This happens to me also.

I spent a rather frustrating half hour bouncing back and forth between SU and LO, setting section planes visible in one scene and saving, then finding they were visible in all, then resetting them invisible in the offending scenes, and finding them invisible in all.

I ended up drawing a separate section view, it was the only workaround I could find.

Jim

I took a component from a SU model and brought it into a new SU. Since it was from a circular array, and I'd picked one slightly off angle, I adjusted what I thought were the component axes. As a result, my model shows one set of axes, but views are skewed by the adjustment angle.

I worked through it. I took the finished model and imported scenes into Layout. Now I have this problem, worse on some views than on others:

I import a scene. After adjusting it for scale, I click out of model edit to size and place it. When I click out, I lose sight of the model in that window. I click in and can't find the model anywhere— though it might be lost at extreme or extreme magnification or reduction, I can't tell. To get it back, I have to click Scene again. It returns to the original view, slightly off axis again and at the wrong scale. Repeat as necessary, nothing changes.

In all windows, I have to click on "Full Size" twice to get it to apply-- otherwise it defers to "Current View".

Here is the Layout file. Thanks for any insight you can share.

Jim

Lectern Plans.layout

Still not getting it. I checked the file heirarchy from a HTML file like you suggested and I opened airshow.skp and worked from there. Now the Ruby Console says

Error: #<SyntaxError: (eval):591: compile error
(eval):591: unknown regexp options - jb>
(eval):591

Should I be moving these rubies into Plugins Folder, or is that instruction in the Console sufficient?

What am I doing wrong? I left the file, which unzipped into a folder named "airshow," in my downloads folder. I copied the ruby console direction you listed, "load '/where/you/choose/airshow.rb' "and changed the 'where/you/choose' part to the file heirarchy for my downloads folder with airshow in it. I hit return and the Ruby Console says " Error: #<LoadError: (eval):2533:in `load': no such file to load "

I just found out the trick for managing visibility of section planes. It really should really be easier and more obvious.

How about allowing them to become invisible on a layer? That way you could draw in a section face as well, and turn it off for other viewing.

Or, even more obvious, make a checkbox in the Scenes dialog box that addresses this.

Thanks,

Jim

Gaius—

Wow, that is way cool (for an annoying popup window).

Thanks, Gai

These Section Planes are driving me buggy!

I set up a scene and save it. I set up another, turning on View/ Section Planes and /Section Cuts, and I save that scene.

I go back to the first scene. The section cuts show there as well, so I turn them off and save that scene, this time making sure that the box "[save] active section planes" is checked. I go back to the second scene, a section view. Now the section planes don't show.

This time I uncheck the "save active section planes" box to see if it makes a difference, and check Section View. I go back to the first and the section planes show where they shouldn't.

So the lightbulb goes off and I put the section plane on its own layer and turn it off. It doesn't show, but the cut does.

Just to make sure I go insane, I try all the above a second and third time, in all possiblew combinations. Results the same: they show when they show, and they don't when they don't. Yaaaaag! How do I set up scenes to show sections when I want them and not when I don't?

TIA,

Jim

I've got a complex carved turning and I'd like to scale it non-linearly. The top and middle are just fine, but the bottom should gradually get wider. Is there a trick or plugin to make things gradually wider over just a part of their length? Not like Linear Tapering, but more like if I plug in a curve it tapers according to the curve, about the center.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

Chimbalo—

I had the same experience as you. SU crashed when I tried to place the section plane inside the component and slice. I had to place the section plane from OUTSIDE the component and then it works like a charm.

Thanks for figuring that one out, and thanks for the Ruby!!

Best,

Jim

First, are there really hidden lines? They only happen when surfaces are not planar. Second, try zooming in on them and rotating the view.

Best,

Jim

It took me a while to nerve up. Just to figure out what rubies were took some digging. I rember the embarassment of asking a couple newbie questions about something that seemed so obvious to others.

It's hard to imagine not being on a forum about any difficult program. SU isn't hard to start, but it has a very long learning curve, especially if you aren't an architect. I've never been into simplistic design and the tricks are what's taken me so long.

With the dyslexia and it's very hard to get information from manuals, and some short term memory issues make it hard to remember how to ask the questions, even.

I havew three suggestions about rubies:

1. put a big easy to see link about expanding SU on the About page. When you are selling people on the free download, tell them here is how you can learn about the program, here is how you can learn about expanding it, largely for free. Then show a tutorial about installing and using a couple popular rubies.

2. centralized index. Great if it has user reviews, fantastic if it has links to download. Ask developers to register their rubies.

3. make a way to manage them. I defy anyone but the geekiest of geeks to remember all the parts of a ruby you installed two years ago should you need to uninstall it. You have to install to test them, but what do you do with the ones you don't need? If you don't take them out right away, they sit in the Plugins folder, a potential conflict for the next earth shaking script that uses a common name.

How are we supposed to debug, throw everything out and download afresh? If so, we have to keep a separate database of where we got it and hope the site is still active. How about automating that, making a script log a part of SU?

For all the power of rubies— I'd say more than half of what we consider SU is these scripts— the developers sure don't seem to take much responsibility for integrating them.

I hear the howls— Yeah, guys, I'm glad 7.1 didn't break anything that I downloaded for 5 or 6. I'm sure you busted your butts and thanks for that. But if scripts are so important, and if most of the flexibility of the program comes from them, give us some management tools— on the website and in the program.

Thanks for the suggestions, rclub 24.

I tried turning on hidden objects but nothing showed up.

I also tried the Model Information/Text/Select All Leader Text but nothing showed up there either.

Any other suggestions?

Jim

While trying to get a text box to stick to a section plane (a futile endeavor) I placed one somewhere in the drawing. Now I can't find it.

When I import to Layout I can see it, it hovers constantly ono the left side of the view no matter how the image shifts. In Sketchup it's invisible.

Any tricks for finding a text box so I can delete it? It's the only one.

Thanks,

JIm

Update— It's a mystery, but what was not working for me last night is working this morning. I am able to turn off sections by turning off their layers. When I update the scene it stays updated.

Operator fatigue, overheated computer, I don't know what was the issue.

Thanks anyway,

Jim

And another question while I"m at it— in the map of section cuts, is there a way to lable which section is which in SU? 3-D text is over the top, and if I use plain ol' text and attach a leader to the section line or arrow, it moves to include the text box and leader.

I posted a similar question in Layout before realizing this may be a SU issue.

I'm trying to set up scenes showing section views. One showing where all the section planes are, the rest showing the section cuts.

I've been setting up the scene, changing View/Section Planes and View/Section Cuts, turning on and off appropriate layers, etc. Then I run through and find that my section views show all the section planes. Because I'm zooming in to a laarge model to show the details, the arrows are cut off. I'm left with meaningless lines cluttering the views.

When I turn off View/Section Planes in that scene, the mapping scene shows no section planes either.

I'm updating my scenes after changes. I've played with visibility settings to no avail. What am I missing?

Thanks,

Jim

I thought I was getting this but now I"m having trouble.

I drew an interior and put in section planes to illustrate some details. I made scenes that show each of the section cuts, plus a key that shows all the section planes so I can label them in Layout.

Trouble is, when I import the scenes into layout, I can only show them one way: all images showing section cuts or not, all images showing sections or not.

I've gone through the whole routine of updating each scene as I like it, with the right layers, sections, and section cuts showing. Yet when I go from scene to scene (and when I update images in Layout) these preferences get thrown together across all images.

What am I missing here?

TIA

Jimbo

Have you tried K_Tools? I believe it was in Didier's listings of Rubys.

I've used the Spiral Around Z axis for modeling a sculptural shell shape. The Rotate around Z, plus a lot of manipulation, might help you. There's other stuff there that I have not gotten into.

It might take a lot of incremental rotation with individual tweaks to each upright rib to get to where you are going.

Good luck,

Jim

I'm new to Section Planes, but hey, here's another thought— looks like they can be used to gain access to hidden spaces for tricky work that would be otherwise tough to do.

JIm

Whew! Thanks, TIG, Hidden Geometry did it.

Best,

JIm