Can't wait for VT2 and SubD2 (opensubdivs?)

Hello Thomas,

Perhaps has it been asked before, but is there a way to tweak the bydefault colors for the analysis tool? Not that I don't understand your wise choice of colors, but I'd prefer more contrasted colors like white-red...
And I agree, it's a pity one can't replace a default sketchUp view mode (like monochrome or x-ray that I don't use often) with this analyse view mode, to keep the textures/UVW mapping.

Otherwise, good job!

very simple, amazing...

Thanks Dale,

One thing that could be handy is to be able to build assemblies from presets.
I mean, having to reencode the railings for each assemblies is really time consuming, not to mention each tweaking needs an update of the thumbnail, which is sometimes boring...

Thanks!

Sure was a long wait for this kind of tool to be connected to SketchUp...
I was drooling on Grasshopper and Rhino as I get lots of architects models in obj recently...

@rv1974 said:

Will v.2.1 deliver something besides reports (3D as we know it) ?

only thing i'm sure of: reversable path on assemblies

Great! If you need betatesters...

One more thing...

If we could reverse the path for the assemblies like we can do for the profiles, it would be great!
Now I have to weld the lines, and revert the spline with FredoTools... quite time consuming sometimes.

And...
If we could access to fast presets (let's say 3-4 presets that remain loaded in RAM without having to reload them again from the browser), it would be perfect!

OK thanks for the reply.

Is there a way to keep Profile Builder from refreshing the thumbnail when tweaking an assembly?
During very complex assembly building, it can be quite a hassle to wait for it to refresh, even for a mm tweaking...

And I guess the ability to DUPLICATE an assembly's element (copy/paste the properties) would be very handy too... but I suppose a feature like this is in the pipeline already...?

Anyway just like Railclone in Max, nothing beats the witnessing of the automatic generation of a perfectly programmed assembly that would have taken hours of painful manual modeling...

One thing that frustrates me now:

When trying to save a profile or an assembly on the local drive (C:\userXXX\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins\DM_ProfileBuilder2\Libraries)
Windows 7 never allows me to write the file there unless I launch SU as an admin (which is pretty annoying as Win7 keeps me asking "are you sure?" non stop).

Now my workaround is to save the profile/aseembly to the desktop (which is surprisingly "writeable" through SU) and then remove the file to the right place with the help of Explorer.exe ...

Is there a hack to enable direct file-writing in the AppData section without having to be in Admin mode?

Another request:

Is it possible to get a LOD approach in the profiles?
By default in your Profiles Library, a circle is made of 24 edges.
If I use it for a complex assembly, I end up with a very highpoly mesh.

For Close-ups it would be a good thing.
For long-range, it will be a total overkill.

With a LOD option, I'd select a circle preset (instead of crawling through endless dimension-basenamed different circle presets like DIA5090 DIA5100 etc.), enter the diameter, enter the precision (number of edges) and the profile generated would be ideally suited to all types of cases.

@bob james said:

Off Topic Nit Pick

@optimaforever said:

su4you's incredible slice

Isn't Slice made by TIG?

TIG's "sliceR" I think.

impressive!
did you model one groove, component it and copy it in revolving fashion, then explode them before subdividing??

gr8
gr8
gr8
gr8?

Is this tool (and thread) dead?

I can't wait to see this tool!

very impressive!

any advice to keep quads on borders after a JPP?

The default behaviour of JPP is to soften the borders. Yet for QFT and SubD we need to keep those extruded edges when shelling.
I can't use Splitdonut as the resulting border surface isn't flat.
SubD's quadpushpull doesn't work like JPP for big complex surfaces.

EDIT: Found. A. Synytsia's "Smooth to Quadrants" does exactly that.

BTW does thomthom's Shell work on quads?

I'm very interested to know if PB2 works with dynamic components or if you plan to use some kind of custom parametric dynamic component in the future...
I'm still trying to steal Railclone techniques ideas to implement them in Railclone/s4ucomponents/Skatter/SketchUV/s4uSlice/QFT/SubD combo. Clearly PB2 lacks some random parameters (multi-texture, random components in assemblies, path-guided positioning of profiles to be extruded in assemblies, possibility to interrupt profiles along path in assemblies, more UV mapping options, etc.
My Sketchup possibilities tends to look more and more like 3dsMax yet with a simpler interface but a more tedious workflow.

I'd like to quickly populate glass facade with venetian blinds for example.
Right now I'd have to use a simplified grid (mimicking the facade modulation) to have the quad faces needed by s4ucomponents, create x variations of blinds components, random select quads of my grid, use s4ucomponents to replace selected quads by a blind component, and redo it again until all the quads have been replaced by blind compos.
It would be way easier to have the job done by a variant of PB2; I'd draw a line per level, use an assembly creating a linear array of dynamic venetian blinds which in turn could be randomly opened or closed with a seed controlled by PB2. PB2 could offer the possibility of multiplying this linear array on several levels and my facade would be done. Of course if the venetian blind could be a dynamic compo embedded in the facade element (with glazing, frame, structure, etc.) it would be even more powerful, and we would be even closer to Railclone.

I'd imagine the same thing for suspended ceilings, wooden and tiled floors, etc. thus replacing SDM floorgenerator in the process.

Ok. done.
Yet I'd like to have an option to randomize UV tiling without having to group all the profiles, explode them and use Julia's UV depatternize script...

It took me a while to get the positioning of each profile right.
it has to be done manually.
I'd have liked to have the possibility to place the profiles along a predefined shape (spline) with the option of aligning the profile along the shape, and parametric interdistance.

It would be cool to have the possibility of interrupting the profiles (in the case of this bench, I'll have to cut the profiles with su4you's incredible slice to create some realistic lengths (there is no manufacturer who can make wooden profile in that shape and that length)

Hello Dale,

To create an assembly for this bench, is there a way to extrude a multi-profile for the wooden lattice (a profile composed of several discrete surfaces, not linked between them) or have I to add x multiples of the same square profile each moved and rotated accordingly to get the complete shape?

Thanks in advance,