@broomstick said:
please specify the rendering engines you are using.. if your primary engine is irradiance map, then you should crank up a little the samples (the values are usually 50/40)
As for the reflection, try giving more samples to antialiasing
My primary rendering engine happens to be Vray, this also happens to be the V-Ray for SketchUp Forum 
I don't know how your answer is supposed to help me with either of the 2 question I asked.
@tig said:
***The way you have 'imported' these components might have resulted in them losing their proper 'gluing' behavior...
yes that's correct.
@tig said:
Duh!
The wall-cabinets are designed to 'glue' to vertical walls so they are modeled 'laid flat' like windows or doors.
BUT the floor-cabinets are designed to be placed on floors so they are modeled standing up...
I think the the English language is letting us down again! By 'laid flat' the upper cabinets by these manufacturers are laying flat on the floor with the doors facing the ceiling, in that position they will glue to the wall, but need to to rotated 90 degrees to hang on the wall correctly. If I installed them the way they are currently designed to be glued into SU the owner would be very unhappy with me. 
BTW: I found a way around this problem:
It works! by using the old ctrl-c/ctrl-v operation.
Very strange! for both manufacturers, all their upper cabinets are placed in top view while their base Cabinets
are correctly orientated.
Some Kitchen Cabinet makers must be spending a lot of money developing dynamic components for the Google Warehouse.
KraftMaid & Merillat
Unfortunately there is a lack of quality control. Some cabinets are oriented the wrong way, lying flat on the ground, while its no problem rotating them, it also messed up the dynamics of opening doors and drawers. If anyone here works for any of those companies please make them aware of this error.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=28192577c6831cb3c59350d819542ec7
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=eb33ea88e88c2d8586d53ab0fe94e911&ct=mdsa&prevstart=0
If I have 2 copies of SU open each with a different component open, I was wondering how to copy and paste code from one component to another, it seems the normal method of highlighting, right click copy and paste function does not work.
example: ANIMATE(RotZ,0,120),ANIMATE(X,FrenchDoor!LenX,FrenchDoor!LenX-3)
It would certainly cut down on number of the typing mistakes on whats capitalized and whats not.
I have 85 2d molding profiles that are dated from 2003 when SU was version 3.1.27 all of them still have the old default colored faces (Olive and darkish-blue) when I updated an saved a few of them to my current version of SU8 I noticed still a considerable lag time in opening and closing these files in SU8 It takes 15 seconds to open a file containing 23 entities and the same time to exit.
some of my recent SU 8 files containing 2135 entities take 5 seconds less time to open and close.
Also these old files at times have a habit of greying out SU8 on exiting.
Question:
@sdmitch said:
tomat, I was never under any illusion that my stair maker was for anything more than creating a illustration and never was intended to be structually correct and/or code complient. I have never made such a claim and have no intention of ever doing so.
Please don't misunderstand me! I have learned a lot from your code, My intent was only to encourage you to improve the content of your stair design, that's all, that's what I meant when I used the words constructive criticism
Its a good time to celebrate more people writing ruby code. Welcome!
Now for some constructive criticism regarding stair design.
Spiral stair:
As the primary means of egress from any floor to an exit
your design would probably not be legal code wise, and if it is let me know
I will email the jurisdiction your in to explain why it should not.
Most people would not be able to negotiate a spiral stair where the stair
width approaches 0" inches in width around a central column.
In the event of fire, most elevators are programmed to go to the main floor, to be used by rescue and fire personnel, the exiting stairs are for the people that require vacating the building. Just like those that made it via stairs to exit in the 9/11 World Trade Centers Towers. Hence stairs are very important aspects of a buildings design.
Insitu:
Casting concrete to a narrow wedge shaped point as is the case is with your stair from the land to the upper floor is bound to be a concrete casting failure.
In a high rise building stairs and a stair wells are still required as the primary means of egress in the event of fire. A prudent contractor may well cast all the landing and stair well walls in place. followed by lifting in place by crane precast stair lengths that simply drop in place from landing to landing starting at the first floor to finishing at the top floor.
Handrails:
Heights of handrails at landings are NOT the same as on stairs, by code.
Handrails must also be continuous, not interrupted.
Stair math problem: divide total floor height/2 for where landing is supposed to occur.
Have a look at http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=406
a script I wrote under another alias 7 years ago.
good luck, keep going!
This is probably more meaningful to developers:
http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html
I envision a screen sized dialog in Android format (same size as the typical smartphone), being used instead of the current Web dialog.
I don't use Chrome or IE!
But I am hoping for better integration + greater simplicity.
(knowledge of 3 languages to build one WEB dialog, is not making it simpler)
some questions:
Are Web dialogs, going to be just a passing fad shortly?
With the increasing use of Smartphones and increasing presence of the Android market. Would it not make more sense to build an Android dialog with Ruby/SU integration?
I will chew your suggestions over Dan .... tomorrow is another day! 
@dan rathbun said:
By the way... the word
countis one of the standard method names in the API. You should avoid using it (it might confuse Ruby into thinking your making a method call. Sometimes Ruby can tell the difference, sometimes not.)You should check the method index before choosing var names:
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/methods.html#index_c
while i < @num_insul
# Transformation
i = i + 1
vec = @pt44b - @pt3a
vec.length = @vec4*(i-1)
t=Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,@vec4*(i-1), 0))
t=Geom;;Transformation.translation(vec)
entities.add_instance(count, t)
end
Interesting! I have 2 scripts, on replicates joists the other studs both use count. One script constantly gives me an '<' error in the console the other does not. ....very aggravating!
I forgot to mention: I have used this particular statement with and without if, it replicates whatever you throw into it. I did not write it. I simply copied it blindly, and it works flawlessly, in this particular situation it replicates the three statements starting with base=entities.... into a group. However what it does not do presently is collect all grouped base=entities...., into one master group containing all base=entities....
Seems almost too easy too describe in words, were it not for Ruby getting in my way.
All of those issues will disappear as soon as you install boot camp of the iMac
Windows 7 sp1 and OSX Snow Leopard works well together, I just installed it in my wife's iMac,
Otherwise try http://forums.macrumors.com/ its an invaluable source for technical issues.
I have been struggling with this grouping of groups stuff. The attached code which draws joists @ centers, between 2 points is similar to the insulation example I talked about. This CODE between the IF statement groups each joist.
if( @joist != "OFF" )
#...get the number of joists required for the related @vec/@joc
@num_joist = ((@vec/@joc)+1).to_i
definitions=model.definitions
count=definitions.add
entities=count.entities
#...draw 1st joist
base=entities.add_face(@pt33, @pt33a, @pt3a, @pt3)
base=entities.add_line(@pt33, @pt3a)
base=entities.add_line(@pt33a, @pt3)
#...transform joist location
t=Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Vector3d.new(0, 0, 0))
entities=model.active_entities
entities.add_instance(count, t)
#...copy joists to their new locations
i = 1
while i < @num_joist
# Transformation
i = i + 1
vec = @pt44b - @pt3a # width betweeen which joists are to be drawn
vec.length = @joc*(i-1)
t=Geom;;Transformation.translation(Geom;;Vector3d.new(0,@joc*(i-1), 0))
t=Geom;;Transformation.translation(vec)
entities.add_instance(count, t)
end
end # if
I don't know enough about Ruby coding if the
%(#FF0000)[definitions=model.definitions
count=definitions.add
entities=count.entities]
code is interfering with the new grouping of groups proposal. I don't seem to be able to add the proposed code, causing all the grouped joists to be added to a new group..... help!
@tig said:
Please don't use global
$variables unless you really have to
Rats! I can't count how many times I have been reminded of that issue.
My typical response: I use global's so I can verify the 3d point location in the Ruby console, I need this to verify any mistakes I may be making (which happens frequently !) when I'm developing a script which corresponds to 3d points on my gridded 1/4" notepad. It would be really nice if @ variables where able to display the same information in the Ruby console.