Has anyone else seen this?

It is free 3d modeling software, and if you watch the video you'll notice some striking similarities to SketchUp: automatic face creation, push/pull, and inferencing. It's very basic, however. It isn't in the same league as SketchUp.

3DVIA also works closely with Microsoft's Virtual Earth. In fact, the site looks to be going after Google as a direct competitor.

Just thought it was sort of interesting.

Here's the post.

First thing - forget everything you are assuming about layers. Layers do not separate geometry. It is possible for 2 objects which are on 2 different layers to be connected. Layers are used to control visibility of objects.

That said, Groups and Components are used to separate geometry.

A general workflow for stick-building would go something like this:

• Draw a 2x4 (1.5 x 3.5) rectangle.
• Pull it to length
• Triple-click on it to select all
• Right-click and make it a Group (or Component, if it is to be re-used.)
• Move/Rotate it in place

You can then copy the 2x4 as a Group. Double-click the Group to edit it (push/pull it to a new length.) If it is a Component, all the instances will be modified (that's the point!)

Other general rules of thumb:

• Always work on Layer0.
• Use Groups/Components to separate geometry.
• Use layers to hide objects.
• Move objects to layers only after being grouped.

You can break the rules once you start to get an understanding of them.

I agree, a decent video for construction modeling would be helpful.

This is a neat painting and sketching program. Limited free version for Windows and Mac. Full version only $25. Not bad. (Neat may be an understatement.)

ArtRage 2

Here's a screenshot of the limited version.

Very nice, thanks.

One challenge I would offer is to get the file size down by trying a lower resolution string (use fewer segments on the circle for the string component.)

@gaieus said:

Hey Jim, you have an unfold ruby, too, don't you?

Yes, but waybe appears to be more sophisticated - automatically unfolding and adding glue tabs. Mine is manually operated (video by Dave R): http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1114268312

@fpalumbo said:

Has anyone heard of sketchup waybe plugin? I saw 2 examples on youtube but have not been able to get anymore information on this plugin .

No idea, fpalumbo. What's a waybe? How about a link to the videos?

soccer,

I thought there already was a plugin to push/pull multiple faces. I saw your question on the Google Groups, maybe start a new thread asking your question in the Newbie or Ruby Forum.

@unknownuser said:

Jim,

The greeble script your working on sounds like it might be right for the task I am trying to do, but on a smaller/simpler scale. I have created many outlines of buildings using the line tool (100+ buildings). I now want to select ALL of them and push\pull them to 12feet. Is there a way to do that in Sketch up?

Many Thanks,

Hi Aces,

I'm sorry to say you still need to make your own model. Kidding aside, I'm sure it is possible to make the pattern automatically, but I have no plans to work on it as of today.

For the sphere, the faces are created naturally when a sphere is drawn in Sketchup. Turn on View/Hidden Edges to see them. Nothing more needs to be done to protrude a sphere over a 2d subdivided plane. Just select the faces and protrude them. The script will treat each face separately in case of hidden edges.

@aceshigh said:

Ok, but do I manually have to create these complicated patterns? With the line tool?

This 3d hatch pattern (just the lines, not after gone 3d with the protude tool), looks quite complicated to draw.

Worst is that globe mode... how was that 2d pattern created around the globe, so it could be protuded????

@krisidious said:

do you think I could use this for my 3D hatch Jim?

I think so. Here's an example using a section of your 3d hatch wall

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/sas/Ruby/3dhatchdemo.skp

I posted an early plugin for protuding faces. It's not a full-featured greeble plugin; but it does protruding of faces with (optional and user-settable) offsetting, and tapering.

See the blog.

@aceshigh said:

any update?

I haven't touched it, unfortunately. I wish I could be more definitive as far as a time-frame. Give me a few days to clean up and release what I have.

I am making progress, although slow...

Download the model

@stuckon3d said:

Hi guys,
new kid on the block here.
I included a little image i'm working on and having a script like that you have made my life so much easier than modeling each of my tile floors one by one.

PS: you guys rock, thank you so much for your help and contributions.

Holy cheese puffs, is that image pure SketchUp? It's fantastic.

@pixero said:

Jim, here is a link to an GNU open source version of Greeble. Might be worth checking out...
http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/greeble.html

Thanks for the link. I'll be looking into it. I've found there's a lot more to greebling than what I initially thought.

The greeble plugin is for [url=http://www.inivis.com/:2l0bva71]AC3D[/url:2l0bva71]. Has anyone used it? It has some nice [url=http://www.inivis.com/features.html:2l0bva71]features[/url:2l0bva71], at a nice price.

Edit:
I have model for surface testing [url=http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8dfbc622586cd39781d8764d42d39a9c:2l0bva71]here[/url:2l0bva71]. If you have a surface you'd like add, send it and I'll add it to the model.

Possible, yes. Don't expect anything too fancy - there's too many variations. The image is not quite matching your example image, but not too far off. Give me a few days to play with it.

This is showing a level 2 greeble. A level 1 lifts the face and scales it down slightly creating the tapered base. Level 2 adds the random quadrilateral to the top of the base.

Dimensioning is a little weak in SketchUp. You can move Dimensions using the Move Tool. The other option is to delete and add new ones.

There are a few Dimension settings in the Window > Model Info > Dimensions menu.

One does not exist, but it could be done.

Each Arc is made of line segments, and each arc has its own radius point. The line segments of any one of the Arcs should all have the same length. Therefore it is possible to find the lines that make up each arc, get the end points, center point, and radius; and finally re-create the arc.

Hi malte,

I don't think you've done anything wrong. Using Intersect with Model should work to create a rectangle on the face which outlines all of the windows. When I tried it, one edge and the face were deleted. I've looked the model over and can't see any reason for it.

Hopefully someone from Google will have a look at it.

A Component has the ability to create a cut-out automatically. By editing your window component to glue to any surface, and selecting Cut Opening, it will create a cut-out on the face. But since the windows are Grouped instead of a Component, Groups can not automatically cut-out an opening. Grouping is used to isolate geometry, so even Components loose their ability to cut openings when applied to another Group or Component.

@unknownuser said:

Hi, fellow Google escapees.

http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ayam.html

--Lewis

"ayam".reverse

@dave r said:

Jim, I tried your line of code and it seemed to work. There was a stop after the DXF export for user acknowledgement that the export had completed. I imagine Rob would like even that to be automated if it could be.

That's promising. I edited the code snippet to add an explicit "false" to the export. If this does not make the DXF acknowledgment dialog go away, I don't think there is anything that can be done about it.