I have investigated this "free" plugin thoroughly and can say that unless you already own the very expensive Trimble RealWorks software you cannot use this plugin. It can't import point clouds from any other source than RealWorks.

Another SU option is Bentley's Pointools but this is $1400.

Better, try Undet http://www.undet.com/software/for-sketchup-v1/ which can be "rented" for 50 euro a month.

Jon

Thanks for all the replies even though it sounds as though what I want isn't easily obtainable!

Yes, I was talking about Didier's ADO plugin. I'll remove the files from my plugins folder as suggested though they didn't get loaded by SU 2015 at all that I could see.

• Jon

I'm interested in a batch scene export script that will work in SU 2015 and will export to .dwg & .dxf

Although I am no programmer seems this should be simple enough because the work would be done by SU - this would be just a batch operation.

Here's why. I draw in SU then export to Autocad in which I make my final drawing sheets. (This is because I am required to turn in final .dwg drawings and Layout doesn't export gracefully... Text all over the place etc...) After trying a few different options my preferred method is to export a scene from SU to a 2D graphic in .dwg format. I use R12 setting because this forces what Autocad calls "index colors" which in turn means I can use the Autocad plotstyles to automatically assign lineweight and type and color based on the index color of a line - so it doesn't matter that SU won't export to proper layers using 2d export! I use a hidden line style with color by layer and I can get a meaningful looking 2d view of my model in Autocad without all the polymesh edges that you end up with using other methods.

Anytime my model changes I need to go through and export each scene (lets say N,E,S,W elevation views) to dwg again. These dwgs are xref'd into my sheet so they automatically update in autocad when they change - thats important to cut down on work! Because my models are typically quite complex each export takes a bit of time, so the process of exporting x number of scenes becomes a bit of a chore every time something changes. A bit like if you use Layout how painful it would be to have to render (vector or hybrid!) every model reference individually when something changes - no, you want to start the process and do something else while waiting!

So what I'd like to be able to do is:

• start export plugin
• choose a few scenes from the total scenes to export (helpful if last exported were auto checked)
• choose export location (helpful if remembered last time)
• choose overwrite (important because they WILL be overwriting files and want to suppress subsequent dialogs otherwise no point to batch operation:) )
• click export
• beep when finished!

I downloaded ADO which looked like it might be what I'm looking for but it won't work with the version of SU I am using.

Is this something that would be easy to script? I tried opening the ADO script but it looked compiled as opposed to some other .rb scripts that I opened where I could kind of follow the code using notepad++ or whatever... I might try to figure something out but it would be a big help if someone knowledgeable would give me a few pointers to start out with!

thanks
Jon

• Layout: Speed! I still find it too slow for complex models even using raster renders. I've often wondered sure why Layout can't use the same engine SU does while one is working with the layout, then do the heavy render processing only when it is time to export. We were told a 14x speed increase in the 2014 release but it sure doesn't seem that way to me!

• SU: Real circles, though not displayed as such for the sake of graphics speed - like Autocad which "knows" a circle is a circle in terms of snapping, dimensions, anything that matters; but only displays segments.

• Layout: fix the export to .dwg so that text stays where it is supposed to and in general the end product comes out looking like it did in layout. Understood Acad can't support some of the fancy graphics stuff Layout can, however what I find is titleblocks, text, dimensions moving around so much that the export is pretty unusable. I WANT to use Layout for all my sheet sets but because I have to submit .dwg copies I'm forced to do all my sheets and annotations in Autocad, xref-ing in the SU model.

• Ability to "fade" layers just like they seem to when you are editing a component / group but seeing the rest of the model. This is a great way to emphasize elements - lets say a run of pipe - through a cluttered background. This would need to be tied to scene generation just like whether a layer is on/off. It could be "fade all other groups/components" and / or "fade all other layers" for my money... And of course this functionality would follow through into layout.

• SU: enable dimension & leader text to have a background color so they stand out over geometry, like in layout.

• Stop the Esc key from quitting dialogs!!!!!!

• enable reverse mouse wheel zoom direction in the Mac version!

I think thats enough for a start

...And many thanks to the Sketchup team for a great product that has got so many things right already.

Jon

Speaking of model railways I'd appreciate the option to choose scale when placing track / stock. Model railways are for the most part scale models and therefore you shouldn't have to do anything that different for them except scale... At least for me:)

In specific I used to have model trains mostly of the Hornby 00 scale which is 1:76 according to Wikipedia though I also had a small set of 000 (1:152) and some O (1:43.5). For the animation I want to do I'd like to use something close to the 0 scale.

Simple enough to scale it myself after creation of course however easier to route track through an existing model if it is already a scale that makes sense therein.

• Jon

@eneroth3 said:

Found a fix!

If you replace

js << "document.getElementById('center_distance').value='#{@@center_distance.to_s}';"

with

js << "document.getElementById('center_distance').value=#{@@center_distance.to_s.inspect};"

it should work. Also you don't need to do any of the things Dean said.

Thanks for the help finding this !

It works!

A look of blank amazement crossed Sophie's face when the track appeared right beside her... (see screenshot)

Thanks again for the great plugin! I also enjoyed touring your castle.

And yes, I held off on the install / uninstall process

• Jon

@eneroth3 said:

Dean: Unless this specific bug occurs to any of those developers I don't know what they can do about it. I's probably something that is fixed really easily once it's found but it can only be found on a computer it occurs on.

Jon: That's the right place . Did you activate the add track tool after adding this code?

On my macbook last night adding the "puts js" did absolutely nothing, as I mentioned in my last post.

The plugin did work on my macbook when I used it with your example file, so it seems to be acting in the same way as the Window version.

Now today I just tried adding the "puts js" on line 393 on my Win 7 computer and did get something to show on the console, see attached image.

• Jon

@eneroth3 said:

Jon,

Sorry, I gave you the wrong line number because I've added more code above it in my local copy. The code needs to be on line 393 and without quotes:

Julia,

I am trying this on my mac laptop now (the last two emails were re my win7 desktop). I am having the same problem and am a little puzzled that no-one else is? I am using SU 2014 and the tool works like a dream when using in your example file - see attached screenshot, ruby coming out ok - but in a new document no activity at all just like in my Win 7 version.

Note I did not attach a screenshot of it not working. You can imagine - nothing whatsoever on the ruby console, the track tool opens the "add track" dialog but both "from scratch" and "from selection" are blank, just like the screenshots I sent before.

I went ahead and added "puts js" correctly ( you can tell I am no programmer!) into line 393 (which is blank, is that right?):

js << "form.onkeyup = push_changes;"

puts js
#Show dialog

You can see it here between the lines above/below.

But it didn't help - didn't produce any better / more results.

I've never had an issue with plugin install before. I went preferences > install plugin >chose the .rbz file, said yes I did trust it etc etc.

And of course it works A+ with the example file.

Have you tried a new file from scratch?

JB

@eneroth3 said:

Hi Jon

This sounds very similar to an error on Mac that's one user has reported but that didn't occur for others. Can you add this code "puts js" to line 376 in track_insert_tool.rb and post the text printed in the console?

Julia,

see attached screenshots.

In the ruby console what you see is left from me running some other plugin - so you can see the console is working. Actually, none of your tools writes anything to the console. You can see I've started the track tool here and nothing shows - except the script error dialog.

The other screenshot is showing where I put the "puts.js"

Another strange thing - while I was looking for track_insert_tool.rb I noticed there was only an instance of this file in the Program files etc SU 2013 Plugins folder, not in the SU 2014 folder. Is the plugin not compatible with 2014 or am I looking in the wrong place? I looked under ProgramData as well and searched c:\

Maybe the install process did not work properly?

thanks
Jon

I'm having the same problem. I use SU 2013 and 2014 and in neither of them can I place track in a new drawing. When I open your example drawing however I am able to place track - it is as if a library was not loading but perhaps is already loaded in the example drawing.

Also in SU 2013 I get a script error - see attached photo. I'm using your latest version 1.13 I think dated the 9th of this month.

thanks though for this awesome plugin! I am really impressed and can't wait to place a train track throughout some new building model I want to show off to a customer!

Jon