Looking for feedback on my new Segal-method Timber Frames extension

Extensions
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I’ve just written my very first extension :grinning:, and I’d really appreciate any feedback people can give. I’m particularly interested in if it works in an intuitive way, and what additional features might be useful? Also, does it work on your Mac, or work on other versions of Sketchup? I’ve only used Sketchup 2013 on Windows.

Segal-method Timber Frames

There isn’t much documentation yet, as it is such an early version, but I am planning to provide detailed instructions, more screenshots, a video tutorial, etc.

Many thanks

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Hi @sheffieldnick,

It looks really interesting. I would recommend not using the find_support_files to locate file paths. Instead use relative paths and File.dirname(__FILE__). That way, users are not limited to installing the extension to the default location. Many users load extensions from a shared location so it is available in multiple versions of SketchUp.

1 Like
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Thanks, now fixed. It would be good if the official docs could be updated to make that recommendation too?

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Hey @sheffieldnick - I went to try again but the same version is still on the Extensions Warehouse.

It would be good if the official docs could be updated to make that recommendation too?

I’m not sure if SketchUp would officially support it since they would prefer extensions be installed through the Extensions Warehouse, and that means installed into “the” extensions folder.

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Yeah, unfortunately I didn’t realise that each update has to be separately approved :frowning: I’ve made 4 or 5 upgraded uploads since the first release, but none of them have been made public by the Sketchup team yet

Let me know if you’d like a rbz file of my latest version.

Cheers

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Version 0.7.0 is now available in the Extensions Warehouse :grinning:

http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/segal-method-timber-frames

lots of improvements, but the main new feature is the ‘List Materials’ option that saves out a spreadsheet of components used in the model, including calculations of floor area, roofing area, insulation volume required, internal air volume, etc.

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Latest version 0.7.2 is now available in the Extensions Warehouse :grinning:

http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/segal-method-timber-frames

Lots of fixes, but the main improvements are Half-housed joints now cut into vertical posts, and Dimension labels now added to model (Sketchup 2014 and later).

I would love to hear any feedback from users.

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The code itself looks good - you’ve got everything in namespaces and are not using global variables, etc.

I noticed a couple things… I need to scroll the dialogs to get to the buttons at the bottom. All the dialogs are the same in this respect.

Second, weird things happen when I try to add another “module” when there is an existing module in the model. Pieces of the original disappear when adding the second.

1086×748 54.4 KB

Also I had no idea you could include a formula in a csv and have (LibreOffice in my case) use the formula rather than import as text. I learned something,so thanks for that!

2 Likes
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Excellent, thanks for going to the trouble to read the code. I’m completely new to Ruby, so I’m a bit nervous about writing complete rubbish!

Thanks. I haven’t tried it on Windows 10 myself. I can’t see any obvious problems with the spacing on that screenshot, so perhaps I just need a few more px height to avoid the scrollbar with that version of Internet Explorer.

Yes, it is very ‘lazy’ and assumes there is ever only a single module in the model, so it deletes the ‘old’ component instance when you start creating a new module. And all the component instances have fixed names. Should I be using component guids instead of names to allow for multiple modules in the same module? I’m not sure how the workflow would be if you had multiple modules - I might have to ask the user to select the module they want to work on?

I was surprised it worked too! Nice feature :smiley:

Cheers

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I’ve investigated further, and I don’t think it is a Windows 10 (Edge browser) vs Windows 7 (IEv11) issue, but rather a bug in the Sketchup API with setting the WebDialog width and height?

My dialogs look correct (without scroll bars) using the “Windows Classic” theme, but are too small and need a scrollbar with the default “Aero” theme. The API doesn’t seem to take into account the pixels needed for the window furniture, so many themes have fatter window borders and a taller window titlebar than Windows Classic. Really, the API should be setting the internal width/height of the window that an extension can render something in.

As a simple workaround I’ve now made all my dialogs 8px wider and 14px taller.

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Latest version is now available for download from the Extension Warehouse.

0.7.3-20/Mar/17

  • Removed unwanted scrollbar problem with dialogs if using common Windows themes (including “Aero”) by adding 8px width and 14px height

  • Added square twist nails, 19mm spanner & 12mm wood drill bit to ‘Save Materials list’

  • Now calculates total weight of building in statistics report, including any I-beams