Not having loaded sketchup.rb first must have been the problem. When I restored my plugins, I loaded all fo the my_programs first, the first of which did not load sketchup.rb. Once bezier.rb loaded before my_programs, since it loads sketchup.rb, there was no error when my_program loaded. Any idea what caused my animation to export after removing the plugins, and why it continues to export after replacing all the same plugins?

Didier, Yes, thanks. In Dxf, I think the entity Insert is used to apply transformation to a block (which is like a definition). Matching its name (I think) is what distinguishes it as a instance. Will test these assumptions tonight. If a SU Component is the equivalent of the Acad entity Insert, what Acad entity is the equivalent of a SU Group, if any. Or can I treat it as a Insert without additional instances? Sorry if I my question seems repetitious.

Don't forget instance_of? when only looking for a specific class without regard to inheritance. As in <span class="syntaxdefault"><br />ss </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">selection<br />ss</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">each do </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">|</span><span class="syntaxdefault">e</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">|<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  if e</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">instance_of</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">?</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">ComponentInstance<br />    </span><span class="syntaxcomment">#other stuff<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">  end<br />end</span>

Thanks Gai, guess I won't worry about it.

OK, makes sense. The only other way I can think to do the above is to have a timer on one instance that checks a memory flag from time to time, but that's too much overhead.

Well, I completed my program, and did it by not using a path. It's my guess that SU keeps track of where SU is, so if you: Save a component to file as name.skp. Edit the saved file. (this is the function of the plugin) Erase the component instances (that was saved) from the original model entities. definitions.purge_unused componentdefinition = definitions.load name.skp entities.add_instance componentdefinition, each_transformation The key to make this work is step 4. The only problem that can come about is if you require the erased components to remain in the select "Components" window.

There'a a major drawback to using the API "default" methods. That is they did not give us a "remove_default" method. This means the Win Registry or Mac plist can become cluttered with old 'orphaned' settings for plugins that are no longer used. Many authors (TIG is one I think,) that instead write out their own settings file in the plugin subfolder. I think he has posted code snippets in other topic threads. Basically you write out a string report of your settings Hash to a text file, using the inspect method. To reload it, you read the file into a String object, and then eval() the string inside the context of your module, assigning it to a var, which should become type Hash after evaluation.

@dan rathbun said: ...........refers to the module namespace that you are defining the method within......... OK, I get that. Thanks.

Great, Thanks I can experiment.

@honoluludesktop said: I see that your version of DOS is 6.1. Is this its original release, or the one that came with your WinOS? Which machine were you on at the time? I have a copy of DOS 6.1 (left over from the good old days) installed in a VPC. FYI ... DOS 6.22 came out at the same time as Win 3.11 for Workgroups (I still have my disks and manuals as well.) DOS 7 was distroed with Win98 (not sure about Win95.) Win 2000 & up are NTFS not DOS. BUT ... you misread the image. It is the Windows ver that is displayed, not DOS. Win 5.0 = Windows 2000 Win 5.1 = Windows XP Win 6.0 = Windows Vista Win 6.1 = Windows 7

Hi everybody, Just Downloaded the plugin. Did get pointed to this by BOX in this discussion. https://forums.sketchup.com/t/how-to-open-the-component-skp-file/195138/10 TIG is mentioned and knows much more then me about Ruby, maybe it a simple something to get it working. Or are there newer extensions that do the opening of a imported component skp file for editing?

Thanks guys.

honolulu Thanks, I love metaphors,and all things subtle and understated. Have a very Merry Christmas

Hello Christain... you describe a Mac quirk. I believe that there is work-around for that, but I am not a Mac user. Can any Mac guys explain to him how to get new toolbars to save position ?

@jim said: ............ I use a C:\Plugins folder that is used by all the versions of SketchUp I have installed. It's much easier not to have to copy and paste an entire folder of plugins from one version to the next............ Good idea, even though there are exceptions.

I went from here: [image: xnH5_Temp02.png] to here by Geom::Transformation.new(pt, axis, angle): [image: bSkC_Temp03.png] then to here by ent.transform_entities(transform,ent1,ent2,ent3): [image: g0Jo_Temp04.png] But how do I do step 2 for a component rotated on all three axis?

It is perfect plugin... thk so much.

@chris fullmer said: A components axis is where its 0,0,0 is and the orientation thereof. If you open the a component up as its own model, the world axis is in the same place as the component's axis when it is being used as a component. I don't know if that makes sense....sorry. Understood. @chris fullmer said: .............The insertion point is the point of the component instance thst sticks to the cursor when inserting the component from the component browser. It has little to do with the axis - except that it often is the axis location. But once you move a component by any other point, that point become the insertion point. .............. Didn't realize this, thanks again. Between this, and the post that tt helped me with, I should be able to polish the point component plugin, and show the code. While it worked before, it wasn't by design, but by cutting off access to where it failed.

Interesting topic, This this knowledge end up in a plug-in? I'm looking for a way to reset the bounding boxes of 'rotate multiple' components

@solo said: Proof read everything before posting to make sure you don't anything out. Pete, you are definitely my kind of man.