Custom Select Tool That Displays Tag Name

[PaulMcAlenan]

It is indeed a good learning experience!

I have a small script that turns various tags on and off (actioned by keyboard shortcuts) including one that toggles between the existing tag and new tag. The script pops up a timed HTMLDialog to say which tag is on - existing or new.

I could look more into HtmlDialog - what I have at the moment is rather clunky and I wasn’t able to figure out how to not have the title bar…

I wondered if I could remove the title bar with HTML or CSS…?

And often I’m toggling fast between existing and new to review what I’m doing and while the HtmlDialog is displayed (briefly) I can’t toggle.

I only need this for when I’m in select mode just perusing and mulling over the model as the select cursor hovers over groups and components.

So if I were to use HtmlDialog I’d want the dialog to be displayed at the cursor briefly (essentially emulating the tooltip) and be something like this…

[DanRathbun]

@PaulMcAlenan

I wondered if I could remove the title bar with HTML or CSS…?

No, they only control the document inside the window.

@PaulMcAlenan

And often I’m toggling fast between existing and new to review what I’m doing and while the HtmlDialog is displayed (briefly) I can’t toggle.

You can use the new Sketchup::focus method to give the main window the focus after the dialog is displayed and it’s document has been fully rendered.

In the dialogs’ JavaScript …

      function ready_handler() {
          if (document.readyState === 'complete') {
              sketchup.ready() ;
              // Detach listener:
              document.removeEventListener('readystatechange', ready_handler) ;
          }
      }

      document.addEventListener('readystatechange', ready_handler) ;

And then your Ruby dialog object needs a callback named “ready” …

    @dlg.add_action_callback("ready") { |dialog, params|
      puts "DIALOG CONTENT LOADED" if $VERBOSE
      Sketchup::focus if Sketchup.respond_to?(:focus)
    }

There is also an old dummy dialog “hack” that only works on Windows.
(You open a tiny temp dialog and close it with a timer, and the main application gets the focus.)
How to set Focus to Mainwindow - #14 by indie3d

There is also a WIN32OLE command. See …
How to set Focus to Mainwindow - #6 by DanRathbun

[DanRathbun]

@ene_su

Maybe you could display the info you are interested in in a HtmlDialog, and have it work independently of whatever tool is active.

There is no generic MouseObserver implemented that would enable seeing whats under the cursor during native tools (and then using a PickHelper to read object info.)

Perhaps a SelectionObserver subclass, but then that would require that the objects actually be clicked and added to the selection before the layer (or other info) could be read and then displayed by the plugin.

[tt_su]

@PaulMcAlenan

I looked briefly at:

Sketchup::Model#active_path=
Sketchup::InstancePath

And couldn’t get anywhere - I’ll have another look.

Where did you get stuck? Did you get error messages?

[PaulMcAlenan]

I was able to get on following Dan’s post.

It was a case of my relative inexperience with the SketchUp API.

I do find that the SketchUp API help pages aren’t that helpful for me and that asking on the forum helps with my understanding of the API.

[voquochai]

@PaulMcAlenan

I’ve been trying to build on the above (so far unsuccessfully) so that I can also select in the same way as the native select tool.

I also tried to recreate the native selection tool, you can see my code here:

PickHelper.window_pick bug inside a group/component

Hi, I am trying to write a selection tool and when using the window_pick method, there was a problem. The PickHelper.window_pick method works well outside the model but when I use it inside an object it works wrong. I’m using it the wrong way? Check out the code below in the onLButtonUp method. Thanks class SelectTool def initialize(*_args) @model = Sketchup.active_model @selection = Sketchup.active_model.selection @ip_mouse = Sketchup::InputPoint.new end def activate …

I also used model.active_path = to open a group/component
And maybe @click_times in onLButtonDoubleClick will be different between macOS and Win.

[PaulMcAlenan]

Thanks everyone for all the help!

I have managed to write a custom select tool that displays the tag name as you hover about and also mostly replicates the native select tool which I can now routinely use in my modelling, although there is the Pickhelper crossing bug that is yet to be fixed.

The tooltip margin is larger than I would want but better than the skinny default margin - I’m looking into using the Draw method to create a custom tooltip.

It’s been a frustrating yet enjoyable experience and I now have a much better understanding of the API and Ruby.

[sketchupmaster]

Hello Paul,

It is very handy to find object layer name and selected object is which layer.
Can you share updated script?

Thanks . . .