In this section, we’ll start creating scripted geometry in SketchUp. In this and all following posts, I’ll approach SketchUp scripting in a pragmatic way. This means that I don’t think every step in the process should be scripted – after all, I am not writing a plugin. I’ll only script what can’t efficiently be modeled by hand and I’ll use standard SketchUp modeling tools to finish up a project.

Before you get going, make sure you have read the first installment of this series and have the latest version of the Ruby Code Editor installed.

Creating geometry is pretty easy with the SketchUp Ruby API. In essence, you will be adding to the collection of entities in the current model. To do this, you can use any of these methods of the entities object:

Entities (Parent: Object)
.[] .add_3d_text .add_arc .add_circle
.add_cline .add_cpoint .add_curve
.add_edges .add_face
.add_faces_from_mesh .add_group
.add_image .add_instance .add_line
.add_ngon .add_observer .add_text
.at .clear! .count .each .erase_entities
.fill_from_mesh .intersect_with .length
.model .parent .remove_observer
.transform_by_vectors
.transform_entities

Once you get a hold of the entities collection using the following line, simply add to the collection whatever you need.

entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities

To get us started, let’s create a 3D grid of regularly spaced boxes. In the following little bit of code, we’ll define a number of boxes per axis (“n”), a box spacing (“s”) and a box width (“w”). Please note: All lengths are entered as numbers, which means that they default to inches. If you need to use other units, write dimensions like this:

s = "1m".to_l

Paste the following code into the Ruby Code Editor in SketchUp and click on “Run Code”:

# Creates a 3D grid of boxes

entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities

n = 5
s = 100
w = 20

(0..n-1).each { |i|
  (0..n-1).each { |j|
    (0..n-1).each { |k|
      face = entities.add_face [i*s,j*s,k*s],[i*s,j*s+w,k*s],[i*s+w,j*s+w,k*s],[i*s+w,j*s,k*s]
      face.pushpull -w
    }
  }
}

This will be the result:

While this gets the job done, it is not very efficient. After all, we are creating geometry for each of the many boxes. In SketchUp, the approach that takes less computational effort and less space on the harddisk is usually to create one box, convert it to a component and then just insert component instances. Instead of saving a whole lot of geometry, only insertion points are then being saved. The following code does this by creating a grouped box, converting it into a component and then copying it multiple times using transformations.

# Creates a 3D grid of boxes using components

n = 5
s = 100
w = 20

entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities
group = Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_group
face = group.entities.add_face [0,0,0],[w,0,0],[w,w,0],[0,w,0]
face.pushpull -w
comp = group.to_component

(0..n).each { |i|
  (0..n).each { |j|
    (0..n).each { |k|
       transformation = Geom::Transformation.new([i*s,j*s,k*s])
       componentinstance = entities.add_instance(comp.definition, transformation)
    }
  }
}

I’ll cover transformations (move, copy, rotate, scale) in detail in a later post.

Scripting geometry becomes especially effective when we use a non-linear formula to define size, position etc. The next piece of code creates a rectangular grid of circles whose size is determined in two directions by a sine function.

Paste the following code into the Ruby Code Editor in SketchUp and click on “Run Code”:

# Creates a square panel with a sinusoidal hole pattern

entities = Sketchup.active_model.entities

width = 36
n = 10
s = width/(n+1).to_f

entities.add_face [0,0,0],[width,0,0],[width,width,0],[0,width,0]

(0..n-1).each { |i|
  (0..n-1).each { |j|
    entities.add_circle [s+i*s,s+j*s,0], [0,0,1], sin(i/(n-1).to_f*1*PI)*s/5.0+sin(j/(n-1).to_f*1*PI)*s/5.0
  }
}

Here’s the resulting panel after using the pushpull tool:

You can get creative with this little bit of code if you replace some of the “sin” functions with “cos” and also play with the factors that end up determining circle diameter (the last parameter in the “add_circle” method). A variation of this is shown in the topmost image in this post.

One thing that stumped me at first was Ruby’s reluctance to give me a floating point value after dividing two integers. That is the reason why you see “.to_f” in a few places in the code. This little snippet converts a number to a “float”. In addition, it may be possible that you need to add the Math class to the “sin” function. It works fine for me as shown but the long version would be:

Math.sin(x)

By the way: The best way to access the reference for the “add_circle” method while you are coding is of course the Reference Browser tab directly within the Ruby Code Editor:

Happy scripting!

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• SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet (2)

In this series of posts, I will be exploring how one can create scripted geometry in SketchUp. Traditionally, this has been more the realm of programs like Rhino. And justifiably so. Rhino is NURBS-based and can create and modify curved geometry much better than SketchUp. However, SketchUp is an easy-to-use program for working with polygon-mesh-based geometry. It also has a built-in scripting language (Ruby) and best of all – it’s free. So if you want to script SketchUp to automate small tasks or to create interesting geometry, then this may be a good series of posts to follow.

A word of warning: I will not talk about plugin development for SketchUp – although this may be the logical next step after starting to writing scripts for the program. This is discussed in more detail in the appropriate forums (SketchUcation’s or Google’s). I will also not go over basic principles of the Ruby language. That is covered well elsewhere, too. By the way: A great reference is O’Reilly’s $10 reference book on Ruby. And for navigating the SketchUp API, there is of course my SketchUp Ruby Cheatsheet.

The order of these posts is mainly dependent on how I am using the software at the moment. Nevertheless, I will keep the examples as generic as possible so that you can modify them easily to suit your case.

Okay, time to get this started. To begin, download SketchUp if you haven’t done so. This will work fine with the free version but you may want to consider the Pro version if you want to add the capability to print plans or load DWG/DXF geometry. Then install my Ruby Code Editor. Follow the instructions on the website, then re-start SketchUp and the editor menu item will appear under the plugins menu. Here are the links:

• Get SketchUp (Windows or Mac version)
• Get the Ruby Code Editor

You can then try out the editor by loading the “create tubes.rb” file from the snippets folder. This is a textfile with Ruby code instructions. You can execute the code by clicking on the “Run Code” button. Tada! The following image shows what you should see in your model:

Afterwards, click on the “Undo” button to see how you can undo the entire code execution.

Now we’re good to go. Before I post the next clip, play around with the editor and explore its functionality a bit.

By the way: This series will use the SketchUp Ruby API methods that are built into SketchUp. There are plugin developments underway that may simplify some of the tasks and make Ruby scripting simpler. One of these is the alternate API (“Sketch Talk”) that is discussed on this website.

For your reference, these are some webpages that may help you along the way:

• SketchUp Ruby API documentation
• SketchUp Ruby API tutorials
• Martin Reinhart’s Edges to Rubies E-book (especially starting at Chapter 11)

More on this soon…

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I finally fixed some problems and added new features to my SketchUp Ruby Code Editor. The result is a 1.1 version that is now available for download. The changes are:

• Changed webdialog internal name for compatibility
• Better looking dropdowns under IE Win
• Fixed save filename preselect problem
• Better code execution and error catching (thanks to Dan Rathbun)
• Faster file loading for large files
• Added cookie-based saving of preferences
• Added options panel
• Added changeable user interface
• Modified some references, added tutorial link

The image above shows the dark user interfaces. The editor comes with three different ones, so take your pick.

To download the new version, go to my project page.

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I always found Ruby code editing and testing for SketchUp a bit tedious. First I write code in my preferred text editor: PSPad. Then I load it into SketchUp using my plugin loader. And then I run it from the menu. Although there are better ways to handle this (e.g. the SketchUp bridge), I wanted something more “in-house”. Enter Jim Folz’s Web Console.

Jim’s plugin has been a tremendous tool for testing multiline code right within SketchUp. Nevertheless, it was lacking the code-editor functionality that external editors offer.

While my plugin does not provide a full code-editor for SketchUp Ruby files (with e.g. syntax highlighting), it is pretty good at making it easier to edit code. At this point, it features font-size, tabulation and snippet support. On top of that, it contains a nicely usable reference web browser. Finish that off with some jQuery UI shinyness and there you have it – a whole new way to edit code in SketchUp. Enjoy!

You can find more information and download the plugin here:

http://www.alexschreyer.net/projects/sketchup-ruby-code-editor

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Autodesk Butterfly Screenshot

Extending their lineup of beta-version web-editors, Autodesk just released Project Butterfly. After Project Draw (drawing and diagramming), Project Dragonfly (space planning in isometric 3D), Project Showroom (rendered previews of interior design selections), their latest addition to the labs (the Butterfly) is an online DWG-editor. Made by an acquired company (Visual Tao) and Autodesk, this web service is basically a web-based lightweight AutoCAD.

So far (after trying a few file uploads) it has been working well for me. And save for a few missing features, it works as a basic DWG editor. Some of its features are:

• Online editing of uploaded DWG files
• Download in various DWG versions
• Editing and geometry creation
• Timeline history of changes
• Sharing and collaborative editing

This video nicely illustrates some features:

Here’s my wishlist (for now): hatch editing, right-click “Properties”, object property viewer, redline markup.

Link:

• http://butterfly.autodesk.com/
• http://autodeskbutterfly.wordpress.com/

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• Weekly (or so) CAD roundup (0)
• Typical Types and Others (0)

Here’s my best advice: Instead of clicking the video below, turn the lights down and the sound up and watch the HD version here instead!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Alex Roman’s Vimeo site also features “making of” videos – well worth watching! Here is the low quality version:

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

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• And there is SketchUp #2: The Free TrueSpace by Caligari (0)

To follow those posts, either click on “follow” in Twitter:

http://twitter.com/alexschreyer

Or subscribe to my Twitter RSS feed:

http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/21881607.rss

Enjoy!

P.S.: Of course, you can also subscribe to this site’s various RSS feeds using the buttons at the top of this page.

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Autodesk Labs software trials

And the good ideas keep on coming! As just announced by Autodesk Labs in their post Project Twitch Range Expanded: can YOU connect?, Autodesk extended the range of their application tryout platform “Twitch” beyond the originally stated 1000 mile radius. Now user connection capability is just limited by a network latency cutoff. And as I just found out, this means that I am able to connect – from Massachusetts. AutoCAD even loaded faster than on my local machine!

I very much like the idea of web-based software tryouts. Typically when I try software on my (admittedly aging) machine, it leaves some garbage behind that even my Revo Uninstaller can’t safely get rid of. Autodesk’s “twitchy” little app would get rid of that problem by running the application itself on a remote server and letting users download a small viewer that remotely connects to its user interface.

Of course, this doesn’t allow to test application performance on the local machine and how well it works with the given hardware and graphics configuration. But it is a great first step in the testing cycle.

It gives me now hope that more software vendors will go this route and offer free web-based “live” previews of their programs. This might even be an idea for Google or Amazon to run in their data centers.

P.S.: Apparently the developers are quite taken with their own product. One of the DLLs installed by this service is called “awesomium.dll”.

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SketchUp Ruby API and plugins cheatsheet

I like working with cheatsheets when I do coding. Although the online API reference is very extensive and has great examples and the downloadable version is a good solution when you’re offline, this one may be useful as a reference once you mastered the basic concepts. It contains the full API reference in a condensed form. It also has a plugin template and some code snippets. Feel free to suggest improvements and additions for future versions.

You can download the PDF file here:

SketchUp Ruby API and Plugins Cheatsheet v.2.3 [SU v.7.1 M1] (63.18 KB, downloaded 1153 times) -

Other useful Ruby cheatsheets and helpers are:

• SketchUcation – Ruby forum (look for the sticky posts for general helpers)
• Notepad++ autocomplete files – also from SCF
• Jim’s WebConsole – a coding helper in SketchUp
• Ruby cheatsheets: here, here, here

Below is an older version of the cheatsheet. It lists only the API classes and methods line-by-line and prints on five pages.

SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet

SketchUp Ruby API listing v.1 [SU v.7] (28.16 KB, downloaded 696 times) -

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Yayyy!!! A new version!

Software updates are always exciting… New features are to be explored, new capabilities exploited for as-yet unknown projects. Contrary to Autodesk’s religious update schedule, Google has been only somewhat regular in providing updates. But alas, announced by today’s blog post by John Bacus, SketchUp’s project manager, the new version of SketchUp is here. And it’s a free upgrade to every Pro 7 user! (This also means that my Boulder-visit-induced gag-order has been lifted)

So what’s new in SketchUp? Let’s summarize what’s on this page.

• A new rendering engine
  This is a major improvement to the way we can work with SketchUp. Apparently the developers replaced SketchUp’s display system with something much more efficient. Large models now handle better and if too much is being moved around visually, the view degrades and usability is preserved. This is happening concurrent to Google Earth’s rendering upgrades, making both applications much more responsive.
  My only (remaining) problem is that selecting lots of elements still slows down everything.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  10,000 Barrels

  
  

• More reliable UI
  There is now a “reset workspace” button that cleans tool window placement up (for people with large monitors). Ahhh… peace! Update: My toolbars still get messed up every once in a while. Argghh…
• Addition of COLLADA im-/export (DAE, KMZ). Removal of DWG/DXF im-/exporter (in the free version)
  While the added COLLADA exchange option is a good addition to SketchUp’s im-/export capabilities, removing the DWG/DXF exchange from the free version will cause (and has already caused) a bit of a pickle for some users. I’ll post some workarounds in a bit but this shouldn’t be too much of an issue in most cases since so many 3D converter apps are available out there. And someone (not me!) could still write a DXF import/export plugin…
• Get Photo Texture
  This is a neat addition to the 3D texturing toolset. As you can see in the video above, facades can be identified from StreetView imagery and then applied as images to buildings.
  The main drawback of this tool is that in many cases, only portions of a building are clearly visible in StreetView (Amherst has 1 street in StreetView). However, the selection box placement tool is very sleek in the dialog – and much easier to use for novices than the classic “position texture” tool.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  Photo texture window

  
  

• Upload Component
  It is now possible to upload a single component rather than having to upload the entire model. This basically removes the steps of exporting portions of a file into a clean file and then uploading that file. Easier is better!
• Nearby Models
  When modeling a city or a neighborhood, the user can now search for existing models in the 3D warehouse that are within a certain radius of the current position. This is useful for loading context models or for seeing what people have already modeled (to avoid duplicates).
  Apparently this tool uses the following undocumented 3D Warehouse search (sample shown – with 300 in meters):
  “near:42.391346,-72.524920 within:300“
• write_image() method in the Web Dialog class in Ruby
  This extension to the Ruby scripting toolset has the potential to be very useful. It basically allows to acquire the current WebDialog view as an image. This method is used currently for the “Get Photo Texture” window. How about a texture imported for common texture websites? Any takers…
  You can find an example for using this method in the file “webtextures_loader.rb” in the Tools sub-directory (starting at line 519).
• Disable Update Service
  This will be very helpful for our lab installations. There’s nothing more annoying than having to click away the update notifier for at least 1/2 year.

The changes in LayOut are:

• Dimensions!
  You can now use dimensions on your sheets (rather than only within the SketchUp model). To enable this, you can now also snap to the SketchUp model’s elements – quite simiar to how associative dimensions work in AutoCAD. With this final addition, SketchUp Pro is now at par for many users with much bigger and more expensive 3D modeling / 2D annotating software.
• Improved freehand tool
  You can now draw freely and get smooth lines. Where’s my Wacom when I want to try this…
• Improvements to lists, grid display and copy/paste
• More on LayOut here
  

Overall these are a lot of great new features that should help not only the 3D building modeler, but also the professional user of SketchUp. I also very much appreciate the new Product Ideas feedback system – something that was called for multiple times.

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