Todd Burch,

Congratulations on the quality of that code. To my eye, this is super readable:

var BACKSPACE =  8 ; 
var TAB       =  9 ; 
var ENTER     = 13 ; 
var SHIFT     = 16 ; 
...

Just one question: why the space before the semicolon?

TT,

I used to use NetBeans (and later Eclipse) for Java projects. I don't remember enough benefit to make me go back. It was great to have the IDE neatly lay out dozens of imports, but we don't have that issue here.

Do let us know if it proves worthwhile!

@dan rathbun said:

There's a namespace problem.

If the files are loaded 'as is' your Matrix class will collide with the Standard Ruby Baseclass

Thanks Dan. Will fix.

Edit:

Got enthused. If I used the Ruby Matrix, matrix multiplication would be done in C, not in Ruby. Yay!

On further investigation, life's too short to wade through such awful doc. Ugh.

Edit2: Now its a MovableCI_Matrix.

@alexschreyer said:

One small suggestion: I have a wide-screen monitor and html pages without width limit always become hard to read because of long lines.

I should know better! I put setup info in the Introduction. Nobody reads Introductions. I'll have to think about this. And thank you.

The missing info is this: give the tutorial about 1/3 of your monitor, leave the rest for SketchUp.

@xrok1 said:

nice, i like it but one would have to see an interface and test it with different renderers before a value could be determined.

So far I've lived a renderer-free life. For your needs, SketchUp's rendering is inadequate? May I ask why?

@xrok1 said:

your link goes nowhere?

Thanks. Fixed.

@unknownuser said:

I write an xml file in ruby, pass it to my webdialog, and use the browser to parse the xml and generate my html table dynamically.

Works awesome.

Todd, you're working too hard. Replace the XML with JSON (no harder, may be easier in Ruby), pass it to your WebDialog and "parse the XML" is just eval( foo = json ). If json is a valid JavaScript object, even a complex one nesting arrays and other objects as properties (that in turn nest other ...), you're done.

I've got SketchUp going nicely in 4D (3D + time) as my movie shows:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=26105

Should I use this capability so that your clients can walk around your models on their own, or should I let you create guided tours? (Clearly, the long-term answer is BOTH - guided tour that you can stop and walk around a bit - but you've got to start somewhere.)

Also, can you give me some guidance re pricing? Feature-limited free version plus Pro version? Pro w/30-day free trial? And what price point(s) get the most folks happily forking over v. "maybe I can talk my boss into it."

This sounds too simple. I must be missing something. In case I'm not, in your console:

` # when you like the settings
view = Sketchup.active_model.active_view
cam = view.camera
newcam = cam.set( cam.eye, cam.target, cam.up )
newcam.fov = cam.fov # others as needed

later on

view.camera = newcam`

(Basic idea. Code not run.)

Did I see somewhere that cam.set() actually takes more args than the docs report?

@jim57 said:

Should I be moving these rubies into Plugins Folder, or is that instruction in the Console sufficient?

Actually there's about two pages of discussion over in the Developers' Forum re how to keep all the files in a single folder, not related to Plugins. The basic idea, that you just put all the files in whatever place you like, was novel.

Your error message says to me "damaged file!". Back up. Make a folder called "airshow" (or anything else you like), anywhere you like. DL again. Use your archive utility to put all the files into the "airshow" (or whatever else you liked). On my machine it's \models\airshow. Then follow the original prescription.

If you ever meet that guy Murphy, tell him exactly what you think of his stupid law!

Edited solution into original post. Zero reported problems from movie viewers, so maybe it works.

I wanted to hang some small clouds in the sky behind Biplane to make his loops more clear. Didn't figure that one out.

Anyone had any success with clouds, airplane sky-writing, smoke coming out of a locomotive, steam from a kettle?

@gaieus said:

can be shown to the client in SU itself and solved with dynamic components

I think my movie demonstrates that you can do this is SU alone, dynamic components not required.

@d12dozr said:

...I watched that like a little kid watches cartoons

Thanks all. You guys are great movie critics!

I tried to have some fun with this one, but I hope that doesn't hide the serious and wide open possibilities. Architects: walk throughs. Interior designers: room makeovers. Gardeners: 3-season progressions (four in warmer parts). Cabinet makers: doors that open, drawers that slide out. Buildings being built. Parking lot traffic.

Of course a roller coaster ride might be awesome.

@jim57 said:

changed the 'where/you/choose' part to the file heirarchy for my downloads folder with airshow in it.

You got the idea 100% right. The "no such file" error means just what it says. There's a path typo or omission. Ruby likes forward slashes as file separators. Try opening one of the HTML files with your favorite browser to be sure the path is the one you think it is. Firefox is nice about about displaying a list of choices after you type a letter or two, though it likes backward slashes on Windows.

I've posted my movie. See:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=26105

Thanks to all for answering my thousands of questions.

Attached is a .zip that contains a bunch of files that let you play a three-minute Sketchup movie. Biplane, playing himself (in 3D), flys around doing some aerobatics while Sang (2D) photographs the show. The idea is to demonstrate SketchUp's power as a 4D (3D + time) platform.

Required: 2+GHz CPU. Desired: Large monitor. This is slick on my 2.8GHz machine; a slug on an older XP Home machine.

How to View

Choose a convenient directory. I recommend making a subdirectory called "airshow" (to keep the files together). Extract everything to this subdir. In SketchUp, File/New. Close all dialogs. Window/Ruby Console. Maximize SketchUp and put the RC in the lower-left if you are short on space. In the Ruby Console (white input bar) load '/where/you/chose/airshow.rb'. If you want to watch again, File/New and No, you don't want to save changes, before you load.

What to View

Close the Title window to start the show. Watch Biplane move. As the camera focuses on Sang, focus on the camera. It pans and moves simultaneously. That would be walkthroughs for all you architects. When Sang gets to the top of the platform you'll see a second where the camera is moving and rotating onto the top of the tripod and Sang is moving into position behind the camera.

Biplane comes in for a fake landing after one circuit. He hits hard. He squishes, then rebounds if you watch closely (animated scaling). He does aerobatics. See if you can figure out the multiple simultaneous rotations in the death spiral.

Do-It-Yourself Movies

See Chapters 15 and 16 of my tutorial, as soon as I post them. If you know no coding, start with Chapters 11-14, which are available now.

airshow.zip

Thanks, guys.

I've looked harder and seen that there is NO Mac issue. It's a Windows-only problem.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=26040&p=224362#p224362

I'll post my little movie later today and it just might run on Macs. (Crossing fingers, knocking wood, rubbing rabbit's foot.)

@dan rathbun said:

Well I do something a bit weird.

Care to share some code?

@tfdesign said:

Martin, yes.

> Dir;;chmod( '..' )
> Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `chmod' for Dir;Class>
> (eval);16
> > Dir;;pwd
> /
> 

Stupid me. That should be Dir::chdir( '..' ). Glad you showed the error message.