@driven said:

have you looked for UTM data import ruby's?
I think at least one already does what you ask...
may be this one...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=1533
john

Many Thanks for the link. I'll read the post as soon as possible

Dear slbaumgartner

I know that the Sketchup "origin" is an abstract drawing location, as you say.
I also know that the 0,0,0 coordinates doesn't have a phisical location in UTM or other coordinate systems.
I have also seen the possibility of geolocalize models using, among other things, the dem of google earth.

But the fact that 0,0,0 doesn't represent a phisical location is valid also for a CAD environment. But this does not eliminate the possibility of a model like the one I described.

What I wanted to experience (maybe because I'm confused as you say....) it to know if Sketchup also had this possibility.
Now, it is OK that in the absence of this option you can make a model and later geolocate it.

Every software has its peculiarities. Some excel at one thing , others on different aspects.

I wanted to evaluate the possibility of providing sketchup with a text file containing geolocated line coordinates, and use SketchUp Ruby to create "directly" geolocated 3D models based on those geolocated lines.

If it isn't possible directly, then I will have to proceed with a step more
That's it.

Away from what?
From the origin?
But I'm not interested in a model in the origin. My model hasn't the start at the origin and the end at center coordinates. My model is centered about the center coordinates (plus o minus 200 meter).
Regarding the coordinates, at this moment I have not considered the inch aspect, but in my idea the coordinates are in meters (they are UTM coordinates of an area in Florence - Italy). In this way the value is still bigger than you have indicated.
I think that this "problem" is a sort of quantization error, due to fact that, with reference to the origin, the difference in coordinates between various point of a circle is very very low. So, it would be necessary a lot of precision in the internal variable of the Sketchup engine. This would lead to a slowing down of the engine, among other things not necessary in most modeling.
By me, one solution would be to be able to translate the origin depending on the coordinates of the work area.
I have seen that Skatchup has the possibility of changing the origin position, but I doesn't know how internally this possibility is implemented (and if it's available in Ruby). I try it

I have made a simple Ruby scipt in order to estrude a circle along a curve (with face.followme method).
The question arise when I try to draw the initial circle, with its centre in the coordinates I'm using (they are geographic ones as X=681581.4417, Y=4850429.052, Z=85.368)

This is the sample script, with the final test to verify the face consistency:

` entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities
direction=Geom::Vector3d.new(0,0,1)
#centerpoint= Geom::Point3d.new(0,0,0)
centerpoint= Geom::Point3d.new(681581.4417,4850429.052,85.368)
edges = entities.add_circle centerpoint, direction, 1, 1000
face = entities.add_face(edges)

if (face)
UI.messagebox face
else
UI.messagebox "Failure"
end`

In some cases the face creation give a failure.
Attached you find the circle that the script has draw.
The problem doesn't happen when the coordinate are a low value (as example X=0, Y=0, Z=1).
I think it depends on the very low "circle radius" to "centre coordinates" ratio.
What do you think?