And this would be perfect answer for my question if not the fact, that... see here.. if you take that model and scale up, there are still some slices that aren't made.. but then again, if you scale it down to like 5% of its heigth (other two axes left unscaled, because scaling whole model down and slicing causes bugsplat) what it does is decreasing size of the triangles or leaving them unchanged, depending on if they are paralell to the floor or not, but then all slices are ok, and after slicing when scaled up again, it's all fine.. (just noticed it now).
Now, if triangles can be smaller and still be cut properly, then model being to small isn't really an issue. Or am i missing something?

(this ofcourse is a workaround for my problem, but it's still something that should be resolvable, since "scale and triangle size" explanation doesn't seem applicable in this case. At least not directly. So there have to be another thing that causes problem..)

And.. it this worked for me, this could be resolution to all slicing problems.. just scale down the model along the axis you will slice model, slice it and scale back up. Then, if necessary, repeat with other axis.

And one more thing. I have just created torus out of over 4000 triangles, then sliced it to 200 slices and... every single one came out correct.
My model has below 2000 triangles and in the same scale, when sliced just now produced.... three slices correctly...

And the last thing..
After another 10 minutes slicing stuff.. i conclude again that SU is a tool far, far away from being perfect. So many flaws and errors..
Every scale and every shape is treated differently. And from my point of view, this indeed isn't slicer problem, but SU itself, as those kind of problems i encountered in many places thoughout my work with SU.. soo.. let's just conclude, that in order to do things properly, one have to try, and try again.. it has to work one way or the other.
Thanks for your help.

And to show that it can be done, a picture

Okay.. i've been waiting with writing here for a looong time, but now i find myself in situation where this plugin would be very helpful indeed.
And.. surely enough i have a problem with it.
My problem is almost like everyone elses, but i am providing the file so one could check on it.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/38k93ic1qhwmne8/droplet.skp
So.. what i have done there is make a wave pattern i wanted to slice, and by now, it's not even important what settings i use, as the problem seems to presist thoughout the tries. But for accuracy sake here are examplary ones:
Axis: Y
Spacing: 3
Thickness: 1
Insets: 0
References: No (though i have the font installed and with or without references, problem's just the same)
Flatten: No

The first group gives me just 1/6 of one slice. Yup.. one sixth, as seen here:

(The dimensions are outside of the group)
So in order to ckeck what is failing i tried to scale up and down, with no success, then, as seen in file i took the model, cut out 1/4 of it, scale up, (reducing geometry this way)and try again.
This i've done few times reducing the geometry to nearly 6 faces... and still getting this error.
Now, what i mean by "nearly"... on the two last groups you can see the hidden lines that when erased, delete the top face. This shouldn't happen, as it began as a flat surface, and cutting it down should not change this. And so after using align tool and making it flat again, slices are cut correctly.

Now i wonder.. where this additional lines come from? Because if they exist in the model and mess up slices and are not visible and therefore not fixable, that means.. i am doing something wrong.. or not.

Don't want to write a book about this so i'll just write, that i used cleanup plugin, solid inspector, purged model completely, disabled and then deleted plugins that could cause problems (the ones i know of) and nothing really helps.

What is interesting, though, and worth mentioning,the very same geometry produces considerably less errors (even down to zero) when being sliced at different angle.
Try:

Axis: A
Spacing: 1
Thickness: 0,3

For three interesting effects see A axis with angle of 30, 34 and 37 degrees. They behave oddly differently.
Now.. is it problem with me doing something wrong, my model, slicer plugin, other plugins or sketchup?

Oh my God! I mean.. oh my Fredo6!
How could i miss this one?
I was waiting for it so long and somehow it slipped past my nose until today.
There's not many plugins that are MUST HAVE for me, but most of them are of your autorship.
My plugin library will look like My plugin library +1 from now on
I am sure i will donate, so you could buy some coffe to work on Your next plugins
Thank You.

My guess is that we will never be able to render reality.. unless you want to spend few years of your life on one project.
Why?
Not because of compuing power needed to do all the calculations.. (well.. actually also because of that) it's because of the fact that if you want to render reality, you have to set up reality.

And the other thing.. all of the functions you have mentioned are kinda for geeking out.
Fluorescent light? Cooll.. but can't you really make this effect in your current renderer or in post processing?
Infra red... isn't this effect easily achievable with normal render and depth render connected in post processing?
Gravitational lenses.. cool idea.. not easily achievable with other ways.. but how often you photograph distant solar systems?
I guess it's mostly for placing singularities in Your kitchen.. i must say that i'd play around with that too.. but it is no longer making photos real-like.

Light interference.. this one, as you wrote would be for geeking out only, but i guess that limitation isn't really much like computing power but resolution.. for this you can't use graphical textures (maybe vector ones).
I can see use of it and i think it already should be done by someone (like a geek home project) but not in such commercial products like any renderer i know.

And most important.. the things you've mentioned are not really dragging the renders to photo realism.
They are mostly usefull when you want to render certain phenomenon.
For photo queality there have to still be perfected and added things like light scattering, air humidity, dust particles and many others.. but still making renders look like photograph is mainly based on attempting to implement in renders the same flaws that camera lenses have, like lens flare.
All this is yet pretending the reality and not rendering the reality.
What i think would help in this is increasing amount of faulty details.

Because when you look at world.. you can never see prefect surfaces, straight lines, total transparency, perfectly waxed car or evenly covered with rust.
In renders you can. Lens flares, light scatter and all post effects are simply attempt to cover the fact that it is perfect world behind them.. rendered world.
What i am saying that i would very much like to see in rendering programs something like Chaos Generator.
It would slightly modify surface properties in certain zones.. mostly unexpectedly for creator but this would make his own work a bit more real even for himself.
So.. surface properties, air density (along with surface and edge curving), random surface reflections or dullness, scratches, mentioned before dust particles and so on..
The fact is that you actually can make it all by hand.. but no matter what you render, you just can't inject enough flaws to make it really work like in reality because the "visible chaos" factor per inch square of final render is constant no matter the scale you are operating in.
Zooming in is not making the chaos bigger.. it only shows different parts of it.
That's why it should be automated and random (for user).

I have recently posted an idea on some plugin that wasn't caught up by any of Ruby code writers.. but

I have onother one.. one that i was looking for without any luck and one that i could certainly use few times.
The idea is simple.
Make copies of one already copied object with same deformations.

This is exactly what i used to use in CorelDraw.
When you copy something than rotate it, resize, strech or anything and repeat that copy.. the next copies are:

1. The very same object.
2. Moved from its previous copy on same distance in same direction.
3. Deformed in same way as previous copy in terms of rotation and scaling (very much apprieciated cooperation with FredoScale deformations)

This would be... pleasant to have.

Can i have it?
In fact..
Can we all have it?
Could this be our weapon of choice in war against mindless cruelty of SketchUps default API and functions it has?
Will we just stand and watch our families getting tortured by need of repeating everything by themselves or will we sit down and do what we all belive is right thing to do, and think of way to create that ruby script?
Are we brave enough to have it?
Are our minds strong enough to create it?
ARE WE READY FOR THAT?

You know the answers as well as i do.
I say "YES" to all that questions!
I say "WE SHOULD HAVE THAT RUBY!"
I say "CAN SOMEONE DO IT? Pretty please!"
And might i add "PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP!!!!!"

(vote me in upcoming elections )

(does the way i wrote that make it OT?)

Edit 23.09.2010

I edited my post to not dig my post up unnecessarily.
I just wanted to write that Pilou did great and i would want to thank him.. but he probably never notice that edition of my post so..
May heavens bliss him with lots of children.

Oh... thank You for the advice on the TimeTrack ruby.
But to be honest i was hoping that someone will take my idea and write a script that does the things i was writing about.
Guess i'll have to use TimeTrack... even if it's not entirely thing i was looking for.
/me turns around pretending to be ready to walk away yet hoping that someone will stop /me with words "Wait! I can do this!"

Two topics in one to be brief.

1. I am SURE that i saw a plugin that was taking all bezier and non-bezier curves together to one nice and clean toolbar with shiny icons just begging to be used. I can't find it anywhere now. I have tried in google, in this forum, on Omustard and CRAI Library Depot and i begin to belive that my blind spot could have enlarge a bit lately.
   Help.

2. I am wondering if anyone saw a plugin i personally think should exist (someone just HAD to make it, even if i haven't seen one yet). A plug that would keep track of my workflow.
   Plugin i think about should do only two simple things.
   a) Should keep track of time i am spending on every single project. As far as i keep my project in one file this shouldn't be hard.
   b) Along with counting the time it could gather simple data about model itself, like filesize changes, amount of geometry, textures used.

All data could be saved in separate txt file, preferably with option to save dta file in same folder as skp file... or all files in one storage folder (like in "google/sketchup/workflowdata" or some like this..
First option is nice because it's logical. Files are kept together so you can transfer them together etc. Second way to store data is good because if you don't need to bring your work with you to other machines, you could forget that data file exists.. it would just apply the data file to skp file that matches name and size (and maybe some other data like "last time mdified" to avoid mistakes... just idea) and this way you could move your file between folders without worying about the rest.

This plug would make my life just a bit better and i finally could tell how much i spent on certain model.. because usually i work on more than one project at a time.

Does it exist and if not.. could it be created?

EDIT

1-st problem i have resolved by myself. No need to search anything.
2-nd question stays and i don't think i could find answer to this without help.

Hello.

I look for a way to copy component on surface and i found this topic..

The idea of using component browser works well, but it does not not allow to repeat copy so the copies would be glued to the surface. Components are copied on a plane it was firts placed.
So even the rivets in a plane have to be placed one by one (it cannot be copy/pasted).

So isn't there a tool yet that would allow it?

There are tools on surface but it only makes shapes, but this tool shows that it could be done.. it's just note done yet.
Plus.. preferably there could be an option not only to copy a component to every face of the surface, but also place it randomly over the surface.

This would allow to make things like fur on animals, needles on trees, random spots or grass on hills, etc.
And i need to do all that.. and especially etc.

And this:

@unknownuser said:

Alternative: select one instance of your component and type this into the Ruby Console: Sketchup.active_model.place_component(Sketchup.active_model.selection[0].definition,true)

Is a great trick, but i still need to click to place each component.. and i have many, namy more.. thats why i am looking for a way to automate the process.

Any advice?