Posts made by rossthompson

Hi,
I am working on a script that activates the paint bucket tool with a predefined material of a certain colour and transparency. The code I have written works fine except on every use it creates a copy of the material eg. 'window1', 'window2' etc. which makes a bit of a mess of the materials palette.

I think it just needs a simple if statement to avoid creating the material if it already exists. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks Ross

toolbar = UI;;Toolbar.new "Window"
     cmd = UI;;Command.new("Test") { window }	
     cmd.small_icon = "CBG/window_sm.png"
     cmd.large_icon = "CBG/window.png"
     cmd.tooltip = "Paint Window"
     toolbar = toolbar.add_item cmd
     toolbar.show	 
	 
def window
 model = Sketchup.active_model
 materials = model.materials
 m = materials.add "Window"	 					# Adds a material to the "in-use" material pallet.

m.color = Sketchup;;Color.new(100, 150, 240)	# Specify the colour
color = m.color
alpha = m.alpha=0.5								# Set transparency

materials.current = materials["Window"]			# Set to the current material
Sketchup.send_action "selectPaintTool;"			# Start the paint tool
end	 

Hi TIG,

That worked a treat. Thank you - this is going to save me a lot of time!

Ross

Hi,

It looks like I am coming to the thread a little late.... I was just wandering weather it would be easy to change the script slightly so it deleted the originally selected entities and didn't create a group for the flattened entities. So bascially the selection just gets replaced with a flattened version.

This would be beneficial as I use the tool a lot for cleaning up imported geometry where the faces aren't quite coplanar - hence the original entities are of little use.

Ive had a look through the script and the code is a bit above my head.

Ross

Hi guys,

I am frequently required to build up 3D models (of buildings) from 2D Elevations. I sometimes encounter elements of buildings that are off axis to the rest of the model and the provided elevation drawings.

In these situations I have difficultly adding elements like windows to the off axis model. I have experimented with scripts such as 'flattentoplane.rb', but the projection angle for this script is always parallel to the workplane so not useful.

The drape tool is close to performing the job but is only effective at projecting along the Z-axis and sends the projected profile all the way through 'solids' rather than just projecting onto the outer surface.

The attached image hopefully explains the problem much better than I can with words!

Are there any scripts available for this task? Could the drape or flatten to plane tools be simply modified to solve the problem?

Ross

---

Hi guys,

I am trying to organise my plugins folder. As a result of this I have moved the location of some cursor files into a subfolder. Hence the code snipet below is no longer valid.

 c = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "clinetool_cursor.png")
 ltcursor = UI;;create_cursor(c, 1, 30)

The cursor file is now stored in a folder with this path: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\CBG'
How can I adapt the code to the new path?

My thoughts were:

c = File.join(File.dirname("/CBG"),"clinetool_cursor.png")
ltcursor = UI;;create_cursor(c, 1, 30)

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I am sure the solution is very simple!

Ross

Hi Thom Thom,

Thanks for the response. I dabble in writing my own scripts, but I wouldn't know where to start on this one! So I guess I'm asking as more of a user.

I came across a situation this morning where I was working with some imported geometry from another company. There was a long row of pillars all with slightly different Z-coordinates, I wanted to normalise them to a certain position in Z. Hopefully the attached image illustrates this.

I know this could easily be done with the move tool or the push/pull tool, but I reckon using a vertex table would have to be quickest/most direct. It could also have applications for checking geometry i.e. when you can't create a face because the bounding edges are not co-planar.

Ross

---

Hi guys,

I have worked with a couple of other CAD programs that provide you with a window for editing raw vertex data. See attached image. I was wandering if something similar would be possible in SketchUp?

I appreciate this doesn't actually add any functionality, but it is a very direct way of moving points to absolute positions.

I hope this makes sense.

Ross

---

Sam,

Thanks very much that works perfectly.

Ross

Hi guys,

I am trying to write a script that very simply rotates selected objects by 90 degrees in the Z axis. I have put together some code but it isn't working. Can anyone help? I am new to Ruby so I have probably made some really basic mistakes.

Ross

require 'sketchup.rb'


# Add a menu item
UI.menu("PlugIns").add_item("rotate90") {  
  rotate90	# Call method.
}

def rotate90
	rv = Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,0,1)
	ra = 90.degrees
	rp = Geom;;Point3d.new(0,0,0) 

	Sketchup.active_model.Transformation.rotation(rp, rv, ra))
	
end

Hi guys, I have had a play with Dan's Beta version and for me it works really well. The verticies are adjusted in X,Y and Z directions and the undo function works fine!

The only slight problem: it adjusts all the geometry in the model, rather than just the active selection. The original module just adjusted the active selection.

Any ideas?

Again thanks for the support - this script should be a realy time saver!

Ross

ThomThom thanks so much for your support! I have had a go at running your test module. My understanding is that it should shift the points in the active selection to a 0.25m grid as specified in the code.

However I am having problems running the module. I have attempted to add it to the tools menu as below, but I am not 100% sure how to 'call' the routine. Appologies if I'm being an idiot - I am new to ruby scripting!

    module GridSnap

      def self.round_point( point, tolerance )
        grid_pt = point.to_a.map { |n|
          b = ( n / tolerance ).to_i * tolerance
          r = n % tolerance
          (r > tolerance / 2) ? b + tolerance ; b
        }
        Geom;;Point3d.new( *grid_pt )
      end
      
      def self.test_it
        pt = Geom;;Point3d.new( 3.976879.m, 3.760209.m, 1.002568.m )
        tolerance = 0.25.m
        grid_pt = self.round_point( pt, tolerance )
        
        puts "Original; #{pt}"
        puts "Tolerance; #{tolerance}"
        puts "Grid Point; #{grid_pt}"
      end
      
      def self.adjust_vertices( tolerance = 0.25.m )
        model = Sketchup.active_model
        vertices = []
        # Collect vertices.
        for e in model.active_entities
          vertices << e.vertices if e.is_a?( Sketchup;;Edge )
        end
        vertices.flatten!
        vertices.uniq!
        # Calculate grid adjustments.
        vectors = []
        entities = []
        for vertex in vertices
          pt = vertex.position
          grid_pt = self.round_point( pt, tolerance )
          vector = pt.vector_to( grid_pt )
          next unless vector.valid?
          entities << vertex
          vectors << vector
        end
        # Apply transformations
        model.active_entities.transform_by_vectors( entities, vectors )
        puts "#{entities.size} adjusted to grid."
      end

    end

# Menu Entry;

UI.menu("Tools").add_item("GridSnap") { GridSnap } if not file_loaded?("GridSnap.rb") 
file_loaded("GridSnap.rb")

I think this could be a very useful tool for cleaning many types of imported geometry.

Ross

Hi,

I am trying to write a script for cleaning up geometery created from another program (IES VE). Essentially what I want to achieve is to move each vertex so it sits on a '3D grid'. I believe this could be achieved by applying a rounding function to the X,Y and Z coordinates of each point.

The attached image hopefully illustrates what I am trying to achieve. Ideally the degree of rounding would be a user input variable.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Ross

---

Hi,

I was wandering if it is possible to write a script to generate a set of layers with specific RGB colours. Google developers provides code for creating a new layer with a certain name:

     model = Sketchup.active_model
     layers = model.layers
     new_layer = layers.add "test layer"

However I can't figure out the colour aspect. Looking at similar scripts it appears people have had to use a work around passing the layers through a DXF file. Surely it can't be that complicated?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ross

Thanks Sam

That works a treat. Your help is much appreciated.

Ross

Hi,

Is it possible to automatically name a group (or a component) after the layer it is on?

I understand this should be possible with a fairly simple ruby script. Has anyone come across one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ross