I am currently trialling Scan Essentials which seems to suit my workflow even better than my current Point Cloud plugin.
One task I have to do over and over is create a profile from an uneven surface (usually an old vertical stone or brick wall). Currently I create a mesh of the walls surface then take a section through the mesh and use ‘Create Group From Slice’ to get the profile which can be pretty long winded as I have to first isolate the wall with a clipping box to get a decent mesh.
With Scan Essentials I can literally click on every brick course or stone using the Construction Point feature which is much much quicker. If I then view the points from 90 degrees I can see the profile. What would be better is if I can join the points together but first I need to get them on the same plane.
So I wonder if there is a plugin where I could select all the points below and move them a variable distance along the red axis so they all line up vertically when viewed from the front?
I wrote a small snippet of code.
If you select construction points and copy-paste the code snippet into the Ruby Console and hit Enter… it will create a curve according the cpoints z-cordinates order.
You can Undo it.
(No warranties, use your own risk as usual )
module Dezmo
module JoinCPointsZ
extend self
def join_cps(cps, ents)
sort_by_z = cps.sort{|a, b| a.position.z <=> b.position.z}.map(&:position)
ents.add_curve sort_by_z
end
def run
model = Sketchup.active_model
entities = model.active_entities
sel = model.selection
cps = sel.grep(Sketchup::ConstructionPoint)
return "No ConstructionPoints selected" if cps.size < 2
model.start_operation("Join CPoints by Z cords", true)
join_cps(cps, entities)
model.commit_operation
end
end
end
Dezmo::JoinCPointsZ.run
You can install it as an extension. However it is not signed and not perfectly fit all the formal rules…
You will get a context (right click) menu, if you have minimum 2 cpoint in a selection. Dezmo_Join_Cps_by_Z.rbz (544 Bytes)
Thanks for your help but for some reason I still cannot get this to work properly - even using Fredo Scale - Box Scaling.
If I can go over the problem again: The red line in the following image is an accurate vertical section through a brick wall obtained using a Plugin I no longer use (Undet). The construction points are from Scan Essentials and are also completely accurate but I need to record their position after I have deleted them (basically I need to replicate the red line). My idea is to get them onto the same vertical plane then join them up using a plugin then delete them.
You make everything look so easy, yet I’ve been struggling with this issue all day
I think going forward, and contrary to the official Scan Essentials video, I will set the point cloud to the default axis before modelling rather than adjusting the axis to the model which can cause confusion.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have installed the plugin to see if it improves my current workflow, but it only seems to align groups or components whereas I need to align what are effectively guide points.
)
