I’m trying to depict a ‘door’ opening by placing it at different angles on successive layers. My hope here is to then turn these on and off as an animation progresses. I know I can’t show a smooth movement, and that it will be ‘jerky’, but at the moment everything keeps disappearing and I can’t get past first base!
The model is in the warehouse, title: ‘Baffled by layers’
Hello take sometime to read up on layers and then how to establish Scenes with Layers and the Entity Drop down. Layers with SU are not like Photoshop or Corel and such. You need to group or make a component of the of the entity or items and HAVE THEM ON LAYER ( 0 ) the default layer. From there you highlight the items and use the layer manager to assign them their own layer,1…2…3… and so on. BUT all new work is done on Layer 0. To fully explain is a pain and YOU should take an hour and just go through the process with a few basic shapes.
This will get you going and if you get this down and then use it to set up scene it will transition the door movement for you as you move from scene to scene.
http://help.sketchup.com/en/search/sketchup/layers
http://help.sketchup.com/en/search/sketchup/scenes
It would take me an hour or two to type it out step by step AND IT IS BEST TO PRACTICE IT. AND IT WILL BE WEIRD BUT DOING it THREE OR FOUR TIME YOU WILL BE IN…Peace…
Thanks. So it can be done? I have actually read up on this extensively, but the concept (beyond the simple on & off ‘hiding’ of stuff) remains almost counter-intuitive to me. As I only have the one door to animate I feel it might be simpler just to have hidden copies of the thing at different angles and simply slot them in and out as required?
Door closed.skp (17.7 KB)
This has a Door Open and Door Closed layer. On the default (0) layer it is closed as a group. I did a rotate copy to open it and assigned it to layer 1 for opened. Then went back to default layer and with layer one turned off. I hide the door then turned on hidden geometry and selected it as a group. Then assigned it to door closed layer. So in the default layer it is closed then by turning layers 1 and 2 on and off it is swinging opened and closed. SWOOSH!! Someone else will come along and offer alternatives… but I am a green horn and still or just getting comfortable but it does work and it is possible. GOOD LUCK AND STAY WITH IT!! …Peace…
Then with Scenes you just transition from open to closed so it will be ONLY opened or ONLY closed. You wont have the spot were it is in both positions at the same time while // in between clicking…
Door closed_scenes.skp (25.6 KB)
And yes there is a bunch of stuff with this I have to just do over and over for it to feel common place. Then as soon as I am balls on it three more things come up. I do love a challenge and this DOES OFFER a big one…Peace…
Maybe this will help.
At what point did you alter the angle? Have you saved it and copied it into the new layer? It looks as though you copied out several of the grey components in layer 0, then allocated the to the other layers?
The raw geometry remains on layer 0, the component is on layer 2, I made an array of that component then just changed their layers in entity info.
For example…
Here are two examples of scene/layer animations with SU.
Open the Layer and Scene managers to gain a better understanding of how things work.
Thanks, I have actually got this nailed down and working fine now. Don’t suppose you’d know if there is a ruby or extension that allows for the opening of a door (or similar movement) as a smooth animation?
Have you read up on or tried Dynamic Components?? They are built in as a SU PRO and MAKE feature but can not be created in the Make version. They are the ticket you are looking for WITHOUT having to learn Ruby. From having doors swing open/close or lights on/off. Even different colors/textures swatches. So instead of having two or three instances of a component to show certain differences, say a kitchen cabinet. Making it Dynamic, you assign attributes for three size, closed or open…et~cetera.
Without them you are limited to Layers, Scenes or simply hiding then un-hiding the item instance. But Make and Pro both have a built in Ruby Console, located if you scroll down from Windows tab. So writing your own scripts is an option. I dont know if there is a plug-in that I would guest…?..~ lets you select a component and assign pivoting or rotate options BETWEEN / OR ON AXIS’S…??
If you search the Extension Warehouse and come up empty there is a site SketchUcation …
They have a ton of extensions by authors from the Google days, this was there version of a forum and Warehouse before Trimble bought the writes. This has a extension manager to Auto-install them, that removes the frustrations just like the Extension Warehouse. It only requires a email address to access and is free, plus has there own blog for advice and help. Hope it helps and is another option for finding your own resources…take`er easy and good luck (if you find one post back)…Peace…
Something to look at…
Scene_animation.skp (89.5 KB)
