Posts made by jgb

2 years using SU and I never noticed that.
Thanks

@thomthom said:

@jgb said:

And people wonder why I stick with Version 6.

? Nothing in this thread is related to SU version...

I have never had any of those issues in V6.

I have read of countless new and improved problems in V7 and V7.1, and yet few of the real V6 problems have been fixed in V7.x

V7.x Free offers so little extra (notably the line crossing fix) over V6 Free that it makes no sense to me to upgrade for more problems.

@messire said:

Hi all,
i need to rescale it down 0,9939 to 1 but it seems the scale tool only accepts increments of 0,01
thnx
Nils

That .01% snap-to is a real pain, but you can define it more accurately. Just scale it to about the size you want, and type to the VCB the actual ratio you want and [enter].

Often when I need to scale down/up just a tad, it will snap to the nearest .01%. If I move the cursor, it snaps up or down to the next .01%, say between .98 and .97, and I want something in between.

So I estimate where in between and say it is .0976 Just simply type .976 [enter] and it will scale to that. If it is off a bit, undo and just rescale from there at say .9765 or .977

I have found trying to enter an exact dimension is a hit or mostly a miss situation. I just put in a guide line where I want the edge to be, and then snap the scale to that. It can get tricky though.

I had this problem in spades, then a while back Catamountain made a remark in passing that gets around this clipping problem, but does not eliminate it.

The reason clipping happens is due to perspective. As you get in close (in proportion to the models dimensions) SU cannot resolve the angularity (like our eyes can) and clips what it cannot draw. Setting field-of-view helps, but only a little.

To solve this problem, turn OFF perspective view. You can then get real close and personal with the entity. There will be no clipping as you get closer, but it will clip as you zoom out from the entity, exactly the reverse.

Two cautions before you turn off perspective (Camera - perspective).
If the drawing is dimensionally big or complex, select the entity first, or some line nearby. That makes it easier to find when you turn off perspective.

Zoom OUT so that the entity is some distance away and centered in the screen. Then turn off perspective. The view will shift a bit, and then you can zoom in as close as you want. If you don't zoom out, SU may get very far out and you could lose sight of the entity.

After you are done examining and fixing the problems, turn perspective back on.

I just finished a huge complex model, a very detailed BA-609 TiltRotor and uploaded it to the warehouse.
It is a SU-V6 model, 6mb on my disk. (one of my smaller ones)

The first message I got was it was too big to upload, but it uploaded anyway.
Here are the problems.....

The warehouse image is all black.

When I downloaded it into my PC (to test) several things were amiss.
All the scene animations were gone.
The airplane skin surface reverted to default white/blue when the model was drawn in white/white (redefined default). This seemed to happen where I painted the backside in a greenish color (zinc-chromate).
As a result, the model looks like hell.

I previously uploaded a large model, the GE90-115b engine (about 5.8mb) and had no problem, mind you it was not as complex a model.

Any ideas how to fix this????

I recently finished a very complex model (see my next post re. BA-609) in which the entire surface of this airplane, and most of the interior detail is made of soft/smoothed lines. As almost all of this model could not be formed by extrusions, I was forced to draw every line, then reselect and soft/smooth it, with the exception of surface boundary lines. Selecting is not the problem per se, as I am using Toms selection utility Ruby (fantastic utility ) but it is still mostly tedious nit picky work.

Is there a way I can selectively draw directly, soft/smooth lines rather than normal "solid" edge lines?

And people wonder why I stick with Version 6.

There are 2 ways to fix this.
1- If the line segments form a straight but divided line, delete them and draw a single replacement line. Make sure you snap on the endpoints where the line started/stopped, and the face(s) should reform.
2- There is a Ruby called WELD.rb It can (but not always) make the lines a single entity.

@xrok1 said:

i guess you need to plan ahead next time .

You got that right!!!!

There can be a problem with the entity info count. The count is correct, but you may have copies on invisible layers, or, duplicate coincident copies that look as only 1, which is very difficult to find.
So if the count seems wrong, start hunting.

To correct coincident copies, you need to delete a suspect. If it disappears, hit [undo]. If it remains, it was a duplicate. Do it again. In my early drawings I have had as many as 7 instances coincident, due to my inexperience then.

One very difficult situation to fix is where you have multiple copies INSIDE the group or component envelope. The only way I know of fixing that is to open the group/comp and rebuild it line by line. Deleting co-incident lines does not always work, and this condition is a major cause of faces that do not form. You have endpoints that are very close together.

@tig said:

It's a while since I wrote it !

As I recall if finds ALL 'raw' Geometry in the Model, and inside every Group and Component-definition and puts it onto 'Layer0'... but any Groups and Instances are not changed.

That may be a problem. I'll try it later.
Thanks....

Last night I converted about 300 groups into 1 component in 1 swell foop. It also showed I had about a dozen almost identical groups with a common very minor change in them, that did not convert, as expected, but they would be hard to find otherwise.

I did this by selecting ALL, and converting. After the conversion to a single comp, only those unique groups that did not convert remained highlighted. Note: it is not necessary to highlight any of the multiple groups, except the single any one group to effect the conversion. All same groups in the model will convert. I have not tried testing with layered and visible same groups yet, but I will.

Now I will try to figure how to convert those similar groups into the same single comp. I think I know how, but I haven't figured out the correct sequence yet.

(edit added) I just noticed that my old 43mb+ file is down to 31mb, and I'm not done converting yet. And it saves faster too. Bonus.

@tig said:

This script defaults all 'loose' geometry and any geometry in groups or component definitions to Layer0. The layers of groups or components are NOT changed.

.

Just d/l'd but not tried it yet. I think it will solve a problem I raised long ago to revert all selected group/comp internal geometry to layer0.

I have a question.
Does it revert ALL groups on a visible layer, or only selected groups on a visible layer?

The reason I ask is because there are 2 conditions I employ that uses crossed layers within a group.

1. This is where the object(s) within a layered envelope group is on layer0, and the documentation is also within the envelope group, but is assigned to a separate "documentation" layer. That way I can chose to make visible both the object and its doc by making both the objects and doc layers visible. By turning off the doc layer, ALL such documentation for all groups on all layers is invisible. By turning on the doc layer, only those object layers that are turned on will display their relevant documentation. This dramatically reduces clutter and gives the documentation more utility.

2. In a similar way, in complex models with many layers that contain subsets of a major object, I will place each subset object (on their own layer) into an envelope layer on its own layer.
   Imagine an airplane, with fuselage, wings, engines, landing gear, etc. I number my layers hierarchically such as;
   1.0 fuselage
   2.0 wing
   2.1 wing airfoil
   2.2 wing flaps
   2.3 wing engines
   3.0 other stuff
   So, Wing grouped objects on layers 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 are contained in an envelope on layer 2.0. The raw geometry is always on layer0. Then I can make visible/invisible the whole wing by turning on/off only layer 2.0. And I can still turn on/off any other part of the wing. It's a bit easier and quicker than using a layer manager.

So if your pluggin reverts all groups/comps raw geometry to layer0, that would screw me up royally.
But if it only reverted selected groups/comps, that would be of great use to me cleaning up old models that had all details on layers eschewing layer0. That happened in my early SU days coming from ACAD.

That looks like one MEGA great Ruby. Now it will take a week to learn it.

I loaded it into my /plugins and all I get is an error loading; can't find base.rb

Can't find it anywhere.

and 10 minutes later..........

Never mind. Found it in TT_Lib.zip

And it works.

After 3 tries, it converted a dozen same groups to 1 component. Exactly like I asked.

Thanks TT; great job.

I'm updating a few old models from my very early SU days, when I preferred defining groups instead of components. Now I'm paying in spades for that error. Same with my mistake in not using Layer 0 and assigning layers to internal objects, but that is another story.

I have a building structure of vertical beams and cross beams, basically long narrow cubes with nearly no detail. There are 3 kinds, about 400 of cross beams, 40 verticals and a few dozen same shape, different length beams. All are copies of groups. No components. I need to make them components, so I can tinker with some common details within the 3 types. If they were components, that would be easy. Hence this post.

Is there any way, or is there any script, that would allow me to select a bunch of same groups and replace them with a single similar component?

Sounds like a good idea to me, as I run into this a lot, and I use extensive layering and nested groups/comps. I keep hiding/unhiding ("H" key shortcut} but like said, I need to see some parts, even if shaded, visible as reference during my drawing operations.

David, you need to put this thread or the initial idea on the "suggestions" thread.

My only concern is how would you control the visibility?

@gaieus said:

@thomthom said:

...
Ever tried to undo a wrong stroke with the pen..?

Or with a girlfriend?

English teacher remarks to young Johnny that his spelling and punctuation has improved considerably.
Johnny say "I had too. My older sister caught a major screaming session with Mom & Dad when she missed a period."

@unknownuser said:

@paulside said:

Come on, Own up, how many of us have tried to orbit a jpg !

i try to orbit everything on my computer after a long SU session.. web pages etc...

it's like jumping on a trampoline for a while.. once you get back on solid ground, it takes a few minutes to readjust..

Like the famous Indian explorer, Binder Dundat, I have a 2D graphics app for GIF animation creation. [Orbit] does not work in that. Pity......

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

My Spacebar doesn't deselect - disappointed.

You right : I was no precise!
That deselect "tools" !

Deselect selected is of course clicked an empty space

[ctrl]T deselects all. Sometimes you cannot see empty space to click on.

That was my "Duh" moment after more than a year of using SU and frustration with deselections from inside my models.

Another "Duh" was using the [extrude] tool to quickly "select" (highlight actually) faces to reverse or delete. Just hover the tool over the face (NO clicking) and using shortcut keys "D" = delete, "R" = reverse face to either delete them or reverse them. Very fast that way for multiple faces. Gaieus gave me that one. There are other tools and functions you can use as well.

@ecuadorian said:

I changed the thread title in order to collect more "Duh!" moments here.

A couple of minutes ago, I just realized that the "Move" tool has a rotate function incorporated when you select a component. Just hover your mouse over any of the six faces of the bounding box and you'll see four red crosses. Select any of them to rotate your component around its center.

Another "Duh!" moment brought to you by a SketchUp newbie. I guess it's time to read the 887-page long manual from start to end.

Keep in mind the [move] tool rotate is a bit different from the [rotate] tool.

With move/rotate the 4 selection grab points (red +) are inset at mid point of the sides of the bounding box, BUT the actual axis of rotation is only perpendicular to the centroid of the bounding box selection face, regardless of the objects actual shape and mass center. The [move] tool can ONLY rotate groups and components, no other objects.

The rotate tools selection point is anywhere on any selected object(s) (anywhere in the drawing) and the rotation axis is perpendicular to the face at the selection point. If you need to rotate the object on an axis not perpendicular to the selection face, you need to place the protractor on a parallel face then [shift] move and then [click] the protractor to the selection point and complete the rotation. Otherwise you will need a temporary face to force the axis alignment for the rotate. The temp face need not be on any actual face of the object, but as a safeguard, group it first to avoid merging. To aid in placing the protractor center correctly, place a guide line in the desired axis of rotation, passing through the temp face. Place the protractor center on the intersection of the guide line through the temp face and complete the rotation.