Could this issue somehow be tied to that blasted box, "Replace Original With Component"? At least the outer part of it?

Jim

I made a section plane. Since I wanted to export to Layout and didn't want it showing in all the views, I selected it and checked "Hidden" on the Entity Info pane. It disappeared and the Entity Info ;ane blanked out.

Well, surprise! Now it does not show on my model. I meant to uncheck "Active Section Planes" under Properties to Save on the Scenes pane, that would have given me some control. Now I can't find that section plane or the view it generates.

My question— is there something I'm not getting here, or did I just delete the section plane? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to label the box "Delete What You Just Made"?

Read the rules: If you win a prize, they own your design. You don't, and cannot use it.

If you don't win they don't own it. They are nice that way.

Jimbo

I use Bootcamp to run Quicken and SABRE. It's a pain to restart in XP, but I was worried about compatibility and speed issues. No problem with either.

Having found a free* system that works well, I haven't tried anything else.

*I run 10.5.7 and a friend gave me a spare license of XP. Yes, you do have to get your own copy, it doesn't come with anything unless you are paying for the combo.

Cheers,

JImbo

I'm working out some ideas on a complex architectural model. Along the way I've been making components, and components inside components so I can keep things straight and separate.

I just added some columns that I'd like to include in one of those components. Problem is, this component is inside another, and the columns I'd like to add are outside of it all. If I was just trying to jump in one layer, I'd explode, select the columns, then remake the component. Because I'm trying to go in two layers, I can't do that here.

I could pull that off on the first component, but the second has several instances. I'm afraid there would be chaos if I exploded it.

Any suggestions?

TIA,

JIm

Thanks for all your comments, they help a lot.

First, as expected, I can see some problems with my workflow. I was taking a floor plan into SU, then an elevation, and coordinating them. There were minor discrepancies— for instance, a wall 1/64" out of line. The snaps & inferences happened with different lines.

Second, while I'm currently working on a building, but I can see places in the furniture where small triangles did not close.

Third, the scale thing. I wasn't getting it before, but the bit about only closing in so far has been keeping me from getting close enough to see the problems.

On to the next: What's going on when Push/Pull will select a face, but will not move it? Or will only move it a certain amount, then refuse to budge? Or not move it until the mouse moves in just the right direction, after scribbling around trying to find any way that works?

Best,

JIm

PS: I'm in the States. What are millimeters?

I'm modeling both furniture and a large architectural space. The building saves to about 600KB and the furniture ranges from 300KB to 1.2MB.

I am often unable to close a face. It seems simple enough— either it's not a plane or there's an open corner. I trace over it— no go. I put it in Styles/Color By Axis: the lines are parallel. I draw diagonals and it closes—  maybe only on three sides. I trace everything again, and again, and again. I erase the duplicates and start over, with similar results. Finally it closes (perhaps a half hour later). I erase one of the diagonals—  the OPPOSITE (unaffected) triangle disappears. Sometimes I connect the ends of two straight lines showing parallel to axis, and the quadrilateral does not close, even when repeatedly traced. When I Push/Pull a face and get a line, it is difficult to reestablish the face if I erase the (unneeded) line.

What I AM doing:
—locking inferences for parallel
—drawing parallel to axis, confirmed by Styles/Color By Axis
—letting SU to tell me I've snapped to an end point
—testing diagonals for intersection @ center
—tracing over outlines, zooming in to be sure there are no erroneous points near the corners
—orbiting to test for obvious errors
—paying attention to the details

I wonder, is this a SU problem? When lines show alignment with axes, or when ends show the snap dot, is SU sometimes wrong?

Is this a computer thing? I'm working on a MacBook Pro, which gets hot when I work long sessions. I have more problems when I am a ways into the session, and they fewer when I'm starting fresh for the day.

Thanks for the feedback,

JIm

Thanks for the help with the workflow, guys.

I'd heard of Sandbox but never found it. I searched the Forum and saw that it needs to be enabled through Preferences/Extensions, which I just did.

I had assumed that when I was drawing on a flat surface the tools would select the surface, and was not orbiting to confirm.

I'm having other problems that this doesn't seem to cover. I'll post another thread with the issues I'm having closing rectangular faces.

Best,

JIm

I've been banging my head against this wall all day. I'm trying to extrude a solid, but I can't even make a face on this figure.

As you can see from the file, I've got vertical and horizontal lines making a rectangle, and the rectangle won't form a face if you connect diagonals.

I've been trying to weld the curve but it won't take. I can even go over the outer rectangle with the rectangle tool and it still won't make a face.

Any clue what's happening? How do you folks debug something like this?

TIA,

JIm

CantMakePlane.skp

It beats me why this works. Best I can see, it's a glitch in SU. It works from trying to rotate a line in a direction that it can't rotate in, and the result is a deformation in a different plane than the one the Rotate tool is calling.

It took me a while to notice that the trick is to bind the Rotate tool (second click) normal to the line being rotated. Jeff Hammond's last example shows the line itself being rotated, instead the normal (perpendicular) getting rotated.

Interesting!

JIm

If you were adjusting the placement of a gauge on an instrument panel, you could select the gauge and then select the Move Tool. Then place the Move tool on an edge or surface of the panel, click and slide it around. The gauge will follow the lead of the Move tool in three dimensional space, though at a distance.

Best,

Jim

Take a look at the Ruby script, Bezier Round Edge. For simple rounds and bevels it automates the process and makes it much easier and quicker.

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

Select all the edges you want modified. I usually reduce the number of facets to 4 (or 1 if I'm bevelling), set the size of the edging, and click. Sometimes there's a bit of cleanup— if you enlarge and turn on hidden geometry you can see what's going on.

Another wonderful timesaving script by Fred06!

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong (or not doing), but neither of these works for me. What exactly are you grabbing with the Rotate tool? One of the straight hidden geometries that goes from end to end? Over what length? When I download the example above I can only twist a small bit of surface.

On the full cylinder, same thing— I get wild deformations coming out of every which way when I Scale the spiral, but not the smooth shapings in the video.

TIA,

JIm

I guess you're right, Coen, it's better on than off. Still, but what's the difficulty of programming the option key, as it is programmed in Move, for example? Except keep it sticky, so that once it's engaged it stays that way until turned off.

Fred06— I can't thank you enough for this script. I've been begging for something like this, and it's so easy to use. I love the way it reads out in percentage and dimension, right on the screen where it's most visible. It's how the SU scale tool should have been done in the first place.

Jim

Way Cool! Saves me an hour.

Thanks, Anssi

Jim

I have no clue how much work ARKZ did on this, but that sure is a long list of other people's scripts. And it is clearly wrong to use other's freely distributed work in a commercial release.

However, I appreciate the idea of it. While his price is steep, he puts together a nice package, including themed toolbars and icons. For someone new to Rubys like myself, it collects and organizes things and adds a context to a hodgepodge of tools available under different terms from a variety of sources. I look at what he offers and I see a better workflow. I'd like something like this available in a fairer way.

Learning SketchUp with this many tools would add a lot to the curve, making it more formidable like, say, Rhino. But for an intermediate level user, it would be handy to have all this stuff put together in one place, updated s new scripts come out.

Is a volunteer up for such an ongoing task, or a group of volunteers? It's asking a lot. Would Google SU take it on? Charging anything for the collection adds immensely to the problems— how can you compensate for scripts— by the piece, the time involved, the lines of code? Try leveling that playing field.

This is as good a place as any to say once again how much I appreciate the thousands of hours the Ruby writers have put in to making SketchUp a better tool. Most of them only get paid by our thanks and the satisfaction of all the creative work they have had an indirect hand in. We owe them a lot.

Jim

I made a panel component and wrapped duplicates in a cylindrical array. Then I used the new Zorro2 for the first time (thank you Whaat!) to trim the bottom edge. This made a bunch of unique components, all the same.

Is there an easy way to make these into all the same component? Taking them out then subbing one component in, rotating & aligning, is a real pain.

Thanks,

JIm

Is there a Ruby that is similar to the FollowMe tool, but works at only one given angle to the path?

Normally, FollowMe, used around a circle, would drag a profile radially around the path. What I'd like to do is maintain the orientation of the profile relative to the axes and just lift it over the path.

I've made a sample file. Note how the ends of the final shape are different when the pattern is lifted rather than dragged normal to the path.

Thanks,

JIm

FollowMe Alternate.skp

I checked the Ruby Console at some point during my last experiments, and here's what I was getting:

@unknownuser said:

fError: #<ArgumentError: Cannot create unit vector from zero length vector>
(eval):340:in intersect_line_plane' (eval):340:in wikii_push_pull'
(eval):339:in collect' (eval):339:in wikii_push_pull'
(eval):319:in each_index' (eval):319:in wikii_push_pull'
(eval):141
(eval):340:in `call'
(eval):340
Error: #<TypeError: can't convert Symbol into String>

I don't seem to be able to reset the Console without quitting and restarting Sketchup, so it's hard to tell at what stage things were going wrong.