if you look at the truss in a Cad viewer, the form is a true curve, whereas in sketchup its segmented. I can (and have) as you have pointed out build the same in Sketchup, even built a DC version, however it still uses a very basic rectangle/triangle surface, whereas the original, I believe, uses a technology that expresses the curve with fewer points and bent or bulged surfaces.
I not an expert in this field, but the change in file size and the difference in models causes concern.
In building the DC, I was always at pains to reduce its file size, as copies become unique. I can share a part from the DC without repercussions, but the full model is currently private, as my efforts may yet be financially compensated for.

the total file size can vary depending on the amount of segments chosen, but sometimes for a decent view a component can be 2MB, then there is the issue of them becoming unique with change and multiplication.

I must stress again that I do love sketchup, but I am starting to see limitations

curve pipe example.skp

Hi Baz

I have look at a few like DraftSight, however BricsCad seems the most competitive to suit my needs. I have a lot of AutoCad experience, plus a good knowledge of VBA, so its interface is familiar and pricing is acceptable.
I will make my decision after the next upgrade, until then I will continue with Sketchup, I do on the whole love it, but the file sizes worry me, there is a need for nurbs(or a way of showing curves without loads of faces and memory use), better dynamic components functions and again memory management, better ruby ide (interface with a standard set of userform tools)...I fear that these are years away from improvement.

I prime example recently I downloaded a curved truss then tried to upload it to sketchup, the cad file is about 800kb, sketchup could not fully import it and the result is a file of 3000kb. The curve? well....

Simple geometric shapes for building is so old hat. curves, shells, organic shapes are a problem to build in sketchup. This needs urgent attention

PT34-C (kruh).dwg

I have invested 6 years into sketchup, I hope its not all in vain, but if 2017 release is again a disappointment then I will be moving on, I will keep that version and perhaps check back in 5 years. It really does need to "catchup" and overtake the competition

open the component, select all (control A) and choose the default (right side top) in the material browser and paint

use outliner

select and and drag the sub_components to the corresponding parent level or other location of your choice, leaving the one sub component you want first (leave at least one otherwise the container will delete itself), then drag the moved components one at a time back and they add under the previous, as mention above for copies

Outliner is the idea tool for many operations on nested groups / components

I believe in coding -1 is returned when a match is not made

the use of + seems to create a bug in the ruby side to DCs

• minus works, so a work around is to use a variable, being positive at first, then changing it to negative after the ruby script behind the scenes has accept it

=2*current("leny")*2.54-val

where the attribute val initially = 5, then change it to -5 after the first run

this is probably only required if you were relying on the index for your calculations

You can place formulas within the options values, this can be used as a trigger to set attributes
Plus it makes the attribute dialog cleaner and not so cluttered

formulas within option dropdown.skp

yes if there are some other attributes you want to excess via the front dialog box, you do need to pass them through.
Double wrapping an component has some other advantages as mentioned on some of my other posts in that you can retain the existing len attributes in a swap if required, ideal for swapping a beam or window/door for a different profile and retain the size in the drawing.
If you find it difficult, post an example and I will walk through the steps

Hi

You could encase the component which is on a particular layer within another component, apply all your copy function to the outer component, which can remain in layer0, thus making copies on layer0 with inner components still on the correct layer

example attached

copy & layers.skp

1. you can group the floors within another component or group with a particular layer
2. after an alteration of the first component in a series of copies, after exit you need to update with right click menu, DC,redraw.
3. you need to create formula to suit

generally better to use material names (with no space) to do areas, so reflects only the surface required however complicated (you can rename a material to exclude space)

suggest if you don't already, use outliner to amend the components rather than mult click

attached example

build.skp

this maybe solved by a simple trick via Dave

Components with attributes creates unique copy when attributes changed

Hi, I have set up a set of components to add in electric sockets and lights. They have a simple set of attributes to set height above floor level, as well as number of switches/ sockets which resizes the plate and numb…

SketchUp Community (forums.sketchup.com)

Sorry my bad, should have said spin port not spin wheel, which may have confused you.
You have tried it the other way round, you should wrap the component with the animation in another then change this new component to the same axis.
So with your original, select the spinport and the guide and make this a component, then right click change axis, (hide rest of model) and place

the rotation is in reference to the parent environment, so the wrapper acts as a shield or bridge between the two axes or worlds

I wrapped the spin wheel in another component with the same axis as the spin wheel. This serves as a reference for the motion within the same plane, axes, "world"

SpinGate2.skp

@jql said:

Philip I see you have Outliner always open, I used to have that until I noticed it was delaying plugins a lot. Don't you use plugins?

yes, there are significant delays whilst using a plugin, "rolling up" this dialog resolves this. At this stage I use the outliner a lot, so until this changes, I am quite happy to occasionally forget then roll it up.

[quote="baz":3302027s]
@unknownuser said:

, could you post a screen shot of how you have yours set up?
Baz

by all means...

you can create different size trays and park them on the other screen, plus I have DC option placed too

you can leave the default or some pinned as well? but I find that the placed ones less annoying.

Hi John,
is it possible to either load an example of the skp file here or on the warehouse (or another cloud server) with a reference to it.

With regards the new trays, they take a bit of getting use to, however they are well suited to a two screen setup once you have made a few unpinned custom ones to suit your workflow

Hi

It is possible to create components with ruby code, but i believe its much easier to use the ruby code to load a defined component and position it,

I will continue with the pipe line DC, I created earlier and develop that.

If you look at the cylinder code in the linetool example,

%(#000080)[vec = pt2 - pt1
length = vec.length
if( length == 0.0 )
UI.beep
puts "Cannot create a zero length cylinder"
return
end]

I used that as the starting point, initially changing the cylinder for a simple line.

I now need to load a component and scale, then rotate it to the line created.

%(#0000BF)[path = Sketchup.find_support_file('rod.skp', 'Plugins/su_examples/')
definitions = Sketchup.active_model.definitions
definition = definitions.load(path)]

to get a scaling factor I saved the pipe line DC with a length of 1 meter and used that to scale to the length of the line. I loaded that DC to the su_examples folder

http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Math.html
gives the syntax for the maths

being a roof carpenter, I used my knowledge of the relationship between a rafter and a hip (bevel cuts, lengths) to create a transformation sequence for the rotation
searches in this forum helped to work out the method

then I deactivated the line as it was no longer required as a reference

added
dc_observers.get_latest_class.redraw_with_undo(componentinstance)
to redraw the scaled component (tig)

I have attached the amended rod.skp and linetool.rb, which can overwrite the existing in the C:\Users"computer name"\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins\su_examples

the base component

linetool.rb

No?

-you could simply create and place different positions of the door and associated lines on different layers, then hide or show the appropriate layer in the scene.

• maybe a ruby script could react to the scene change and animate the doors, much more difficult

use conditional statements

for X attribute, =if(copy=1, span1)+ if(copy=2, span1+span2)....

Hi

you will notice whenever you scale a object its material stretches, so the area calculation remains the same, just what you see is a stretch representation of the same area

so make the component unique, so it does not effect others using the same definition, after scale or changes, right click choose scale definition, and right click dynamic component redraw may also be required.

I hope to later create a set of ruby script tools to overcome some of these issues