Do not get into the habit of using /2, since SU has a significant bug: appending /2 works SOMETIMES -but only if you are dividing an integer by 2. If you type "1.5/2" you will not get a .75 radius as you expected. There is no warning in SU v.8; in fact this bug has not been fixed as of the 2014 version.

It would not be hard to parse the input line, then one could enter 6+5/16 for the mixed fraction since that's what we really mean for 6 5/16. (As we learned in 7th grade algebra, multiplication and division are always done before addition and subtraction -MDAS "My Dear Aunt Sally" rule).

It would be nice to be able to specify relative/absolute references, and variables too.

Like many people I have a model which just "is not manifold" (says Slic3r) and I cannot find the problem, so I found your program. I haven't found a manual or documentation for it though. My question is: how do I know it's working? The only indication is the check mark by Tools->Solid Inspector (which does not turn off when I click "Solid Inspector") -I would think an icon would be more intuitive. But anyway... No Ruby Console messages, no errors, no sounds, no screen messages or lines, no flashing popup (i.e. "group checks fine" or "component has n errors"). I tried pressing "tab"; does nothing. The only indication that it's enabled is that when I click outside of a group/component, it doesn't deselect it (a bug?) like the selection arrow does. It is ver 1.2, and library 2.9.8 BTW

Excellent, works cleanly. But wondering why it isn't added to the right-click context menu, where one usually looks for such things -?

I now get this error:

FredoTools 1.6g: Error starting up plugin (creating menus and icons)
undefined method 'values' for nil:NilClass [in FredoTools.rb -
#'startup(): line 210]
...Lib6Core.rb:580in 'effective_load_part2'

Then an error message with a Trace Log...
Am using LibFredo v5.5g.

OK, .length returns the expected length for add_line, but for add_edges and add_curve it returns the array length. Not obvious, but I can live with that.

What I really want is to get the length of a curve, such as the Curve.length example code http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/curve#length suggests. Stranger yet, their code returns 47.123... rather than the expected 62.652... (sum of segments) or 62.831... (ideal circle) Can anyone explain the 47.123... number? The workaround, which is working for me, is to iterate through the array and sum them:

edge.each { |x| $total_length+=x.length }

@dave r said:

Did you get the Tube Along Path plugin?

It didn't work for me. It seems that it only works with a single path, and I have many. However, thanks to your pointing me in the right direction, I found lines2tubes, which does do multiple paths and did what I wanted. It doesn't weld edges into curves though, so your output may look segmented if you don't handle that first.

Regarding the suggestion to use only 4 sides:

1. Yes, but you may want 6 or 8 sides to make the rendering look nicer.

2. With a small number of sides, the side may not appear to touch the surface it is in fact touching. You may be able to orient your polygon to avoid this. However if you are following a curve, the polygon tends to twist around the curve. I found I had to use 12 sides to mitigate this issue.

@dave r said:

I'd use tube along path to thicken the lines. Probably 6-8 sides will be plenty. Don't draw repeated "wires" make one, make it a component and copy it with Move/Copy to make the others.

I made a quick example for you. I used 8 segments.
[attachment=0:jz8j4qz8]<!-- ia0 -->wire shelf.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:jz8j4qz8]

That is fabulous work, and exactly what I am trying to do. I spent hours trying to recreate your masterpiece, but just ended up with some anemic black lines. I have the dimensions down, but your rendering, with the drop shadows, is amazing.

Can anyone tell me why when I do

Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_edges([0,0,0],[1,1,0]).length

it returns "1" instead of the expected "1.414..."?

It appears to return the number of edges rather than their sum length. Curve does the same.

I design wire structures (think metal shelving, dish dry racks, barbecue grills, refrigerator shelving, etc.) I draw lines with the pencil, but at some point I have to thicken them to the actual wire diameter (say, 0.1 inches). I go to each one (there are dozens), draw a 0.05" radius circle around the end, select the wire, and follow-me. This is tedious. Is there a plug-in which will thicken all lines to a specified radius? Or a better way, such as by creating a thick line and duplicating it each time? Or tying the lines (edges) together temporarilly so that the follow-me tool will do them all at once (I just get 'not a path' error)? I want to continue using the 'line' tool to create my things and post-process it later thicken them. Thoughts?