Maybe at a certain stage a commercial beta-phase would be nice. You know, get to play with it, give some suggestions, even before the tool is perfectly polished...

Very exciting stuff! Hope its getting along well...

I have a selection question. I guess if any plugin can help me, it is this one. But I am not sure how. Maybe someone can help me.

I have this model with many (non-quad) faces. And I would like to soften all the triangulation-edges so that I am left with seemingly quad faces.

I guess the best way would be to soften everything, then select the edge loops and unsoften them. But I don't know how.

Is it possible at all with this plugin?

If yes, how?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Jakob

Hey Whaat,

it seems that since SU2014 the undo-capability after a Subdivide and Smooth operation is broken.
Ctrl + Z doesn't work any more. And if it does, its only on individual smoothing steps, rendering it useless.

Has anyone else had these problems?

PS: Once again: Thanks for this superb plugin. Every time I modify a terrain, it gives me great joy!

@cotty said:

If you select several instances of the same component and use "make unique", these instances become all instances of the new component.

I just discovered this and headed over here to post it
After years and years of SketchUp use!

Hey tak2hata,

excellent plugin! It is fun to use and a great enhancement for SketchUp.

However, sometimes I find it a bit difficult to master. Therefore I have two ideas:

1. Some of the settings use units that are not very intuitive. The stiffness for example is measured in a undefined number. Or while the jitter options use percent, the direction and force options use meters (which can be difficult, so that one has to test a lot before achieving the right result).
   I think it might be better to have those as a percentage as well (0% no effect, 100% full effect). Like that one can see a linear increase of the effect, which makes it easier to understand.

2. Some of the settings are not self-explanatory. Do you think it would be possible to add tooltips that show up, when you hover over the setting with your cursor for some time? You know, with a short description of what the setting does...

Would be great to hear your opinion on this...

@tig said:

[...]... what is it to be NEXT ?

good question. Of course instead of replicating Grasshopper it would be awesome to go further, creating something new. But what might that be?

Perhaps some crazy kind of magic, that is only possible within SketchUp? Some sort of integrating Dynamic Component functionality perhaps. I will think of it...

@Joel: As soon as you have anything to show off... your audience awaits you

Hey Joel,
is there already a dedicated thead somewhere?
Any progress on the plugin development?

Looks very promising! I especially like the wind-force... Autumn is coming!

ah, I see. Yes, usually I don't keep Derrick in my scenes. But unfortunately I did when trying your (very useful) plugin...

Ok, I did a bit of testing:

• I got the plugin to work with SU 2013

• I found that the new default character in the scene - Derrick - is causing the Bug Splat

• I created a dynamic component with a hidden-toggle element myself. Everything worked fine...

• I also created a component with fixed size. Worked fine too...

So, no Idea what the problem is. But Derrick is the clue

DerrickFucksItUp.skp

Hey TIG, just to let you know. The plugin produces a bug-splat with SketchUp 2013

Hey Massimo,

it was the "Ignore Normals" setting. I had this one ticked. Now its working for me too.
Thanks for the help!

Hey Thomthom,

I am using Cleanup every day (or every other minute pretty much). Even got a shortcut assigned that I use as naturally as a wet dog shakes itself dry - its become a reflex!

However, sometimes this reflex rips apart my models, especially when having used plugins like Curviloft prior to it or pretty much every time I import a .3ds file...

One such model is this shiny new Bialetti Espresso Maker (just finished modelling it ).
Bialetti_EspressoMaker.skp

When I run Cleanup over it, it gets destroyed. Even when I scale it up 100x...

Is there any way to change the cleanup settings to avoid this?

man, thats genius! exactly what I was looking for!!!

and the trick of pressing a shortcut twice to exit the tool.... fantastic

ah yes, I didn't phrase it clearly enough:

In SketchUp I have the following keyboard shortcuts:

Q = Select
W = Move
E = Rotate
R = Scale

The VertexTools Plugin has a Select, Move, Rotate and Scale tool of its own. But when I make a soft selection and then hit lets say "E" for the Rotate Tool, I will activate SketchUp's Rotate Tool, hence exiting the plugin.

Instead I would like the plugin to intercept this keyboard shortcut, that usually activates SketchUp's Rotate Tool, and enable VertexTools' own Rotate Tool instead.

Only after I exit / toogle off VertexTools, the letter "E" will bring me to SketchUp's Rotate tool.
So I guess what I want, is to completely replace all of SketchUp's manipulation tools with the new ones as long as the "Smooth Selection Mode" is active.

So from a user's point of view activating VertexTools is similar to activating "Show Hidden Geometry". It affects the degree of control you have over the geometry, but you do not have to use a new set of tools...

Of course I am more than uncertain, that this is possible at all in SketchUp (intercepting shortcuts). But it would be such an awesomely integrated experience...

Hey Thomthom,

I was just playing with VertexTools, when I thought of two possible improvements; actually one workflow improvement and one major (and possibly impossible) re-design.

1. With SketchUp's native Move-Tool, you can translate an object in two different ways:

• click (object is attached to the curser), move it somewhere else, click again to release it

• click-and-drag to somewhere else and release mouse button to release object
  Right now thats not possible with VertexTools. And because we all love continuity, it would be a tremendous joy to have the plugin behave the same way

1. Use the VertexTools-Icon as a Toggle Button
   while VertexTools is active, it will intercept all the keyboard shortcuts for Move, Rotate and Scale.
   Thus it actually feels like using native SketchUp tools, only with the enhancement of soft selection. In theory it wouldn't even make a difference, once the soft selection is set to zero.

Hey Fredo,

pbacot's post made me thinking: One more nifty feature would be "Automatic Elevation".

Oftentimes one receives topographical data in 2D form (each line represents lets say 1 meter, but the actual model is just a 2D plan).
While your plugin does everything else perfectly, one still has to rely on manual labour (or another plugin) to move the contours up one by one.

Therefore this feature request for "Automatic Elevation". It would work as follows:

• when analyzing the model, TopoShaper checks, if there is a third dimension to the geometry.

• if all the contours reside on a planar surface, the plugin assumes a default step size (1 meter) and offsets each contour line by that distance in z-direction (or perpendicular to the planar surface of the contours).

• TopoShaper chooses one boundary-contour as the "bottom" (usually the southern one I would presume) and displays a gizmo, sitting on that contour.

• you can drag the gizmo to the other side of the terraint to reverse the direction of elevation

• alternatively you get that little popup-window (that is already being used by the plugin) to choose the direction. The gizmo would then jump to the other side

• the gizmo shows a vertical scaling-handle (like the green scale knob in the scale tool), which you can use to change the overall height of the terrain

• alternatively you can type in a numerical height in the menu at the top of the screen

• this "Elevation Gizmo" is deactivated by default, should the plugin find z-elevation already present in the model. It can be toggled on/off in the top menu though

In my opinion, this addition would perfect the plugin! Don't know, if it is possible. But considering what the plugin already does...

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Yet another magnificent plugin to greatly enhance SketchUp's usability. And again to the highest standards!

How easy it is to repair (automatically AND manually) faulty terrains! Amazing!

Fredo, you outdid yourself once again!!! (initial Donation already made...)

@CadFather:
thanks for the shiny buttons!

Hi jolran,

sounds really exciting. I am looking forward to a bit of alpha-testing
such a plugin would be awesome indeed!

PS: the "Cricket"-name of the april fools prank isnt too bad, actually...