Posts made by slbaumgartner

@driven said:

~/.QL_SU/*.pv.png would be my first choice, that's probably best, no permision issues if I want to add titles etc... to the image or even add the image as the file icon with applescript.
john

Of course, there is a tradeoff: if the thumbnails are placed there, you can forget to delete one when you delete the associated skp file, causing abandoned thumbnails to accumulate in a hidden place that Finder doesn't normally show you.

I'm trying this out. The Ruby part was easy, but I confess that the Objective-C part is forcing me to learn more about the Cocoa framework suite than I expected. It may take me a while

Steve

@driven said:

@slbaumgartner said:

Not sure I understand what you mean about the support folder - create some separate, fixed place where all the thumbnail images go instead of the same folder as the skp?

Steve

yes, could even be a dot files so it's hidden, point the QL generator at that... now I think of it some of my other QL have support folders with them, so you could install both at same time and place. completely separate from the ruby and the .skp
john

I get it now. I'll look into this. It will require revision of both the ruby and the QL plugin so that they look at the same folder, which will have to be in a well-known location so that it doesn't depend on how someone installed the generator (esp ~/Library vs /Library). Maybe a hidden folder in your home directory?

Thanks
Steve

@driven said:

@slbaumgartner said:

It creates an observer that causes SketchUp to save a jpeg image of the current view each time you save a file.

You'll probably get some grief about using the ~/User/Library/ path, but I use both without issue, you just need to be careful that all supporting files/folders are in the same Folder for other plugins.
however, I had to run from console the first time, for some reason, now it just works it.

@unknownuser said:

Second, I wrote a little QuickLook generator, also attached,
Steve
nice works well, but I'm also on ML...

I'll have a play and see if there are any issues, other than moving the .skp without the .pv.jpg, maybe a support folder with the plugin?

cheers
john

Hello,

I have a habit of putting things into ~/Library born of times when I shared a system with others and I didn't want my tweakings to mess up theirs. Other than that, there is no reason you can't put these files into the /Library folders instead.

You may have needed the console action to get the system to notice the generator. Other than qlmanage -r, I don't know what events cause it to check for new QuickLook generators.

If you move the skp without the .pv.jpg you will lose the thumbnail and get a Trimble logo instead (nothing I did, it just happens) until you copy the image too or save the file again. Not sure I understand what you mean about the support folder - create some separate, fixed place where all the thumbnail images go instead of the same folder as the skp?

Steve

@driven said:

@geomp said:

What's the best solution for Mac?

check out Jeff's earlier post, GraphicConvertor.app is still the best solution I'm aware of...

john

As a new Mac convert, I was frustrated by the lack of QuickLook thumbnails for SketchUp files, and worse, on my Mac QuickLook tried to treat the file as text, taking a long time and then displaying a huge amount of useless hexadecimal data. So I decided to see if there was a simple solution. Here's what I came up with.

First of all, although SketchUp saves a PNG format thumbnail inside each file (containing the last view you had open), and has Ruby API calls to generate thumbnails, these images are only 128 pixels wide. For a model of even modest complexity, this makes the image so distorted and blurry that it is useless. So, the first requirement was to create a better image for the file. To do this, I wrote the little Ruby plugin attached. It creates an observer that causes SketchUp to save a jpeg image of the current view each time you save a file. I set the image to 800x600 at a moderate level of compression to make it big and clear enough to see but not gigantic in size. You can easily edit the Ruby if you want a different size. The image has the same base name as the SketchUp file but with extension ".pv.jpg". There is a delay to export the image as you save a file; depending on the complexity of the model you might or might not notice.

Second, I wrote a little QuickLook generator, also attached, that looks for the image to go with a SketchUp file and tells the system to use it as a thumbnail. SketchUp does not (at this time) register its own UTI for its files, so OS X creates a dynamic UTI for them. I put the dynamic UTIs for skp and skb files in the info.plist for this generator. I am led to believe that these should be the same on all Macs, so hopefully they will work for everyone. With this generator, the thumbnail image is displayed for any file that has one and the SketchUp icon for files that do not.

To implement my system, copy the Ruby plugin into your plugins directory (~/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins) and copy the QuickLook generator into ~/Library/QuickLook. Note: by default the Finder hides your Library folder, but you can get there using the Go->Go To Folder menu in Finder. Also, you may need to restart the QuickLook system by rebooting or, if you are bolder, running qlmanage -r in a terminal window.

Despite the name of the generator, it actually creates a thumbnail, not a preview. After working on this it struck me that given a well-detailed thumbnail, there was really no need for a preview. If you want to go beyond the thumbnail, you can just open the file in SketchUp.

As I mentioned, I am new to Mac, so I don't know all the ins and outs of making this portable. I compiled the generator on a MacBook Pro under Mountain Lion, and I am not sure whether it will work on a non-Intel Mac or on an older version of the OS, as I have access to neither. If it won't run on your system, PM me and I'll be happy to send you the source code.

Steve

---

creates a jpeg image of the current view when you save a file

---

uses the jpeg for a thumbnail in QuickLook

@texasclodhopper said:

I decide to finally try out this plugin with Sketchup v8 on my Mac. I used the Preferences/Extentions/Install Extension... method after renaming the ZIP file extension to RBZ. The files were installed as stated in a previous post here called "The most common reason that plugins don't work..." with a slight variation that doesn't allow the plugin to work.

The version that I downloaded was for the Mac and was called "draw_angle_dim_Mac". The above extensions installer within Sketchup v8 installed the plugin correctly but one folder level too deep. The installation folder was named the same as the ZIP file "draw_angle_dim_Mac".

You have to move the Ruby script "draw_angle_dim.rb" and the folder "draw_angle_dim" up one level for the plugin to work in Sketchup. Get rid of the folder "draw_angle_dim_Mac".

I don't have a Mac, so I can't check the required paths there (the mac archive was assembled by driven), but what you say is consistent with how it works on a PC.

Joe,

Thanks for posting this. I was going to eventually, but got tangled up in other things and didn't get around to it/ I hope it is useful to others.

Steve

The two tools in this file facilitate the workflow recommended by many SketchUp experts: Begin by drawing the complete model without dimensions or annotations. Place all primitive entities on Layer0 and move Groups and Components to other layers when necessary to control visibility. When the model is complete, create scenes/pages with the model oriented so that critical features can be dimensioned visibly and draw dimensions, text, and angular dimensions again all on Layer0. Finally,move the dimension entities to a layer specific to the scene(s) on which they can be displayed legibly and without being clutter.

The first tool, "Select all Dimensions" activates the Select tool, clears it, and adds all currently visible linear dimensions, Texts, and Groups with names matching "Angular Dimension" to the selection. This prepares you to manipulate all the dimensions in bulk, e.g. to assign a font or layer.

The second tool, "Dimensions to Layer", prompts the user to select an existing layer or create a new layer. If a new layer is requested, it is made hidden on all scenes except the current one. All currently visible linear dimensions, Texts, and Groups with names matching "Angular Dimension" are moved to the selected layer.

---

dimension_utilities.rb

How strange! The key feature seems to be the assignment of nil before assignment of the new cursor. I can't imagine why that would be necessary, but if it works...

@driven said:

@slbaumgartner said:

Alt key opening a menu is a standard PC shortcut -

thought you were taking mac...

@unknownuser said:

Interestingly, ALT seems to affect just about every tool except move,
it should 'move' a copy [with an added + symbol]

@unknownuser said:

You gotta love consistency and portability!
ohhh yerrr

@unknownuser said:

Regarding the cursors, is there any chance that the problem is with png files? Do you have other tools with custom cursors from png files that work?

All of SU's cursors are png's so that's not the problem.

I want them to work now because I made new ones.... damm
didn't really need the cursor before.

john

I'm on a PC but trying to help get this tool to work for people with Macs...
On a PC, the CTRL key toggles the move tool to copy, not ALT!
Re the cursors, do you have any examples of a tool with custom cursors that do work? I'd like to look at the Ruby to see what it does. I thought I was following the documented code...

steve

@driven said:

@slbaumgartner said:

the VK_ALT activates the File menu!

Have you set that as a system shortcut?... do you have assistive devices activated?

Does Alt open the File Menu when you use 'move' or 'scale' tools?

are your Plugins still all on? [I turn mine off to test new rubies on there own]

john

EDIT: did you try **524288** that work here as well.

Alt key opening a menu is a standard PC shortcut - I didn't do anything special, no assistive devices. Interestingly, ALT seems to affect just about every tool except move, on which it does nothing that I can see! And with the Paint Bucket it displays a dropper icon to let you select a Material to match so long as you hold the ALT key depressed. Goes back to the paint bucket when released. You gotta love consistency and portability!

I didn't turn off other plugins, but on my PC the tool functions ok so I didn't think that would add anything to this mix.

Regarding the cursors, is there any chance that the problem is with png files? Do you have other tools with custom cursors from png files that work?

The mode key seems to be a no-win situation! Maybe I should think of a different mechanism to change the mode. On a PC the TAB key is unassigned, but the VK_ALT activates the File menu! On a Mac, the TAB key is preassigned, but not VK_ALT! By the way, when I try to use VK_ALT on the PC, the cursor alternately disappears and reappears as I press the key! Something similar may be what is happening on the Mac.

I have to admit that I am lost and without a Mac I don't know what else to suggest...sorry! If anyone else can figure this out, I'd love to hear.

@driven said:

> load('/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins/draw_angle_dim.rb')
> true
> > @cursor
> nil
> > DrawAngleDimTool;;IN_CURSOR
> 50013
> > DrawAngleDimTool;;OUT_CURSOR
> 50014

No cursor, no outside dims
Pressing Tab just strobes the 'Input Box'

john

The responses to IN_CURSOR and OUT_CURSOR say that the cursors were created, though I'm not sure that means they found the image files. The response of nil to @cursor indicates nothing, since @cursor is an instance variable not a global. So, the problem still seems to be that the keypress is not toggling the mode to outside. Please try the attached, which looks for the up key event (will not trigger until tab key is released) and let me know if it works.

---

draw_angle_dim.rb

@driven said:

Hi,

on closer inspection, everything seems fine? except the onKeyDown. EDIT: swapped from Tab to Esc and I still can't get outside dims or cursors

very few ' onKeyDown' work on macs. here's a list from today.

PLATFORM = i686-darwin8.10.1

SEQUENCE 0 of 5 [Function Keys]
DN F2 Key 50 flags 0 rpt 1
UP F2 Key 50 flags 256 rpt 1
DN F3 Key 51 flags 0 rpt 1
UP F3 Key 51 flags 256 rpt 1
DN F6 Key 54 flags 0 rpt 1
UP F6 Key 54 flags 256 rpt 1
DN F12 Key 63243 flags 0 rpt 1
UP F12 Key 63243 flags 8388864 rpt 1

SEQUENCE 1 of 5 [Modifiers Keys]
DN Shift alone Key 131072 flags 131330 rpt 1
UP Shift alone Key 131072 flags 256 rpt 1
DN Ctrl alone Key 262144 flags 262401 rpt 1
UP Ctrl alone Key 262144 flags 256 rpt 1
DN Alt alone Key 524288 flags 524576 rpt 1
UP Alt alone Key 524288 flags 256 rpt 1
DN Cmd alone Key 1048576 flags 1048840 rpt 1
UP Cmd alone Key 1048576 flags 256 rpt 1

SEQUENCE 2 of 5 [Arrow Keys]
UP UP Key 63232 flags 10486016 rpt 1
UP RIGHT Key 63235 flags 10486016 rpt 1
UP DOWN Key 63233 flags 10486016 rpt 1
UP LEFT Key 63234 flags 10486016 rpt 1

SEQUENCE 3 of 5 [Validation Keys]
DN RETURN Key 13 flags 0 rpt 1
UP RETURN Key 13 flags 256 rpt 1
UP TAB Key 9 flags 256 rpt 1
UP DEL Key 127 flags 256 rpt 1
UP BACKSPACE Key 63272 flags 8388864 rpt 1
DN ESCAPE Key 27 flags 0 rpt 1
UP ESCAPE Key 27 flags 256 rpt 1

SEQUENCE 4 of 5 [Numbers Keys (Numpad not common)]
UP 1 Key 49 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 2 Key 50 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 3 Key 51 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 4 Key 52 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 5 Key 53 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 6 Key 54 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 7 Key 55 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 8 Key 56 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 9 Key 57 flags 256 rpt 1
UP 0 Key 48 flags 256 rpt 1
UP - Key 45 flags 256 rpt 1
UP = Key 61 flags 256 rpt 1
UP / Key 47 flags 256 rpt 1
UP [ Key 91 flags 256 rpt 1
UP ] Key 93 flags 256 rpt 1

SEQUENCE 5 of 5 [Alpha keys (do not use Shift)]
UP s Key 115 flags 256 rpt 1
UP c Key 99 flags 256 rpt 1
UP r Key 114 flags 256 rpt 1

complements of a Fredo script c.2007 with a slight update.
john

Based on this, it looks like maybe it would work if you rename onKeyDown to onKeyUp, as it looks like the up is reported for TAB as key 9. Could you try that and let me know if it works?

Thanks
Steve

@driven said:

Hi,
I just read your script and your cursors use all UPPERCASE which was actually failing gracefully, ie. '@cursor' not defined, but the tool still works.

I had a look at your cursor images and see that they had never appeared. I'm getting the 'snap to' squares...

I'll downcase the cursor names and see if that works, but I suspect 'Tab' key will be an issue on mac.

john

That seems unlikely...all uppercase is pretty typical convention for constants in Ruby, and should have nothing to do with Mac vs PC. If you are finding @cursor not defined, that seems more likely a problem with the path to the icon files. Are they installed in Plugins/draw_dim_angle?

Try this: open the Ruby Console window and type DrawAngleDimTool::IN_ICON into the input space. The output space should then display the path for interior.png. If the path is mangled or isn't where you installed the png image, that is the problem. You can also type DrawAngleDimTool::IN_CURSOR and you should get a number back, probably somewhere a bit more than 50000. If that doesn't work, SketchUp failed to load the image file.

If you look at onKeyDown, there is a code snippet to print the keycode you get on the Mac. Please let me know what value you get and I'll see if I can code in a trap for PC vs Mac.

@driven said:

hi,

it's holding on to the 'Orbit' or 'Pan' cursor if I use either between angles.

it's own cursor comes back and functions, but is hidden behind the hand.

I'm on a mac

otherwise it appears to be working, well done. no error messages...

john

Hmmm...it doesn't do that on my PC. I don't have a Mac to test on. Maybe someone in the group who has a Mac can help sort this out?

This tool is an extensive rewrite and enhancement of the idea from Didier Bur's dim_angle.rb. It draws angular dimensions onto a SketchUp model. Changes from Bur's original include:

• user input of desired radius of angle arc, modifiable after drawing until next angle is started or another tool is selected
• user selection of inside (<180) or outside (>180) angle, with cursor indication of mode, modifiable after drawing until next angle is started or another tool is selected
• packaging of drawn elements into a named Group
• undo capability
• clockwise vs counterclockwise selection order does not matter

To install, download and unzip the attached file in your Plugins directory.

[edit] The original version works for Windows but has issues on a Mac. Michaelv and Driven worked on it to make it compatible. If you have a Mac, you should download the second version attached.

[another edit] After finally getting my hands on a Mac, I discovered that the reason for all the struggling with the cursors is that on the Mac, SketchUp is not happy with the color profile info that my Windows pixel editor put into the png files. I opened them in an editor on the Mac, touched them and saved, and then they work. This is especially puzzling since other apps on the Mac are quite happy with these files, just not SketchUp! Anyway, those using Macs should load the final version that Michaelv attached to the last post in this thread.

Get the latest version [PC/MAC] from the PluginStore http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?listtype=1&author=0&category=0&search=angular+dimension&submit=%3F

@tig said:

Thanks, good idea.

Tip: you can avoid all of the 'Layer0' coding/tests by using
ent.layer=nil
which gives 'ent' the default-layer, irrespective of the default-layer's name or where it is in the model.layers list...

Absolutely right! I discovered that reading other threads here after I posted the original. The version here uses that fix.

Steve

---

tozero.rb

The attached ruby adds two context menu items when you select a Group or ComponentInstance. These are intended as quick fixups for when you accidentally get Faces and Edges onto layers other than Layer0 and cause confusing visibility issues with the Groups and Components that use them. A prime culprit in creating this situation is the default explode command, which puts all the exploded parts onto the layer of the container, even if they were originally on Layer0. The first added context menu item, Explode to Layer0, modifies this behavior to put Faces and Edges onto Layer0. The second added context menu item, Primitives to Layer0, recursively descends through all nested contents of the selection and puts all Faces and Edges on Layer0 without exploding anything. This is the quick fixup when you can't remember what you did to create the mess.

---

tozero.rb