The latest versions of these plugins are available via the SketchUCation Plugin Store, via the Extension Warehouse or at http://www.drawmetal.com/download.

These versions are mostly about bug fixes. It is recommended that you update to these latest versions especially CurveMaker.

One new feature in CurveMaker: When editing a parameter in the "Measurements" box, type a tilde (~) at the end of a value to keep Curve Maker from automatically advancing to the next parameter. This makes it easy to repeatedly edit the same parameter value.

The plugins are SketchUp 2016 compatible.

The latest version of this plugin is available via the SketchUCation Plugin Store, via the Extension Warehouse or at http://www.drawmetal.com/download.

A parameter was added to superellipses to provide the option to draw or not draw a face. The default is to draw the face along with the curve.

If during a session, the parameter is changed to specify no face, that will be the new default for subsequent superellipses drawn in the session.

The latest versions of these plugins are available via the SketchUCation Plugin Store, via the Extension Warehouse or at http://www.drawmetal.com/download.

CurveMaker now draws and edits superellipses. See https://youtu.be/WwAQMDvTRso

Curves such as squircles, rectellipses, circles, squares, rectangles, ellipses, diamonds and squashed diamonds can all be drawn and later edited with this one tool.

You can draw and edit from the center of the figure out or from outer corner to outer corner by toggling the Alt key (Option on Mac). The tool will also draw and edit a portion of a curve (e.g. a semisquircle) based on the values specified for From Turn and To Turn.

Enter an exponent to get the desired shape. For example, an exponent of 0 creates squares and rectangles. An exponent of 0.5 creates squircles and rectellipses. A value of 0.8 generates the superellipses used by Piet Hein. A value of 1 creates circles and ellipses. A value of 2 creates diamonds, etc., etc.

Enter desired exact dimensions or enter dimensions such as 5, x or x, 2 to instruct the tool to compute the value for x such that the ratio between x and the given dimension is proportional to the golden ratio.

Taper Maker was changed comply with Trimble requirements for the Extension Warehouse. That means Undo and Redo work in a meaningful way. The name you give to a taper group appears next to Undo (Redo) in the edit menu.

Also, the mechanism used to draw Boundary Tapers was rewritten. It is smarter, but slower.

The latest version of the Curve Maker plugin is available via the SketchUcation PluginStore http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=dm_curve_maker_plugin or from http://www.drawmetal.com
or from the Extensions Warehouse.

Just bug fixes...

• Clockwise? parameter was not functioning when some spirals were drawn.
• Construction point drawn at the center (focus) of a curve was erased when parameter values were edited.

The latest version of the Curve Maker plugin is available via the SketchUcation Plugin Store, from the Extension Warehouse or from http://www.drawmetal.com/download

The changes include:

• Undo and Redo work (how they should have all along... but didn't).
• The edit function is accessed from one higher level context menu. No more having to edit the group before editing the curve.
• Display Curve Data is now also available on the context menu.
• When drawing or editing a curve, you can use the arrow keys to toggle horizontal and vertical directional inference locks and use the shift key to toggle a diagonal directional inference.
• Lots of structural changes to meet Extension Warehouse requirements.
• Various bug fixes.

More detail on the changes can be found in the release notes in the Plugin Store.

The Curve Maker, Taper Maker and Stock Maker have all been updated to version 1.4

The plugins are now compatible with SU 2014 and backward compatible with SU 2013 and SU 8.

Most of the changes are bug fixes. The only thing "new" is that they are now distributed and installed independently of each other. So, for example, if you only use Curve Maker, then you need only download and install that one plugin.

If you have installed versions 1.3.6 or earlier of the plugins, you need to DELETE THE FOLLOWING FILES from SketchUp's plugin folder prior to installing the latest version:

ctsMaker (a folder - delete the folder including all of its contents)
curve_maker.rb
taper_maker.rb
stock_maker.rb

Thanks to Rich O'Brien's efforts, they are now available through the SketchUCation Plugin Store.

They are also available at: http://www.drawmetal.com/download

Sorry to be slow in responding, but I cannot replicate this problem. SU's Install Extension option works as expected on my Mac which is running the latest version of Mountain Lion.

Curve Maker now draws the Ionic Volute using the formula proposed by Andrey and Galli (see: http://www.springerlink.com/content/r61qh2354m56qt31/ ).

Optionally, you can draw it with or without an "eye".

You can download the updated plugin from here: http://www.drawmetal.com/download

A demonstration video is available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mES14SnIAP8

For those interested in drawing an Ionic Capital, using Curve Maker and Taper Maker together may be useful as shown in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxXdXy9Gdes

Edit 2012-07-04:
This version is recommended for all users of Curve Maker because it also includes a bug fix. In some circumstances, the plugin would incorrectly determine the drawing plane and draw the mirror image of what should have been drawn. And curves should redraw a little bit faster following any edit made using the Measurements box.

Two new taper (extrusion) cross sections were added to TaperMaker: right trapezoid and quadrilateral.

To create tapers using these cross sections, you must select two paths (rather than just one). The base of the cross section will follow between the selected paths, and the width of the base will vary with the distance between the paths.

Here is an example of some tapered right trapezoids:

A demonstration video (3:20) is available at: http://youtu.be/4Erlpw22F7o

You can download the plugins from: http://www.drawmetal.com/download

This version adds a new feature to Curve Maker and fixes bugs in Taper Maker and Stock Maker. It is recommended that all users upgrade to this version.

CurveMaker has a new feature related to drawing 3d spirals. The Height parameter for an Archimedes, Bernoulli, Fermat, Golden, Hyperbolic or Lituus spiral can be specified as a total height (by appending an 's' to the height parameter value e.g. 10"s). In that case, the spiral is drawn with a constant slope so as to achieve the specified total height along the arc length of the spiral. Note that a length unit is mandatory in the specified height value. Otherwise, something like 10s will be interpreted as a value for the Sides parameter.

You can download the latest version from http://www.drawmetal.com/download

@unknownuser said:

Then I manually put in two points via VCB.

As I mentioned previously, the plugin is not designed to accept two points via the VCB.
Perhaps these two videos would help you understand how the interactive versions are designed to work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4QUO0PaI_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX1HptFLObM

Sorry to hear it is not working for you. Perhaps you can provide more information on what settings you are using and what points you picked so that I can attempt to replicate the issue. You should be able to click on two points but the plugin is not designed to accept two points as text input.

The code has been updated again to correct the bug identified above.

When drawing catenarys and parabolas, the code was not treating implicit units of measure properly when the default unit of measure was something other than inches.

It can be downloaded from:
http://www.drawmetal.com/download

You have exposed another bug. Until this one is fixed, I think you can work around the problem by entering explicit units. For example, entering From as -100m, not -100.

Your problems with the number of sides is due to a bug. Sorry for the inconvenience, but thank you for pointing it out. I have updated the plugins at http://www.drawmetal.com/download.

I have changed the parameter Sides to be the number of sides that will be drawn. The image below shows your 1m x 1 m catenary drawn with 10 sides.

The plugin centers the apex of the catenary at the mid-point of the width you specify ( 1 m in your example). By default, it draws the curve from -1/2width ( -1/2 m in your example) to +1/2width ( +1/2 m in your example).

When the From parameter is set to -1/4 m and the To parameter is left at the default value +1/2 m, you get the catenary shown below:

When you set the From parameter to -12, what was the value of the Length Units parameter in Model Info? Perhaps it was inches? Because -12 inches would be just a little be little bit less than -1/3 m. Perhaps you intended to enter -12m?

In any event, I'm not sure you want -12m to be the value of From. Given the shape of a catenary that fits in a 1m x 1m square, the value of the function at -12m will be quite large.

This version just tweaks some of the functionality of Curve Maker.

First, the interactive curve drawing tools pay attention to the “Enable length snapping:” option on the Units tab of the Model Info dialog.

Second, previous versions used a fixed number of "sides" per rotation in drawing a spiral which could result in spirals that were not as smooth as one might like. In this version, for Archimedes, Bernoulli, Fermat, Golden, Hyperbolic, and Lituus spirals, you can optionally add a maximum length value in the Sides/Turn field. The attached .jpg demonstrates how to specify the maximum and its impact. Note, however, that the maximum is neither precise nor hard due to the method used.

You can download the updated plugin from here:
http://www.drawmetal.com/download

The Curve Maker plugin has been updated. It can be downloaded from http://www.drawmetal.com/download

Given the current Length Units Format, if a guide point coordinate's value can only be approximated (i.e. it displays with ~), then Curve Maker will now display the coordinate value as a decimal length. This should mitigate the problem that dereeei experienced with the curve origin field in the input dialog.

By design, the plugin remembers the previous inputs - including erroneous ones.

Perhaps the interactive versions of these tools will be more to your liking. Have you tried the Curve Maker sub-menu on the Draw menu? They might also help you understand what the dialog boxes are prompting for and the additional degrees of control that the dialogs offer.

The most likely reason the dialog box keeps reappearing is that you have not entered a valid point for the curve origin. SU will not accept a ~ in any coordinate in a point - each value needs to be exact. The plugin could be friendlier in this regard.

Is this what you are trying to draw?