it reflects corrections by tt.

Solo, Thanks for your input and help. How did I get my model below ground? Well got to be more careful. Maybe a function of the Drw2Dxf2Faces2Skp conversions to bring the model into Su.

Now I can move on to other embellishments.

Hi Solo, Couldn't get it to work, so here I am at home working on the problem. Was the file without the floor the original file (Pla 59 c...), or the one I emailed pete (at) soloplace.com (Pla 59 d....)? The original file may not have a floor, but the second one did.

Opened new SU file, inserted rectangle (face), imported test.jpg as image on rectangle, selected image, right clicked mouse and selected "use as material" whereby the material appear in the material's model folder, saved this material as test.skm to "MyFolder". I then opened new test1.skp, created rectangle, selected su material test.skm from "MyFolder", painted the rectangle, and rendered test1.jpg. I then push/pulled on the rectangle, rendered test2.jpg, and saved the revised model as test2.skp.

As you can see, the model would not render properly (test1.jpg), until I push/pulled the painted rectangle (test2.jpg). I used a SU material and duplicated the results, so it may be that the pov-ray can not properly render a face that has not been pulled along the blue (z) axis. The painted rectangle blacks out when it is closer then the limits of a "zoom all".

I tested this by push/pull'ing a new rectangle (face), painted then rendered it with success. Perhaps my previously successful render (above at start of this post) was the result of something I did something to my model.

Even removed and reinstalled SU "just in case". I have attached all the files as discussed above for your review.

This is the material created from test.jpeg

And the SU file of the render

And the SU file of the successful render.

As you can see, I was able to build a reasonably sized material (test.skm). Any additional advice is appreciated.

Addenda

Another clue. If I paint the opp. side of the face before rendering the top, the render takes on the color of the opp. face. If I paint the opp. side with the texture, the top will render correctly.

Hi Solo, OK thanks, its the end of the day here and I will try it tomorrow. Any idea why my texture is so big (see previous comments)?

Tried to make the file smaller but it would not stink under the 2 mb limit. Here is the floor material. Apply it to the floor inside the model, then re-size the image to about 18'(top box). Hope you get this in time.

Floor material

Just noticed that my material is 1.7mb! Wow, what am I doing wrong? The jpeg is only 111 kb. I imported it as a texture and applied it to the floor, then copied it from the model into a file, went to that file and reapplied it to the floor. Couldn't be the problem since I have another good render, or is it? Hope you get this in a timely manner. Thanks.

P.S.

OK,to the above.

Oops!, Send you original file, not the working file. When I do something new, I do not update the original until it works. The working file is over 3mb, and exceeds your server limit. Did the textures add 1.5mb to the file? I tried to erase parts of the model but the file still exceeds the 2 mb limit. I will upload the texture separately.

OK, Here it is. The original schematic design was imported as faces and I am learning to use sketchup to model and refine it. The floor (face) was drawn in with sketchup. The floor materials are jpeg files ported into su with the material editor as textures, but even a su floor material would not render. When the floor is imported as an image it renders, but I can not (or do not know how to) save the image as a material to paint with. Thanks

su file

Hi Solo, The material is applied to a large face with many edges. When selected (right mouse button), it grays (with dots), but the menu doesn't provide the option to explode (explode is grayed out).

Hi, I am a sketchup beginner. The following are images of a project I am working on. I can't get pass rendering my floor. Su shows the floor texture but the rendering only shows noise. I have tried all the material adjustment that su permits (including sizing the image), what am I missing. Previously I have been successful, but I must have done something that results in the current rendering.

I am using pov-ray with the su2pov3 plugin in su6. I like su/su2pov3/pov-ray because, it is the easiest system that produces a rendering representing what I see in su.

Didn't find a problem with your file. Added SU color, spotlight, sky, ground and rendered.

Didier, Glad to be of help, and Mahalo (thanks) for the script. I am looking forward to the patch.

Dear Didier, Found this tread and after moving a copy of the su2pov folder into the components folder I am now able to use "lights" with the "esc" key.

I am still unable to "edit pov-ray" finishes. When ever I try to "apply" a change, a ASCII file titled "Program" is created in the root directory. The contents of this file include the selected changes. Apparently the file is not being saved in the proper location. (I discovered this file when I booted the computer and the boot process reported the file, requireing that it be renamed) When I again attempt to access the "edit pov-ray" menu, the menu would not open until I clear the file "Program" from the root directory. The title of the "edit pov-ray" menu is "Files/Google/Google". Is that right? I currently have su2pov.rb and the su2pov folder in the "plugins" folder. In addition, the su2pov folder is installed in the "components" folder.