That is the exact reason I created Tag Manager, to find elements based on multiple tags, labels, …
With the functionality I added today, one can not only quickly select elements based on multiple tags, but also isolate them (hide all the rest). That is not 100% what you are saying, but it is getting close.
I have created another simple video showing the process of selecting on multiple tags and then isolating them. The power of this function is not fully expressed with this simple model, but it should give you an idea:
Let me see how I can optimize this further. I’m know there are a lot of features missing but I am eager to implement new ones, one by one.
EDIT: I think that a simple “reveal” and “hide” functionality would do the trick. These would “reveal or hide” all entities that fall under the current “tag query” and leave all others untouched, in contrast to this “isolate” function that is some kind of combination of both, since it reveals the entities that fall under the query and hides all others.
Mmm - excited by this - it looks as though it will move SU forward a lot. Is there a way of generating a report or csv file that lists items with their tags? - would be useful in estimating quantities etc
Currently not. The product is pretty new but features will be added gradually.
Regarding reporting: i think that providing insight in data that is available in a model surely should be added. I can imagine a feature that lists some numbers and is able to visualize that in charts and is able to generate reports. The scope however of this tool is not estimating. I can however imagine having a future product called BOM manager in the series of CADoptimus tools.
1. Special tags
I assume your tagging system is attribute-based? I recall that the IFC classification is also attribute-based, so maybe you can use the IFC classification seamlessly without conversion?
You could have special kinds of tags. I can see two examples: IFC and layers
These would appear as tags in your extensions, but the underlying implementation is native to SketchUp, just use actual layers and IFC classification.
Obviously, objects could have only one of these tags, and they would look different in your UI. But I think it could be really powerful to have everything in a single place. And this ensure better compatibility with other workflows, exporting/importing, etc.
You could also have special tags that can only be read but not assigned to objects, like the entity type : line, component instance, group, face, etc. That would be similar to TT’s Selection Toys, but as read-only tags in your manager.
Also, materials? Softness/smoothness for edges? Visibility?
2. Organizing tags
Being able to organize tags in groups/folders would be great. Or maybe some other kind of organization.
I guess that when you start to have dozens or hundreds of tags, it’s be tedious to find the one you are looking for.
In my opinion, the best thing would be to be able to group tags, but still see everything on a single page. Having to dig into folders would be tedious as well. We need folders that can be expanded/collapsed but still see all of them at once.
This would be especially useful in combination with idea n°1. You could have root folders that can’t be changed, and custom folders inside them.
Those are some very useful ideas. Let me see what can be implemented in the short term and what might need some more discussion with more users to see how it should behave exactly!
I also think the UI should look like one of SketchUp’s native inspectors as I would like to keep something like this always open to work with it all the time
That’s a tough one.
When I made Skatter v1, that’s what I decided to do: keep the look and feel of SketchUp’s native inspectors.
But I’ve changed my mind over the years. SketchUp’s UI looks quite dated and borderline ugly, should we stay stuck with it forever? (or at least until it changes, which is probably not tomorrow)
Even Trimble is creating a new UI for SketchUp for web, 3D Warehouse, etc.
For Transmutr and Skatter v2, we decided to go another route and make a modern UI. We chose to go with Google’s Material Design, as it’s widely used and many people are used to it.
I see that Kenny has made the same choice, we are even using the same framework!
I wish there were UI guidelines for extensions. But until then, we have to do our best.
I think it is an obvious choice nowadays to use react for web based ui, and then, when you prefer material design like me and apparently you, use material-ui.
That’s not exactly what I meant, I don’t care much about how it looks, I’d just like it to be tall and that it could fit into the shape of my inspectors so I could put it on a fixed position on screen on top of an empty inspector
You can see @jiminybillybob 's layer manager is fixed in that position as I use it always. There is also a scene manager on top.
Even if these two plugins look more or less like Sketchup’s UI what matters for me is that they sit there nicely and stand there throughout all my work. If I was to move into your system it would have to fit permanently on screen too.
The only thing I don’t like is the CADOPTIMUS title on the header space. I believe it should be only in the window title so we could save screen realstate. The simpler the name, the better so we can easily use all your future windows.
I’m wondering if you could make them all collapsible, inside a single window. Like you would have a single CADoptimus and if you’d purchase more plugins the window would have more vertical tabs.
Just like the default tray has entity info and materials underneath it, on your screenshot.
I understand. I am now focusing on extending the functionality of the tool but I will note these remarks down and see how and when to make those visual changes. Regarding making them collapsible etc… I am hoping Sketchup will one day allow for Extension UI to be dockable in the tray. That would solve it all in a uniform way.
Meanwhile I have yet again uploaded a new version to the warehouse (Sorry @anon77361920 reviewer for the frequent updates). In this version (1.1.237) it is possible to hide/reveal and lock/unlock a query of tags as more or less requested by @ db11:
Again, there is still much room for improvements, but we will add new functionality step by step.
