Just tugging your chain.

I did enough s/w testing in my days to know, ya can't test for everything.

I would routinely put "out of range" values into input fields or do something "not expected or allowed" because people WILL do that using the s/w. That alone found a plethora of errors that were not caught on condition. I would look at all the "IF" statements to see if I could screw some up with out of bounds parameters. This would often crash the system.

Since I was working on various banking and before that some military systems my methods were encouraged, but the programmers sorta did not appreciate me. boo hoo.

When I was working at SPAR where we made the robotic arm for the space shuttle (Canadarm) I was a senior member of the project management team. During down time, I would play with the 3D simulator capturing satellites and putting them in orbit or back into the shuttle bay. I got fairly good at this too. It ain't easy by any stretch.

This simulator was built around the old IMSAI 8080 because the systems architecture was based on the computers in the shuttle. The 4 video displays used some radar processors and produced a vector line diagram on the 4 screens that mimicked the 4 windows on the aft shuttle cabin, much like the old ATARI Tank game. Very realistic video game. This setup was used primarily for engineering test and development. NASA had a similar system in Houston which was more realistic to the shuttles interior for training.

Anyway, one day I decided to do an end to end scenario, take the arm out of locks, take a sat out of the bay, put it in orbit, then park the arm for departure.

Well, lo and behold, I could NOT park the arm without setting off singularity alarms in the last inch or so. A singularity is the term used to warn of joint limitations.

It would auto-park, but not manually. NOBODY ever tried this before. The chief engineer tore a strip off me, but never checked. A week later we got a call from NASA with a problem..... Yep, couldn't manually park.

It is not good when the client finds a problem that you didn't. Took about 3 days to fix and validate the problem in the code. The program manager gave me an "attaboy"; the chief eng. never said a word about it.

Tig....

An hour and 23 minutes......

What took so long??

Look into TIG's COORDTAG.rb tool. Set to some geo-location, you also get the co-ords of each tree, and his latest update to the file allows sequential labeling/numbering as well.

http://sketchucation.com/resources/pluginstore?pln=coordstexttagtoolfromdatum

I iz a-waiting

Wow, that was fast.

Perfect, (almost)

When I type a label ie: "first point" <enter> then select the next point,
the label in the dialog reads "first poinu".
The last letter is incremented with the next alpha letter.
Happens all the time, any label.
When it reaches "xxxz" it cycles back to "xxya".

You need to turn off the incrementing with alpha labels, or make alpha incrementing an option, for those who may find it useful.

Otherwise, again..

That was fast

I'll check it out over the w/e as I am pressed for time today.

Many thanks, in advance...

I did not realize the VCB entry would act that way.

So, understanding what you said, here is what I would suggest.......

Select from your main menu, "Add Coord-Tag with Prefix" or something like that.

Use the same (similar) dialog box on screen as with "Add Coord-Tag by Dialog".

I would then click on a point. The XYZ coords would display in the dialog box and wait for a manual prefix entry followed by <enter> (or next click on another point).

Tag with manual prefix displays in model.

Dialog box stays on screen for next point selection, until tool change or <esc>.

As long as I do not have to call up the Dbox each time I tag a point, I can very happily live with that.

Two other options, if I may.
1 - If a manual prefix is entered, can you dispose of the "XYZ=" prefix? Or at least put the manual prefix in its own column in the CSV file?

2 - Option to add a sequential numerical prefix instead of a manual prefix input.
You would need a "start seq. at ###" Dbox entry with it. (not important, just an after thought)

What else is needed.....

I need to label or prefix each selected coord point with a different name, every time I create the tag. In this model things move and change shape as I tweak the design, so an existing tag (most times) cannot be reused after a tweak. Yes, the points coord will adjust, but I need to change the label every time, so the Excel sheet will sort them properly.

'Add Coords-Tag by Dialog' only puts a named tag at the input coords, NOT a point selection.
I cannot select a point in the model and label it specifically, unless I am missing something.

I have no problem (so far) with exporting the CSV file and its format.

What I am asking for is this....

When I select "add coord tag" I can sequentially add tags by simply clicking on points.

I cannot change the tag label except by going back and editing the tag. But I need to know the specific order I selected each point, and for some, this order changes with each tweak.

So if I could simply click on a point and then just type to the VCB a label before selecting the next point, problem solved.

Tig

I think this was asked before, but last week it became a real problem for me.

Is there any way (or could there be a way) to add/edit the tag while initially selecting the coord point in the model? (Rather than after the fact)

I had a bunch of closely spaced coords in my model that I was selecting in a specific order. Got interrupted and got lost. The order was paramount as my Excel sheet did a calculation based on the order of the points and merged with position (coord point) names in the Excel sheet. I was out one point and boy did I get a weird result.

I had to redo all the point selections again (42 points).

IF, I had the ability to name (tag) each point when actually selecting it, then the selection order would not have mattered, as Excel would have sorted them properly.

And I would need to do this over again a few times as I tweak the design.

It doesn't have to be a dialog box, just a simple "click"; type a tag (to the VCB); next click.

@moneydeep said:

What do you mean by keep the style simple?

On the assumption you used multiple copies of a single component for the facade, (I am not downloading your model) and you are looking for just an exportable. JPG of it, I suggest you edit any one comp. and simplify it by reducing the segment size of the curves at the top and on the bottom grill as well. You can also make the facade panels flat with no thickness. For each hole in a thickness the line and face count goes up dramatically.

Any change to a comp inside its box will apply to all same copies in the model, Even if they are scaled differently, so you only need to do it once.

Save as a "low poly" version so you have both versions.

If they are not all the same comp. then come back here for more help.

I sent the following email to Enmesh yesterday.......

Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2013 11:12 PM
To: info@enmesh.se
Subject: [Enmesh.com contact form] Go-Sim Lite for SketchUp V8 Free

Joel Berson sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.enmesh.se/contact.

I've seen a video of Go-Sim on SU, but I find no reference to that version on
your product offerings.

Does it still exist?
How do I get a copy?

Thanks
jgb

=================================
And their reply.................

Hi!

Unfortunately, there is no version available SketchUp. It was only developed as a demo a few years back. The only plugins available are for SpaceClaim and IronCAD.

Sincerely yours,
Jonas Niklasson, Enmesh

============

Bummer

This might help if you have to roll your own........

They are labeled as Aluminum (for my use) but are the exact same size as ISO standard steel cubes.

2 versions, a detailed and a low poly.

Keep in mind, there are 4 different kinds of cubes, lower and upper, each for left and right corners,

Corner Cubes

I've used Selection Toys for a while (new V2.2 is out, which I have not yet installed)

I keep "Entity Info" dialog open at all times in the upper right of screen.

ABOVE it is a simple Selection Toys toolbar, where I have just a few icons I use the most, that is: Select Lines, Faces, Groups, Components, Hidden, Soft, Smooth, as well as deselect same list.

When "Perspective" is ON, the clipping occurs as you zoom in close. You can also pass through a face to see inside the model or what's behind the face. Note that clipping only becomes noticeable if you zoom into a line or vertex. Zooming into a face may not show clipping.

With perspective OFF, the clipping occurs as you zoom out (away) from the model. But you can zoom in extremely close without clipping. However you CANNOT pass through a face.

You can adjust the point of clipping by playing with the "field of view" but anything very different from default will look distorted at various zoom values.

Keep in mind a special condition of (non dynamic)components is that what ever you do INSIDE the bounding box (color, scaling, rotations), applies to ALL same components in the model. All changes to the external bounding box, (colour, scaling, rotations) apply only to that copy of the component.

If you need to make a change to the details of only that one component (that would be inside the box, make it "unique" first.

So if you are using different lengths of the same extrusion, scale the component from outside the box for each copy.

If you want to change the wall thickness of all copies, then edit the component (inside the box).

If you want to change the wall thickness for only one copy, make it unique, then edit it.

If in your example you did not want the 2 perpendicular faces to give you the weird shading, but you don't want to see the line, then keep it "soft" and NOT "smooth".

Select the line, and use "entity info" to make the adjustment.

Don't use "hidden", which effectively is both soft and smooth, but also has other attributes you may not want.

99% of the time a "spurious" line forms in the first place is that the faces have at least 1 line and a common vertex that is just a bit out of alignment with the intended face, but they look OK.

You need to go to the vertices of the faces and see if they truly connect with each other and are not just slightly off.

There are 2 ways to fix this, and sometimes you may end up redrawing a lot more than just that bad face.

First, do a left-right select over each vertex. Keep the select box small, and make sure you do not select parts of the drawing behind the vertex. Using entity info, see if anything is actually selected. If a tiny fragment is selected, then delete it. This will probably cause another face to disappear. If so, delete the line that was common to both faces and redraw it, making sure you get "endpoints" only. If you get a "constrained by...." message, hit escape and start the line at the other vertex. This should form both faces.

If there is no fragment, then you probably have 2 lines that are open by a tiny gap. You can get in real close, (by turning OFF perspective) and looking for a double line or a gap. Delete a doubled line. or even both, and redraw the common line.

Do not delete 2 lines of a triangle at one time, or you may lose the true point of the vertex.

Phono

I am no expert on the CofG plugin. This is one problem that Tig needs to weigh in on.

But, anyone trying to help further will need to see your 2 models (.SKP's).
There may be something innocuous you are missing, or some condition CofG cannot handle.

I think your imported file is still grouped. Ungroup the 2 sections so that all the groups and comps that you want to do a combined CofG are at the same "level". CofG does not look inside groups to compute each sub-grouped CofG.

==================

Also, an easier way to bring another SU sub model into the main model is to open both the main and the sub in 2 separate SU sessions. Then, in the sub model select only the parts you want (groups/comps) and Copy to the Clipboard. Copy them all at once, not one after the other. It can be slow.

Then go to the main model and "Paste in Place". This will bring in those items as a single group to explode. The main advantage here is the main model contains the sub components in the same spacial relationship as they were in the sub model.

If you do an "Import" you have the problem of properly positioning it with the main model.

I do this a lot in my airplane and other complex models, where the main is basically a skeleton or simplified group of objects. Then I open a clean sheet, Clip copy then Paste in Place only that section I want to add significant detail to. (ie: the wing structure).

Then any other sub drawings are positionally in proper relation to each other as well as to the main master drawing. One of my models has 14 sub models, all in proper position to each other.

Here is the solution.

Your error in computing the Center of Buoyancy was not including the ballast section volume as part of the underwater section. That was a 3 1/8 inch difference. The ballast weight does not factor into the CofB.

The displacement value (density) should be 62.4 pounds/cu.ft (fresh water) which determines the maximum weight that will float at your defined waterline. The displacement is .05 cu.ft or 3.12 pounds. This is the total maximum weight, including buoy shell and ballast to float at your defined waterline.

To determine the total weight and the resultant CofG, you need to know the weight of every component in the buoy; shell, batteries, radio, antenna, ballast and wiring, and their location in the buoy.

The CoG must be BELOW the CofB in order to float upright. The greater the distance, the more upright it will float and the faster it will upright when knocked over.

I hope this helps.

Solution to Center of Buoyancy problem.