Solo,

Frankly, I think your claims are ridiculous. I received an email from you today at 4 pm PST. One hour later, you posted this

@solo said:

@jim said:

Not sure where Doug is, but the plugin was updated about 2 weeks ago.

http://regularpolygon.org/keyframe-animation/download/

Thanks Jim, nothing noted on site, I sent an email regarding this and never got an answer.

These are distortions, if not outright lies. To say you never got an answer is just intentionally misleading. You might have mentioned that you only contacted me one hour earlier.

As Jim pointed out, the latest version is (and always has been) available on the download page. For you to say there was "nothing noted on (my) site", is another false statement. At the top of the download page it says, "Version 1.8.9 should be completely compatible with SketchUp 2014".

I didn't reply to your irresponsible post 6 months ago, when you claimed you found a bug, because it wasn't really a bug. If you want to explain what the "bug" is -- so everyone knows what you are talking about -- then I will explain why it isn't a bug.

If you -- a moderator -- are going to slander me, and tell everyone to not purchase my plugin, then it makes no sense for you guys to be selling it on SketchUcation. I suggest you remove Keyframe Animation from your Extension Shop. And if you want to remove it from the SketchUcation Plugin Store while you’re at it, that is fine too.

@mariocha said:

Hum... will this also correct the "Java Script disabled" problem ?

Hi Mariocha,

I think it will. Keyframe Animation reports that error when it can't connect to the server. The web dialog that would connect is probably failing because I didn't implement the WebDialog.allow_actions_from_host method. I'll release an update as soon as I have a chance. Perhaps you could test it for me -- I don't have a computer with Mavericks.

Hi folks,

Version 1.7 is available on the download page. Nothing glamorous, but it has some useful improvements to the interface and workflow.

There is a scrollable Web dialog to adjust the transition time and delay time for all the scenes. It is accessible from a button on the toolbar. Best of all, it replaces the SketchUp input box, which could be a nuisance because it ran off the screen if you had more than 20 scenes.

There are some other dialogs for reporting your license ownership details, and free trial status.

I received a few requests for the ability to record the position data of specific objects, without affecting any other objects. So, that has been implemented as an alternative workflow if you need to precisely control what is recorded.

There are more details in the release notes. Oh, and starting with this version, you can get a new free trial, even if you had one before.

Thanks

I released an update, Keyframe Animation 1.6.1, which has a workaround for this problem.

Now the tweens will be created, and you can save them anywhere on your hard drive, no matter what language you are using.

Well, I didn't use Outliner, so my workflow was a little different. Here is what I did:

1. Rotate the parent group.
2. Click the record button to save the position data for the parent group.
3. Double click on the parent group to edit it.
4. Rotate the doors (subcomponents).
5. Click the record button to save the position data of the subcomponents.
6. Close the parent group.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for the next scene.

One thing that might not be very intuitive, especially if you are using Outliner, is that the parent group has to be open (in edit mode) to record the subcomponents. Normally, when you click the record button, it records the position data for all of the top-level groups and components in the model. But, it doesn't record the subgroups/subcomponents. To record the subcomponents, you have to open the parent first, and then click the record button.

If that is not the problem, then my next question would be, does the parent group move correctly? If it does, then the problem is just with the subcomponents.

I am not sure why the bounding box does not enclose all the subcomponents in my model. I guess SketchUp doesn't resize it automatically. I may need to write some code to resize the bounding box when there are animated subcomponents.

@tig said:

If the error is only trapped when saving the SKP, then have you tried the alternative code [idiotically undocumented, but cross-platform]: Sketchup.send_action("saveDocument:")
This might work ?

That is interesting. I didn't know there was a saveDocument: action.

Unfortunately, though, this method only saves the current model. I need to save the current model as a different file. As far as I know, the only way to do it is, Sketchup.active_model.save(path2). But, then there is a problem if path2 contains non-ASCII characters.

@bob james said:

Same song: new lyrics

In your case, the tweens are being created, it is just taking an inordinate amount of time to generate them. It is the Layers Dialog, which you have open, that is slowing everything down. The problem is that SketchUp tries to update the dialog, while it is creating the geometry, which slows it to a crawl. If you close the dialog, the tweens will be generated in a fraction of the time.

The same thing goes for the Scenes Manager dialog, and the Model Info | Statistics panel.

@ppmmonteiro said:

My problem starts when i try to create the .tweens file! Using the "MAKE TWEENS" button, the following mesage comes up:"This filename contains illegal characters.", and nothing else!

Actually, I already told ppmmonteiro that this error is due to Latin (i.e. non ASCII) characters in the file path. They can cause the file name to be invalid if you are saving a file via the API. (For example, using Sketchup.active_model.save.) So, if my script finds non ASCII characters, it generates that error message, rather than save the model, and then exits.

Next, I was going to locate where the Latin character was in the file path, so I could provide an alternative location for him to save the tweens. However, before I could respond, ppmmonteiro posted here. I guess looking for a second opinion.

Anyway, this is not a bug in Keyframe Animation. It is a bug in the SketchUp Ruby API. Any plugin will have this problem if the file path has characters in a foreign alphabet.

@andybot said:

does it matter if it's a group or component? Just a thought.

It shouldn't matter. Groups and components are treated the same.

@emerald15 said:

Sorry, I must be still missing something.

If you have the model I attached, this might clear things up a bit. Select the parent group, so that it is highlighted. Then step through the animation a scene at a time. That will reveal how the parent (highlighted) group is moving. And then it will be more clear how the individual doors are moving inside the parent group.

No problem, I think I have those folding doors moving correctly. I made the doors subcomponents of a group. To create the folding motion, both the doors, and the parent group, rotate at the same time. Here is your model with the animation set up.

Animated Folding Doors

And, for anyone wondering what it looks like, I exported the animation.

[flash=480,274:3xeqywwp]http://www.youtube.com/v/D2wmqRcHoyA?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash:3xeqywwp]

Thanks for sharing your model, Emerald15.

I think this is a good example of how animated sub-components can be used to create more complex types of motion.