Hi

I know it is nearly a year later, but your code is not doing what you think it is doing.

Box4 does the following logically:

It creates a component def
Then you add 1 face to it and pull the face to make a block
then you add this component as an instance

then you add another face to it and pull it making block 2
then you add another instance. But you also update the original instance to now have two blocks

and so on

if you set it to have 3 by 3 blocks you get 9 components all the same with each nine pulled faces inside it. The inside blocks are not component instances, the are merely blocks (pulled faces) inside the component.

If you select the block at the end of the process and move it you will see there are more blocks underneath it.

If you wanted to do what you intended, you needed to create a new component def each time you enter the upto loop.

I think the move idea explained above is neat for certain things, but not for others.

I draw a lot of custom cabinets, and I draw them as separate board pieces making up the cabinet. Each board is a component by itself. This means I can easily edit the parent component and grad a child component and move it, but the other child components are no longer "glued" to the component being moved, and hence they do not strecth while moving the one child. It also means I have to individually grab the child pieces and "stretch" them (push pull) to "touch" the side moved.

This would include doors, with maybe raised panels. Now I need to scale the cabinet in width and maybe depth, but I do not want my door stiles to change depth or width, nor do I want any of the boards to change thickness, same goes for the bevels on the raised panel.

I've attached a Cabinet with glass shelves and the right side already moved to illustrate the issue.

Thanks guys, will try both ideas.

RickW: The line was meant to be pseudo code. It sort of indicated what I wanted to do, but I also noted that there was no definitions within a definitions.

Both Ideas make sense, ie it is similar to how you actually create it in SketchUp itself. Add a component inside the component. Logically I thought you had to create it inside, then add the geometry, but it is actually the other way around, create the definition, then add it to the parent.

TIG's idea might actually be the simplest, because most sample code uses the add_group approach. So if you can later just change the group to a component, that seems rather simple.

I am using the following code from Todd as a starting point

# Written by Todd Burch   www.smustard.com    June 23, 2007. 

# First, create a new Component Definition.
new_comp_def = Sketchup.active_model.definitions.add("MyCube") ; 

# Now, define some points for an arbitrary face. 
points = Array.new ; 
points[0] = ORIGIN ; 
points[1] = [100, 0  , 0] ; 
points[2] = [100, 100, 0] ; 
points[3] = [0  , 100, 0] ; 

# Now, add the face to the new component definition. 
newface = new_comp_def.entities.add_face(points) ;   # returns a Face

# If the blue face is pointing up, reverse it.  
newface.reverse! if newface.normal.z < 0 ;  # flip face to up if facing down

# pushpull the face into a Cube 
newface.pushpull(100) ; # extrude it up to make a cube 

# To add the component, you have to define a transformation.  We can define 
# a transformation that does nothing to just get the job done. 
trans = Geom;;Transformation.new ;    # an empty, default transformation. 

# Now, insert the Cube component. 
Sketchup.active_model.active_entities.add_instance(new_comp_def, trans) ; 

#done. 

What I would like to do is actually add a new component within the component I am creating. I looked at lost of scripts, but everybody seems to just do add_group.

The idea would be to create new_comp_def = model.definitions.add
then create new_sub_comp_def = new_comp_def.definitions.add

now at the end one should probably have
new_comp_def.entities.add_instance(new_sub_comp_def,trans)
model.active_entities.add_instance(new_comp_def,trans)

or similar.

Anybody with guidance here?

Thanks for the info.

I can now recreate what you have done. I just draw a curve, and close it, no welding, the arc stays an arc. I then use extrude to create the surface and afterwards the texture works fine.

What I was actually doing to create the extruded shape was rather different, and it might have something to do with it.

I create an arc just as a guideline for a follow me. Then I create an Upright Rectangle, and follow it along the arc. The reason for this was of how my Ruby script work. I have to create a lot of components that follows basically the same curve, ie curved panels, with mouldings, etc. It seems that in that case, the resulting follow me creates the "segments" somewhat differently, and hence the texture problem. This might mean some rethink on my approach.

What exactly do you mean with resample the texture and it will wrap.

It seems to do something, but not entirely.

Attached the document, using a texture from SU itself.

I draw, unhide geometry, select a segment, set projected. Hide geometry again.

From the left it looks like the texture is "projected" but from about the middle it seems repeating again.

CurvedTexture.skp

I want to create a curved surface, extruded from an arc, and then apply a surface material to it.

Problem is that the curved part is treated as many separated sections, each getting a copy of the same part of the texture.

Is there a way around this problem?

I am doing all of this in Ruby, ie create an edge, then do a follow me along that edge using an upright rectangle. I can apply material to the resulting extruded shape, but the many sections create a bit of an unnatural look.

If anybody knows how to do this normally, ie not ruby, I can probably repeat that inside the ruby.

Confitex

Sorry, But I cannot post the ruby code here. It is done for a customer and at this stage it is aimed and giving them something not really available. Cannot give away their business edge

I am willing to answer questions about specifics, like in your post about webdialog and SU parameters. To obfuscate the whole ruby script, and still keep it as working will be a "big" task.

What are you having problems with, or what specifically do need help with?

Thanks

It works like a charm!

I've searched but don't seem to get the right info.
I have a webdialog where i set parameters and press a button to update
the active_model. Currently I just draw a box.
The Webdialog stays active, so you can change the settings again.
The problem is that unless I select the active model window(using the
mouse) the drawing does not appear. It seems becuase I am drawing to
active-model, but active-model is "inactive" while I am on the
webdialog, the drawing happens in the background.
I call the following

 component = Sketchup.active_model.definitions.add("MyLeftSide") 
 trans = Geom;;Transformation.new 
 instance = 
Sketchup.active_model.active_entities.add_instance(component, trans) 
 newface = component.entities.add_face(@p) ;   # returns a Face 
 newface.reverse! if newface.normal.z < 0 ;  # flip face to up if 
facing down 
 newface.pushpull(@height) ; # extrude it up to make a cube 

where @p is an array of points. The code basically works and draws the
correct block, but just not while the WebDialog is the active window!
So little help on using the webdialog stuff. Anybody?