Does anyone know how to find out how many slashes and dots are needed at certain end user comp ("..\..\..\..\"). I mean if someone has installed sketchup in a custom subdirectory it is necessary to add/remove one of "..\" I guess.

@earthmover said:

One suggestions would be to add the name of each tool when you hover over the toolbar icon.

Ok, I'll add tooltips.
Note that there is a bug in prerelease version of lss_toolbar.rb: zoom-in/zoom-out clears selection. I already fixed it, but did not published the release version, because I want to make some other enhancements and bug fixes before release. I'll try to finalize lss_toolbar.rb in the coming days.

Hi, Rick.

@ricklaney said:

Where can we download Blend ver 1.9 and 'pathface.rb'

pathface.rb: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4885828/pathface.rb
sublend.rb: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4885828/sublend.rb
I also sent a reply to your private message, so check your inbox for more information.

The new idea came, what if we use control boxes instead of control points.
It will allow scale and rotation changes tracking (construction point gives possibility to track only offset from its previous position).
Set of videos shows beginning of mentioned idea implementation (scale tracking doesn't work yet):
[flash=480,385:s0yxbjzt]http://www.youtube.com/p/E7A33957B617B9AF&hl=ru_RU&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"[/flash:s0yxbjzt]
I think it will be more 'natural' and easy to use interaction way. I think, I'll add 'power' value of control boxes adjustment in the context menu maybe.
I also agree about edges locking and I think it's possible.

@mitcorb said:

The selection of the points is difficult because all I have is a pointer. It would be good to do a small selection box on the point.

I was going to make a pointer apperture size bigger (don't know how yet) and process 'all_picked' entities instead of 'best_picked' method to find c-points. In short, I'm currently trying to make selection process easier.

@mitcorb said:

Is the deformation guided by a single point or multiple points? I am using construction points from D. Bur's Projections Toolbar.

Geometry group deformation takes in account all control c-points. Curve deformation takes in account the selected point and its 2 adjacent neighbours.
It is possible to select a set of existing construction points and then pick geometry group to make them control c-points for the picked group (Select c-points, right-click and choose 'Select a group to be under control...' command from the context menu).

@mitcorb said:

I think this ruby needs a parameters interface so that the degree of influence can be selected and or edited. Maybe a PDF of instructions or proper procedure if not the parameter interface.

Well, yes, actually script became a bit more complex and unfortunately less intuitive, so I agree it requires now some kind of documentation or more detailed instructions.
Currently it is possible to affect the degree of influence of geometry group control c-points while 'Interact with control points...' command is active by hitting <up-arrow> and <down-arrow> keys, when the c-point is selected or under cursor.

@wwwyoose said:

Hi
I have try on my mac Create 3d mesh from construction points... ver 1.3.
but it dont work what do I wrong.
It stop after first step see this picture
It looks verry good plugin to have what I see,
best Achim

Most probably you did everything right, but the script did not process the points cloud for any reason. But I need a bit more information to find out what's the problem. So try to open ruby console window (Main Menu>>Window>>Ruby Console) then try to create 3d mesh again. Error code has to appear within ruby console window. Please copy this message and send it to me (you may send a private message or post error code here, or whatever you like), it may help to find the error within the script and fix it.
Note, that the current version can not process non-terrain point clouds correctly. Pnts2mesh.rb can create only terrain-like surfaces yet (only one z value for each xy). I'm thinking about free form points cloud processing, but it is not implemented yet.

@mitcorb said:

Are you by chance creating a bezier control mesh to do the deformations?

Not exactly. Ctrlpnts.rb utilizes 2 different methods:

• for curve shape changing: linear and cosine smoothed methods
• for geometry group deformation: the same method as pnts2mesh.rb uses for creating terrain surface (when 'according to distance' z-calculation method is chosen)
  The second method calculates offset vectors lengths of each vertex according to distances from it to all control points. The degree of influence of each control c-point depends on <1/(distance^power)>. Power is an adjustable value.

Currently I'm thinking about making a kind of substitute for nurbs surface (I don't know what will come of this). It is necessary to add possibility to adjust the slope of the surface area, which is under control of each c-point.

I guess it is possible after adding some linear terms to <1/(distance^power)>.

New version:
ver. 1.6.( prerelease)
New features:

• the current version shows geometry deformation preview while moving control points (both geometry group control c-points and curve control c-points)
• it is possible to choose preview mode by hitting <Ins> key (3 modes available: 1. flat-faced surface, 2. surface + edges, 3. wire)
  [flash=480,385:33h537rh]http://www.youtube.com/p/5077FD48856CD56D&hl=ru_RU&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"[/flash:33h537rh]

Still prerelease...
ver. 1.6.(prerelease)

• 2 modes of interactive curve control points dragging: 1) 'preview' mode: shows curve preview while dragging, 2) 'full' mode: deforms the curve (it affects instances 'glued' to curve immediately, but sometimes causes SU crashes...), <Home> key to switch to 'preview' mode, <End> key to switch to 'full' mode.

Video shows 2 modes difference, when curves which are under control are also in use within 'blended object' (sublend.rb)
[flash=480,385:1q5ubzq1]http://www.youtube.com/v/Wt_Isl5tzP8&hl=ru_RU&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"[/flash:1q5ubzq1]

In the current version (1.2.) the command name to launch the plugin was renamed to "Geom Interpolation..." to avoid confusions with other commands.
And now script recalls control points after opening the file which contains curve. I'm going also to add interactive control points editing (the same way as in ctrlpnts.rb).

First steps of interactive face deformation:
[flash=480,385:2m8btgdg]http://www.youtube.com/p/8AB5C9C23863405C&hl=ru_RU&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"[/flash:2m8btgdg]
The initial face dividing was actually not so difficult. Treating deformed result surface as a single entity is more tricky... I don't know yet how to do it. So ver. 1.6. release is delayed again.

ver. 1.6. prerelease

The work on ver. 1.6. is still in progress...
The current stage new features:

• wireframe preview of geometry group deformation is a bit faster now
• ability to interact with curve control points is also available now

Demo video (first 3 minutes are about faster wireframe, last ones about curve control points):
[flash=320,265:2fn1qvwi]http://www.youtube.com/v/dO8Nk40IypQ&hl=ru_RU&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"[/flash:2fn1qvwi]

ver. 1.6. (prerelease again)

@daniel s said:

Daniel S
PS: I suppose that ask to add automatic slicing to entities like Fredoscale does (Bend, Twist...) would be asking too much?

Well, LibFredo6 is also free and open source and I think that almost everyone has it (Fredo tools are must-have ones), so, I guess, it is possible to utilize 'automatic slicing' if it is already implemented and present within the library. At least I'll try to.
Actually, I thought about something like adaptive tessellation around control point before, so I was going to make it anyway sooner or later.

@dedmin said:

Ой! Кажется какая то "волшебная" водка дает тебе творческие силы!

Ога, "волшебная": 3,2% жирности, производится в Чебаркуле, называется ряженка (fermented baked milk). По 0,5 в день и творческих сил, хоть отбавляй

Preview of interaction capabilities of ver. 1.6. (will be ready in the coming days).
Set of 4 videos:
[flash=480,385:lwr4hh5j]http://www.youtube.com/p/51499EA555BCA0CC&hl=ru_RU&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"[/flash:lwr4hh5j]

In case if someone wants to try prerelease version:
ver. 1.6. (prerelease)

@driven said:

Nowhere near as nice as the first so I tried scaling down the text used the original settings and ended up with a perfect profile sitting exactly in the other surface, but I couldn't the two to intersect, so this one is actually .00025 in front off the drape ( so that you can see ti from all angles) and it's still grouped separately unlike the first.

Hi, Driven.
It is strange, but I did not provide processing of the group with zero thickness, but it is necessary to do it.
In the current version (1.1., 1.2.), it is possible to process zero-thickness groups, but bounding boxes of such groups has to have a non-zero thickness (it is possible if rotate a bit a flat group, then explode it, then regroup again).

mentioned above model
I promise to fix the problem to stick flat groups without any additional labor.

@driven said:

Anyway heres my test, on a torrus, with a material I made using blend(dot)rb, I'll put a You tube Texture anim up tomorrow.john

Actually I'm surprised a lot that it works for torus. The 1.0 version does not check if each face of ruling surface is the first one intersected by 'sticking' ray (but it has to perform such checking for the surface that is not terrain-like, I'm on my way to implement the mentioned checking).
So the only explanation is that torus faces near the text group were occasionally processed before other torus faces and other faces were occasionally ignored, or maybe a part of torus surface that is the most close one to the text was grouped and used as a ruling surface, as in the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EB68JdEJSo

So the sticking result does not depend on smoothing, but on surface geometry.

Everything is more or less obvious, but demands a bit of additional work to make the result of script processing more expected one, you know principle of least surprise (POLS)

.

@escapeartist said:

EDIT: I seem to find a way to break your plugins! Same as my comments about the "add control points" plugin, I applied the plugin, undid the action, and then tried to reapply it.

Undo performance correct handling is my headache

. I promiss to fix it.

@escapeartist said:

PS: I love watching these scripts work, it's like watching Jeff Bridge's character get digitized in Tron.

A kind of retro-futurism

UPD: I mean real-time sticking would look much more impressive, of course. Just imagine: you see neither '>' sign moving left-to-right, nor Jeff Bridge's digitizing characters after picking a surface, just immediately sticked geometry group. It is possible for sure (and maybe already exist in some other modeling soft), but demands a bit low level coding, I guess.
I believe, SU developing team will take in account an interest of SU community and will add similar tool in future versions of SU (at least in pro version).

a bit off-topick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz8QWDBYn5w

@chris fullmer said:

Saved me a lot of headaches

I must say, that the most brain-damaging part was addition of edges projections of 'ruling' surface to the group

. Finaly I recalled, that sketchup API has the very powerful built-in method (it actually has a plenty of) for entities collection 'entities.intersect_with'. The rest part was more or less obvious.
So actually almost all 'housekeeping' details SU handles itself .

@malaise said:

Now making Dali's like watches will be very easy .

Well, actually the initial idea of the script was to stick some master plan elements (paving, roads, grass etc) to the terrain surface (

boring, isn't it?), but why not stick watches too?

I think it is necessary to make some enhancements to the script (materials support, optional sticking direction etc) to make it more flexible than just master plan elements 'sticker'.

@earthmover said:

I would like to see the possibility of "timing out" your scripts with the escape button like Fredo has in the Round corner plugin. Especially with the scripts that take a long time to process.

Yes I agree it is necessary to add . I think it's number 1 feature in my list of updates for all 'long-lasting' scripts.

@earthmover said:

It's amazing how you manage to allow the script to run while the user is still able to rotate and move around the scene.

Actually it is not my achievment. It is already implemented ability of sketchup API (so called 'timer' works such a way). You know, as for me, I'm amazed at the sketchup itself

(as well as it's nicely documented API).

ver. 1.2.

Description:
Plug-in, which deforms selected group of faces to follow the selected surface

How to use:

1. put “mshstick.rb” to “Google SketchUp 6\Plugins” folder
2. start SketchUp 6
3. select some groups of faces, which you want to stick to another group of faces (surface mesh)
4. choose the command "Plugins>>Stick selected groups to mesh group" command from the main menu
5. pick the group with mesh, to which you are going to stick selected groups

ver. 1.0. demo video:
[flash=425,344:3svbvbyu]http://www.youtube.com/v/XqX_J746vHw&hl=ru_RU&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"[/flash:3svbvbyu]

Known limitations:

• the current vesion (1.0) processes correctly only terrain-like* 'rulling' surface mesh group (* only one z for each x,y)
• ver. 1.0. has only vertical 'sticking' direction (script projects vertices of selected groups normaly to the XY plane)
• ver. 1.0. processes only geometry of selected groups (discards materials information)

ver. 1.1.
functions added:

• ability to choose stick direction added (only parallel to main axises yet)
• "Stick type" option added (allows to switch between "normal" and "super" stick type)
• ability to cancel process added (by hitting <Esc> key)
• ability to process almost any kind of ruling surface (solid-like surfaces are also supported now)

bug fixes:

• undo performance improved

ver. 1.1. demo videos (set of 4 ones):
[flash=480,385:3svbvbyu]http://www.youtube.com/p/86F39A8D6E2C777F&hl=ru_RU&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"[/flash:3svbvbyu]

ver. 1.2.
functions added:

• ability to specify free vector as stick ray direction (has not to deviate from preset direction much if stick type option is set to 'Normal')
• 'Skip edges projection stage' option added (it is useful if sticking group(s) has(have) enough dense mesh or it is necessary to leave the initial vertex count of sticking groups for some reason)
• 'Reflection ray' option added (refer to the video for more information)
• 'Offset value' adjustment value added (allows offset of sticked groups from the ruling surface)
• 'Magnify' adjustment value added (a kind of scale coefficient for 'reflection ray' vector length)

ver. 1.1. demo video:
[flash=425,344:3svbvbyu]http://www.youtube.com/v/edOu3H0g6QU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"[/flash:3svbvbyu]

known issues:

• groups transformations such as scale and rotate process still insufficiently (so it is necessary to explode 'em and regroup before sticking)