I've thought some more about you script and have some more ideas for you.

I think a floating web dialog that stays on top while you work with the tool would be a good idea. Maybe it could have tabs to make the window as small as possible but still have room for lots of settings.

At the top there could be four (or more) icons for the different tools: Click placement, Paint placement, Draw region and Select a predefined region from a curve.

The paint tool should work like a brush or spraygun that you can set the diameter for the brush. Show the brush size in viewport as a ring and while pressing a specified key and dragging mouse right or left you could change the scale of the brush.

As for the amount of different components I belive the more the better. Maybe a possibility to choose a directory and all components in that directory would be used.

How does the script choose component based on randomness? Maybe it would be good if it recoginzed the last used component and removed that from the next "selection round" so that two identical components never was used next to each other.

When it comes to scaling I believe that a way of choosing what axes it should scale would be good. Many times you might just want to scale it in one or two axes or use different min/max values for different axes.

Just my thoughts...

Looks lika a great script.

Is there a limit to how many components you can use. If so it would be good if you could use at least five.

Here are my thoughts for improvement:

Please add the possibility for random rotation and mirroring also. (I use a lot of flat "always face camera" trees and mirroring them help cover up that they look alike.)

It would also be great to be able to click where you want to "plant" a component and it would randomly choose one from the list and random scale/rotate/mirror it. (Some times you want a little more control over where trees goes.)

One more addition is to be able to have the components to follow the normal of the surface instead of their initial good for grass, stones and such.
And possibly a setting that controls how steep the angle could be for the trees to be planted.

And finally a question; Will it put all the components in a layer of their own?

Anyway, looking forward to try this.

Jim, here is a link to an GNU open source version of Greeble. Might be worth checking out...
http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/greeble.html

I think he means beats per minute. (Like in music.)

Thanks Jim and Todd. Really appreciated.
Finally back on track...

Don't worry, I'll probably be back with more stupid questions...

First of all, thanks for your help.
I'm crawling in the dirt here and it feels like you're teasing me with small bits that I can't quite get the grips on.
I'm just a total noob when it comes to javascript and the script I´m working on need default values from SketchUp. Please give me an example so that (even) I can understand how to get it working.
I've looked at the few webdialog based script I've found but havent seen any that gets their default value from sketchup. They all have "onClick" and other user activated functions.

Why a tool? Maybe it isnt necessary but later on I'm gonna need to save a value so that it will be remembered when using the script again. I dont know if that is something that can be done without the "suspend tool"?

Sorry, I didnt mean to be secret about it.
It´s just that for now it´s just a (non functioning) test how to get a value from sketchup to a webdialog as default value. If I just can get some help getting this working I'll be sure to post the script I'm working on.

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

Bump.
Can you see whats wrong with my code?

This is what I've tried with this time. Still not working though...
In ruby script:

def activate
	dialog = UI;;WebDialog.new("jsTest", true,"JS Test", 320, 160, 600, 60, true)
    	fn= File.dirname(__FILE__)+'/jsTest.html'
    	dialog.set_file fn
	dialog.show {} 	

	posX = "1"
	dialog.add_action_callback("setup") {|d,p|
		dialog.execute_script("document.getElementById('posX').value='#{posX}'")
	}
    end # activate

In html file:

	<script type="text/javascript">
           function setup(id,value)
           {
              window.location = 'skp;setup@'+document.getElementById('posX').value; 
           }
       </script>

Thanks for your answers but I still can't get it to work.

I've tried with:

def activate
	dialog = UI;;WebDialog.new("jsTest", true,"JS Test", 320, 160, 600, 60, true)
	fn= File.dirname(__FILE__)+'/test.html'
	dialog.set_file fn
	dialog.show {}  	

	name = "Pixero"
	dialog.execute_script("document.getElementById('name').value='#{name}'")

end # activate

@unknownuser said:

Depends. Are you building the HTML in the ruby script, or using a canned separate file for the HTML? (It's not so much "it depends", as it is what approach you take depends on how easy any given solution is.)

I didnt even know you could write the html inside the ruby script.
The only example I've seen used a separate html file.
I'm open for suggestions how to get this working the easiest way. I really need to get default values from SketchUp into the Web dialog for a script I'm working on so please help.

@unknownuser said:

Call me lazy to not look it up, but what is "ValueChanged"? Actually, with EVENT programming, you don't even need to press ENTER. (And, there may be a bug with pressing ENTER on either IE or Safari - and the WebDialog box will go away). You can use any event to validate, or callback to sketchup. For instance, the DOM EVENT onblur() could be used to do a callback to SketchUp when someone TABS out of an inputbox. Lots of possibilities here.
Todd

When you say "you dont even need to press enter" what do you mean?
Would the script start to execute as soon as I start typing in a value?
I dont think I would want that for this script.
Lets say I have a: x, y and z value but I dont want to "run" the script before I've finished typing in my values. How would I do that if press ENTER is buggy?

Thanks!

I've just started to learn how to make a web dialog and have some questions.
More will probably follow...

1. I want to show a default value in the webdialog that the ruby script gets from SketchUp. Something like a points x, y and z coordinates. Is it possible and how do i do it?

2. Can you dim/deactivate/hide certain elements in a web dialog and activate them based on a checkbox state?

3. Is it possible to change some text (The description of a parameter) in a webdialog based on a checkbox state?

4. How does "ValueChanged" work? Can I have it "executing" the script if I change a numeric value and press enter? (I don't want a OK button.)

Wow!!!
It looks great. Cant wait til its released.
What a christmas present it would be...

Okay, thanks for your reply.
I was actually thinking of writing a web dialog for this script at a later stage.
Just thought I'd test some functionality first without it.
I guess I'll have to dive into the sea of web dialogs then...

Is there a way to have one parameter changing the default values in other parameters?
Let's say I have a dropdown menu with two options and if I choose the first option the default values of some input field would be 1 and if I choose the second it would be 2.
It's probably trivial but my brain is slow today....

Not sure if it's what you're after but take a look at my jsAlign script.
it gathers the vertices from selected edges or faces and is able to move them one by one.
You can find it at my site: http://www.pixero.com
I'd like to see a script that made it possible to actually select the vertice and move it or what ever you want.

Thanks for the script. It will come in handy for a current project.
I can't however see any images in the help file. Im on WinXp.

Wouldn't that work only for realtime play?
I'm looking for a way to step through an animation frame by frame. (not scenes/pages)
I want to be able to access certain frames to fix possible errors.

I use: "show_frame_at" to show a frame in the animation at a certain time but how do I get the current time of a animation?
I mean how long, in frames or seconds, has it played from the start.

Thanks for the link.