After Installing your tools, it wouldn't work as described and it froze up my regular mesh tools so that they also didn't function. I tried to uninstall it and no matter what I did it still shows up on my Extensions Manager as installed. It have really frustrating not to have a reliable tool that not only will not function properly but then doesn't have an appropriate and reliable method to uninstall. The product may work for others, but for me I just want to get rid of it. HOW CAN I REMOVE THIS UTILITY FROM MY SYSTEM????

Is there a method in the API that will allow you to collapse the set of sub groups within a selected group shown in the Outliner (tagged by the + or - signs)?

I have created sub groups and would prefer not to go to each group and collapse the sub groups or I could generate a methods that would allow me to collapse a single group or a collection of group containing subgroups.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Hi,

I'm not sure how to report this problem. I'm currently using Sketchup 2018 Pro. Every thing has been working great until last week, when a license agreement screen popped up while I was launching Sketchup. Since then the selection tool has been responding slowly, 5 to 6 seconds to select an object. Everything else is functioning perfectly, but it's so frustrating not having the response like it was. I'm not sure whether I was hacked.

When I select from the Help menu, Help Center, or Contact Us, responds with: This site is not secure.

When I click on Details:

The website’s security certificate is not yet valid or has expired.
Error Code: DLG_FLAGS_SEC_CERT_DATE_INVALID

I can't go to clients and help them with their projects when the system is not working the way it should. Yes, I know that this could probably be corrected with an update, I'm simply not in a position to purchase the update at this time.

I reset the system to a vanilla setup, disabling all of the extensions. Nothing helped.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Or can someone point me in the right direction to get this resolved.

Thanks,

Scott.

Thanks for your input. It appears that all of my default applications are missing, showing only "/" in the field item. If I have not paid attention to these applications prior to this, where would I start with respect to accessing these applications?

Thanks,

Scott.

Greetings,

For the last several weeks I have been trying to resolve an issue where the Open with Image Editor is not opening. I insert a photo, and I can usually edit it by right clicking on the photo and select from the context menu Open with Image Editor. But nothing happens and yet it had worked flawlessly for years and I actually depend on it.

I cannot find any documentation as to how it gets triggered, or how to resolve the issue.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Scott.

Thank you. Your solution works great.

The sample file is attached.

I have three objects, colors, red, gray, and blue.

The 1st DC is ParentSet, with an interact movement set to move along the Y axes 10 units.
The 2nd DC is a ChildSet, with an interact movement to rotate 90 deg.
The 3rd DC is ChildSet2, with an interact movement along the X axes. This is the one that behaves oddly, and springs back into a different position, and I can't seem to resolve it.

Thanks for checking it out for me.

Scott.

DC_NestedSets.skp

I've not posted a model before, can you direct me to a link that explains how this is done? Thanks.

I have a project in which I'm needing to animate several (3) nested dynamic components. We'll call the first one the Parent, which contains ChildSet_1 dynamic component, and ChildSet_2 dynamic component. Each of these components are unique.

The Parent DC moves along the Y axes, 0 to 50.
The ChildSet_1 DC rotates -90 on the X axes.
And ChildSet_2 DC moves vertically down 0 to 50.

Parent DC works great, and ChildSet_1 DC moves according to the parameters.
However, the 3rd nested component ChildSet_2 DC doesn't move according to the parameters and seems to just spring back to its original position, or springs to a different position altogether and stays there.

Is there a limit to the number of nested DC components one can implement within that particular scenario?

I encountered a post from newnoob that was posted several years ago, and that person was experiencing the same thing. There wasn't a post indicating the they had success in resolving this issue.

Is there a solution to nested DC with more than 2 levels of nesting?

Thanks.

Hi,

I seemed to have hit another road block. This time in terms of trying to use the send_to_layout method within Sketchup.

My objective is as follows:

1. create a routine that creates a copy of any of the selected assembly to a single component
2. save that component to a file
3. open the file and separate each component so that it is viewed from a side view
4. space them apart within a Scene based on predefined margins
5. send each Scene to a Layout file, each Layout Page/Sketchup Scene
6. then manipulate the Layout tools to attach the dimensions to each object

But I can't seem to get past getting Sketchup to create a new Layout file.

Using the console here's what happens. I created the directory and made sure it existed.

x_layoutDir = x_dirPath + "/" + "LayoutSets" Dir.exist?(x_layoutDir) true

Then used send_to_layout to create a new Layout file.

x_result = Sketchup.send_to_layout(x_layoutDir + "/MyTestLayoutFile.layout") false

No luck. Found another command and tried it.

objLayout = Layout::Document.open(x_layoutDir + "/MyTestLayoutFile.layout") Error: #<ArgumentError: File does not exist> <main>:inopen'
<main>:in <main>' SketchUp:1:in eval'`

No Luck. Found another option by just using the send_action.

Sketchup::send_action("sendToLayOut:") false

Again no luck. So, I tried this from another angle. I first created the file.

objLayout = Layout::Document.open(x_layoutDir + "/MyTestLayoutFile.layout") #<Layout::Document:0x0002751b936538>

Success!!!

However, it was somewhat short lived, because I couldn't view the file from Layout that I had just opened. And even though it appeared to be successful I couldn't get Layout to open so that I can view the results of using the methods.

Plus, it brought up another question. Is there a way to have Sketchup create and open the Layout file, without having to have a file already existing?

I tried...
objLayout = Layout::Document.new(x_layoutDir + "/MyNewLayoutFile.layout") Error: #<ArgumentError: The template file could not be found> <main>:ininitialize'
<main>:in new' <main>:in <main>'
SketchUp:1:in eval'

I couldn't find where I could implement Layout template file and when I created a Layout template file, there wasn't any type of method that would allow me to create new file using it.

So, I would like to have 2 questions answered.

1. How do I get Sketchup to create a new Layout file?

2. Is there a method to open the Layout application and view the document that was just opened using the Layout::Document.open method?

Thanks,
Scott.

Found it! objModel.close_active will the clear the selection set

Sorry to disturb.

Scott.

In the Outliner, I have 2 object groups. One as the parent, and the other as a child to that parent.

When I select the child group from the screen using the cursor, 1) the parent block in the outliner becomes hollow, 2) the small box for the child group becomes solid, 3) and the bounding box is displayed on the screen for both objects.

Now, using Ruby, I issue the model.selection.clear.

Result of action...
the small box for the child group remains solid.
the small box for the parent group remains hollow.
the bounding box remains on the screen.

Next test, I select the parent group from the screen using the cursor, 1) both small boxes in the outliner go solid, 2) and a bounding box is not displayed on the screen, but the area for the group is highlighted.

Using Ruby, I issue the model.selection.clear.

Result of action..

The outliner is clears all highlighted objects and the screen doesn't show any highlighted objects.

Question: Why does the model.selection.clear work differently for nested objects?

Here's the challenge I'm facing. I need to access the parent's object transformation zPt. I have developed a method that retrieves the objectID for the parent for the selected child group.

Using objParent.transformaton.to_a I'm able to gather the positioning information of the parent. However, this is not working if the bounding box for the selection remains on the screen.

The objParent is the same when I retrieve it with Ruby or select it manually from console. But the transformation.to_a returns different information when the bounding box remains on the screen even after I have cleared the selection.

Steps to reproduce results:

First test

1. select from screen the child group
2. retrieve the parent's group ID
3. using Ruby Console issue: model.selection.clear
4. objParent.transformation.to_a

Second test

1. Select from the screen the parent group
2. Verify that the object ID is the same for the both tests
3. objGroup.transformation.to_a

The data in the transformation array is not the same. The only difference between these steps is that the bounding box remained on the screen and I can't seem to find a method to programmatically clear it.

Is there a solution?

Thanks,

Scott.

Hi TIG,

I think I discovered a method that will work.

When I first create the circle, it has a face, and using the bounds.height I'm able to calculate the actual diameter of the circle. If a create a washer which has a hole in the middle, I can query the two circles to determine the largest of .bounds.height of the two circles and that provides me the diameter. I can then calculate the center point from that measurement of the diameter.

I've tried it several times and it seems to work. With that information I can also add an option to create a construction point/line if I want to visually see the center point.

Thanks again,

Scott.

Thank you for your response. I'm trying to create a center point of a circle when I add this object to a group, and maintain the center point reference so that I can quickly move it to a perpendicular line in my model.

I have researched midpoint.rb by Rick Wilson, but the method he proposes in this routine suggests the user (ie. myself) is/am moving the cursor over the object to create the center point.

My goal is to use his calculations in creating the center point automatically to create the center point of a circle or an object.

In short my goal is, when I Create and/or Select the object from my model (for instance: a circle, which is not definitively defined as a circle except if I place it the object type Circle in the name), and somehow maintain specific information about the circle object such as diameter or radius, and use that information to determine the center point. And then, use a Snap button to quickly move the object to the specific reference line that I have created for a drilled hole.

This information needs to be generated at the time I create the object. I have researched for days, cpoint, cline, bounds, origin, width, height, depth, and many other methods, which simply after several iterations makes my head spin, and I simply go back to the basic concept, and start again.

Step 1. I create the circle, and it has a radius, but the original information doesn't seemed to stored permanently with the object, such as diameter/radius.

Step 2. I had previous created a reference line (2 connected lines which I'm able to group) perpendicular to the circle.

Step 3. I Select the circle (Group) and from an HTML input screen and select from a list of objects (such as the reference line for the middle of a drilled hole) and execute a button to snap to the end of the reference line.

The data I need is the center point of the circle so that I can use the transformation method to move the circle to the end of the reference line and automatically position it to the center.

As I was reviewing all of these options, I came across the tap method and there was nothing in the documentation on this method. This is the reason for the request.

I'm still stumped. It seems my only options are to prompt the input of the original radius of the circle when I create the a group with the name containing the word circle.

Am I the only one who has ever come up with this type of method that has made it seem so difficult to perform?

Thanks,

Scott.

Can anyone tell me more about the #tap method listed in the #transformation method?