Imagine a hole...

Surrounded by holes.

Be careful with this one though because I don't have the usual safety features (like if you ask for a bolt circle of 50 and an id of 52...)

But otherwise it works.

The math is... well, complex. But it's really a combo of my previous two designs.

Mark

with straw dear willy, you silly...

How does this work for you?

Why don't you mend it dear billy, you silly...

This may actually a display issue, that I had, where the selection tool will not create the bounding box.

Try turning off hardware acceleration (Window -> Preferences -> Hardware Acceleration).

See if that helps.

Mark

@unknownuser said:

Hi Mark,

I've a stupid question based on this

[attachment=0:tpgn65yn]<!-- ia0 -->The Bucket List.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:tpgn65yn]

Why is the DC 1" x 1" x 6.5"?

I've 1" hole at 6" so bar is 6.5" to accommodate hole diameter. The bar is 1" thick but why is it 1" wide? How can i change width of bar so hole could be off centre?

Other than that, good work

Oh boy... I programed it so the hole will always be on-center in the Y and off-center in the X, because that's what my flange needed. I could probably switch that out... gimmie a day. I've got a bit of work to do now that lunch break is over...

The components can talk to each other - but it's a bit different. Click on the block with a hole in this example with the interact tool to see how I made it work.

Set the onclick attribute of the switch to the following:

Animate("Switch_RotZ", angle1, angle2); Animate("Light!Material", Material1, Material2).

Doing this will work, even if the light is not in the component with the switch. The problem becomes importing and adding extra copies, but it is doable.

Mark

It's the game of telephone! Except this time the message isn't a bad name about the teacher...

More in exploring with holes. Eventually going to get up to combining this with the dynamic hole to make - you guessed it, a dynamic flange (with bolt holes!)

Let me know what you think.

Mark

There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza...

Maybe this will help explain the subject a bit better.

I think this reasonably explains how the component works, without going over the top with the technical.

Then again, trig was my favorite subject in school, so I know that some things in trig that seem obvious to me are not obvious to others. Let me know if I was too technical.

Mark

Guide Explaining How the Dynamic Hole works

C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Components\Dynamic Components Training\Pie.skp

Apparently this is a model that I found on my desktop with a radial array. Don't know if it came with it, so I attached it as well.

1 hour of reverse engineering Pie.skp + wikipedia + 5 hours straight of trial and error = dynamic flange.

Mark

File that came with sketchup?

@chris fullmer said:

The only thing I would suggest is to go into each component that makes up the component, and delete the inside walls. That will help it display more smoothly. Then it will not be noticeable that it is made up of many many pieces.

This suggestion was a real help. See attached the improved version.

Dynamic components seem to have an issue with holes.

So, I decided to try to make one on my own.

Let me know what you think.

Mark

![Flange at 4"](/uploads/imported_attachments/QpaM_DynamicHole4.jpg "Flange at 4"")
![Flange at 60"](/uploads/imported_attachments/BrjN_DynamicHole60.jpg "Flange at 60"")

Improved with deleted edges!

Chris,

Can you also make the normal tool work so if a single edge is selected (without a face), it'll draw a line perpendicular to that line? And then you'd just choose the rotation of that perpendicular line?

Or something like that?

Or would that have to be a fourth line tool?

Mark

I don't understand why closed shapes wouldn't work...

[attachment=0:d559aw5a]<!-- ia0 -->Three Surfaces<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:d559aw5a]

Except for the 3 surfaces. Which - is kinda cool.

Mark

almost there.skp

Hello all,

I've been working on using Layout 2 and SketchUp for about 3 weeks now, and found this forum around that time. With searching, I've learned that ruby scripts are not compatible with Layout 2 (yet). But, it seems like the devs at google are interested in what we want from ruby scripts. So, I'll explain my problem, perhaps that'll explain what is wanted with ruby scripts for layout.

I'm one of the research and development engineers for a manufacturer of HVAC ducting. HVAC is built like a jigsaw puzzle in that all the pieces need to be made at the factory, shipped to the site, and fit together. To help with the process, we join the tees and elbows together at out factory for some of our clients to make this easier for them. It's easier to make a joint in the factory then it is at a construction site. I'd give you examples sketches, but well that's confidential.

So, the way I've done this is design a model showing all the ductwork, going everywhere it's supposed to. Then we take that model, and insert joint locations at the various spots that the contractor will have to make joints. Then we separate the pieces as different layers.

This is where layout scripting could really help. I need to take the layers, manually turn on and off each visible layer and create a new scene with such layers. So far, I could use sketchup ruby scripts to help. Then i need to upload all of those individual scenes into Layout and put them on our title block. This creates a problem. Sometimes I have 100 or so pieces. I can upload my model and create a new page for each and every scene, but that'll take a ton of time. Plus I've got to still find the correct scale to fit into my model, edit my title block and add in the piece number and the scale that I used, plus add in additional information to the model (such as what the pipe diameter is). I have to do this for every piece in my model, one at a time, by hand until I'm done with the last piece.

Now some of that has to be done manually, and I understand. But a simple script could handle a lot of this.

To summarize:

A.) Something that can create a page for every scene in a model. So something like layout.pages[m].model.view = model.page[n] would help.

B.) Something that would recognize the scale of my model and put it into text. textbox.text = layout.pages[m].model.scale.to_s

C.) Something that could recognize my model's scene name and could use it. textbox.text = model.pages[m].name

D.) A simple script that could copy a model and make a view.

layout.model.view.copy layout.model.view.move = layout.model.view.width layout.model.view.change model.camera.view.top

E.) Finally, a way to change the style of layers in layout (rather then making two copies of the same image superimposed), so that way I can keep my model with the walls of the building as a lighter color and the ducting as a darker color, highlighting the ducting. Then be able to edit that with rubies.

Mark