Hello everyone,
I already posted this on the Artisan Support Forum six days ago, but I figure I've got better chances to get a response over here:

I really enjoy Artisan and bought it right away.
I ran into trouble, however. All the functions that get activated by "using the arrow keys" don't work. Unless the "arrow keys" are not the cursor keys with the arrows on them at the bottom right of my MacBook Pro keyboard, in which case I'd like to ask you to direct me to the correct keys, this makes several of Artisan's functions hard or impossible to use. I cannot sculpt "in", I can only add to the geometry, and the only option to subtract from it, apart from the inaccessible cursor control, which as of this moment does nothing, is typing "negative values +s" (-17s) in the VCB, (which I also have to use to change the radius). The convenient polarity switch by pressing both up and down arrow keys is also not available to me, leading to a lot of protracted typing, which really takes the fun out of sculpting. I also can't confine axes in Artisan, which works just fine in regular SU-use.

My specs:
MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, Snow Leopard.
SketchUp 8.0.4810
Quite a number of essential plugins, amongst them LightUp, most of Fredo's, 1001bit, Soapskin and Bubble, Workplane Tools, Projections, Sketchy Physics and a couple more.
I use a German/Austrian keyboard layout, but I already tried switching it to English/American, to no avail.

Please advise. Thank you!
Regards, SAM from Vienna.

Thank you, Mr. Hammond!
I have huge respect for someone who responds with such detail to forum questions.

Now, wouldn't it be great if OSX could access these thumbnails to begin with. Aren't there quick-view plugins for all sorts of file formats? If there is a way to render Autocad previews in finder, there must be a relatively simple pipeline to display a thumbnail that's already in the file.

I suppose, this doesn't affect all too many people.
Thanks for the workaround!

Regards,
SAM from Vienna.

This interests me, too.
If I save a file from SU, I get a thumbnail. Otherwise I see the standard file icon. That means, for every component I download, I have to open it, save it, and then manually remove the instantly generated backup file with the ~ in the filename (filename~.skp). Considering the size of my library, this is a hassle.

Jeff, you mention embedded thumbnails in SketchUp files. So are there thumbnails already in the files, but they only get displayed on PCs?

What does Graphic Converter do? Does it reveal all those embedded thumbnails, if I run my files through the converter? Does it show them in the file browser, while File Converter is running? Does it change an OS setting? I couldn't find any information on this in the online documentation, and I don't want to install a program if I don't know, what I want it to do, or have an idea, how.

I'm searching for a way to automatically generate these thumbnails, or some kind of simple script, that generates thumbnails in all SU-files that don't have one ... and removes those occasionally useful, but usually cluttersome (look, Ma, I made up a word!) backups.

Penny for your thoughts!
All the best,

Sam Madwar, Vienna.

Esteemed Mr. Hammond,

thank you very much for the keycodes! They did the trick. I tried downloading the RubyLibraryDepot version of the script, but it was the same as the version I had, and I couldn't get it to work, even with a selection. The keycodes work like a charm however. Thank you, this is supremely useful.

I managed to deactivate the mouseover-selection and random rotate on left-click, so I can now evoke the plugin after simply selecting an object. It's safer for presentation purposes, than being afraid, I might hover over the wrong set element and have to do a million undos to rotate all my furniture back. I also set the standard rotation value to 15 degrees, and for a slow, smooth turntable-rotation i can change the manual value to 1, and this way I have a near ideal and stupefyingly simple solution for showcasing any set with a revolve.

SketchUp just got better again, and I have you guys to thank.

Guys & Dolls in NY ... yeah, I wish that were mine. Ours is in Vienna. Incidentally, they both premiered on the same day. Bway's Guys and Dolls already closed, ours is in repertory and will hopefully get revived every year until I'm old and grey. I was certainly going for a classic Broadway type set visual. But I could never do a commission there. That union is almost impossible to get into, even for Americans.

Thank you all for your generosity.
All the best,

SAM.

Hi Zero,

I just tried Rotix and remembered, that I'd had it for a number of years, but never got it to work. It does the random rotate on left click, but none of the arrow keys show any functionality. Again, I'm on a Mac. Do the Mac arrow keys on a laptop have the same onKeyDown definition as on a PC? They are VK-LEFT, VK-RIGHT and so on in Rotix-1.rb

If they do, there must be something fundamentally wrong with my system. I never got a reaction since SU4 or probably even 3 (what did we have in 2004?), on 3 different computers. If anyone knows the right calls, I'll try to replace them in the script. If I'm not too thick.

@ David_H
Thanks for your kind words on my set. I've done quite a lot of work, G&D is just one of my bigger shows, and one I'm pretty proud of. It had an 8-minute scene with 3D-animated backgrounds synchronized to the speed of the turntable. All the animation was done in SketchUp. I use a lot of animated scenery in my sets, and I do almost all my work in SU. A lot of it is fairly elaborate, and the kind of work no sane person would get the idea to do in this program at all. As it is, it's actually great for my needs. It's just, that whenever I need a camera move to ease in or out, I have to post-process it via time-stretching in After Effects, which - as far as workarounds go - is beyond insane and out on the other side.

Well, it works.

If I can make some time, I'll post some more examples of my work soon.
Thanks,

SAM.

Hi Dave,

making it a component instead of just a group stopped the strange behavior with the vertical size oscillating during transitions, but I still get crashes within 30 seconds to 2 minutes of using the plugin. Also unchanged is the fact that new keys do not get updated or animated until I've stopped and restarted the scene observer. I'll have to define shortcuts for this, then this shouldn't be too much of a problem. The reliable crashes however certainly are.

If I get this working, it will be a fantastic addition to my arsenal. It's almost exactly what I've been hoping for ever since SU2. All I need now is ease-in/-out.

Thanks,
SAM

Proper Animation does indeed look very promising. On my Mac the process does not seem to be quite as straightforward, though. It took me a lot of attempts, until I realized that the animation doesn't update until you've stopped and restarted the Scene Observer after every change. If I don't, nothing at all happens. On a simple block I rotated by 40 degrees, the vertical dimension quadrupled during the animation, but snapped to its original size when it reached the final position.
Lastly, I haven't been able to use it for more than two minutes apiece. On some sixty attempts, it crashed after a few clicks every time, only four times with a bugsplat, usually the program just vanished with minimum fuss.

I'll keep at it, and as soon as I upgrade to SU8, I'll let you know if the bug was version-specific. The functionality would certainly be great.
Am I the only proper animation MAC user with these problems?

Anyway, I thank you all for your suggestions! From the fact that no-one has answered my question, how hard controlling the z-rotation of an object via a slider would be to program, I deduce that this must be a lot more complicated than I thought. Forgive my ignorance in these matters, I'm a very non-technical guy, which is why I'm using Sketchup and not Maya

All the best ...
SAM from Vienna.

Hi, thank you for your quick and concise replies!
I had already checked out Sketchy Physics before. I agree, it is probably my best option. The main problem was the fact, that I have to build my whole set model to SPs requirements, otherwise as soon as I switch the physics engine on, my set literally falls down. I have to define every single object as "static", every drop has to be properly hung, not just propped up, and if I turn the turntable, the centrifugal force topples things over, and so on. There were lots of other problems, but that alone meant a whole new approach to modeling, that is infinitely more time consuming. All this for a simple slider to rotate the turntable seemed a bit excessive.

Proper animation I've been meaning to check out anyway, so I'll do that right away. As far as I've read up on it, I can define states and change to them. It's a far cry from the simplicity of a slider, but I see if I can make it work. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mover.rb I've been trying to use several times. When I did, I had interface trouble, that is Mac-specific, I guess. Buttons all over the place, no effect if pressed. I'll see if the most current version works. It would give me the option of rotating an object in increments by repeatedly clicking the CW or CCW buttons.

Your suggestions are good quick fixes, and I appreciate them. I am still looking for a more permanent solution. If I trash all ideas for pegs and animation and timing and the like, how hard would it be to define a slider that simply controls the rotation of an object? Just that, no frills. Is this a very hard thing to implement?

Thank you very much for your time.
All the best!

SAM.

Hello, incredible Ruby wizards!
This is my first post here, though I've been lurking since day one. I'm a set designer, doing musical theater design at major venues in Austria and Germany.
Sketchup is not only essential in my workflow ... I can safely say, if it weren't for Sketchup, I very likely wouldn't be a set designer at all.

I'll append some samples of my work at the bottom of this post. As it is, I have an idea for a Ruby-script that would be immeasurably useful in my field, and may benefit others too.

THE OBJECTIVE:
Big theater sets often utilize a revolve, revealing different scenes, depending on which way the turntable is oriented.
Sketchup is a near ideal theatre design tool, as I can show the director my different scenes by switching layers on and off, display the set from any vantage point in the audience, check sight-lines in real-time, and implement changes, change colors and try out positions of elements on the fly, as easily as with an elaborate and bulky real-world model.
But as soon as you have to revolve the set, things get iffy.

I used to group all my set elements to a turntable-object, and then find those little red rotation marks in the move tool, but I alway had to pan up, spot them, rotate, eyeball the new position, and then pan down again. Hunt and peck, and not the least bit elegant.
I tried a new implementation with dynamic components, and I was very hopeful I'd be able to click the revolve and have it turn in x seconds to the next programmed position. What I got was (depending on model complexity) a wait of 20 seconds, and a rapid switch to the new position. I could rotate it in realtime by hand, but as a dynamic component I got these huge waits, and while it works better than hunt and peck, it's still far from what I need.

MY SOLUTION:
The perfect presentation tool would be a slide bar that controls the z-axis rotation of my turntable group. That in and of itself would be better than anything I use right now.
Even better would be, if I could put down some pegs on that slide bar. An option to snap to those peg positions would be great, as well as editing the degree values of these pegs numerically.
Even better would be an option to transition the rotation of the turntable in realtime, at a rotation speed that can be predefined (say, 360° take 55 seconds, with an ease-in/out preset in 10 steps from ramp to bezier). And maybe a multiplier for a quick run-through without having to wait for 30 seconds for a scene change.

Most of these advanced options are only bells and whistles, but let me just dream up the ideal implementation.

I've sketched a possible interface for a potential Turntable script:

I know very little about programming, but I think, the dynamic updating of the z-axis rotation itself is probably not too much of a problem. The interface is bound to be more of a hassle, especially, if it is to work on both PCs and Macs. I'd be more than happy with just a rotation slider without any of the other options. They would just make it a professional tool.

WHO'S IT FOR?
Well, mainly theatrical set designers, really. But anyone who wants to control the rotation of any element in a static setting could use it. Design a flat with a rotating bed. Wow your clients. What do I know?

Thank you for considering this at all.
You are a very generous bunch, and I can't believe what you are all capable of achieving.
My highest regards ...

Sam MADWAR, Vienna.

![Comparison Sketchup-views and set photos of "Guys and Dolls" at the Volksoper, Vienna, 2009.](/uploads/imported_attachments/0Zca_GuysAndDolls-Sketchup.jpg "Comparison Sketchup-views and set photos of "Guys and Dolls" at the Volksoper, Vienna, 2009.")

Hi, clever people!

I have no programming chops and don't know the Ruby toolset, but wouldn't animated textures be something that could be handled through a script?

Since Sketchup can reassign textures without losing the properties, couldn't there be a way to force those changovers between the "renders" of individual frames of an animation? The marker could be a texture's filename starting with, say, "anim_*_##.png", and then having a set of numbered frames to loop through, forward, backward, pingpong, or even control it through a sequence list for more complex things.

This could be a powerful feature for anyone wanting to use animated people textures in flythroughs, or a burning fireplace, or a tv-set. I'll be the first to admit I don't know anything, but it feels like a good idea.

Penny for your thoughts. Thanks!

SAM from Vienna.