How will this feature react to the tags getting poked in the eye over in the default tray?
I’ve made a habit of using the tag folders to make the tags quite tidy and quickly adjustable. (If only I could import/export these folder structures)…
wall_clad
roof_clad
etc
wall_sheath
roof_sheath
etc
Etc
I’m not sure yet, we will need to test this a bit to work out any kinks.
Just remember that this layer control tool only toggles layers that are created and managed by the Medeek plugins, it does not have the ability to toggle off the base layer or any other layers in the model.
Here is a first look at what the updated Wall plugin Layer tab in the Global Settings looks like:
I am showing the default values assigned to each layer. However, what default values to assign is up for some discussion. Currently I’ve setup 0-12 as the number of possible levels (at least for now), this seems to offer enough granularity.
The number assigned really has no impact on the Wall plugin itself, it is currently only used with the layer control tool in the Project plugin.
I now need to do this for the Truss, Foundation and Electrical plugins.
I think after I release this plugin and I’ve had some time to get some feedback then I can make further modifications to fine tune this feature.
Another look, this time with walls and a truss roof:
Note, that to decouple the wall framing visibility within the wall and truss assemblies you will need to change the default names of the wall layers in the Truss plugin.
What if we want to see the roof_dim tag but nothing else?
This tool does not disable the regular layer/tag system within SketchUp, you can still manually turn off all of your layers and turn on specific ones you need.
The purpose of this tool is provide a quick and easy way to toggle layers while working on your model.
When setting up scenes this tool may not be as useful since you will probably be toggling very specific layers/tags.
Electrical and Foundations are now enabled with Layer Control:
I only need to update the global settings of the Truss, Foundation and Electrical plugins.
I’ve officially released the plugin now. However I do consider it still in BETA since I have not yet added the Project Info tool:
I think it would be very useful if one could input the project address and then have it not only pinpoint the lat and long but also give the elevation and the site criteria at that location (ie. Seismic, Snow Loads, and Wind Speeds.)
Granted this would probably only work fully for locations in the United States and possibly Canada but I think it would be a useful feature.
Version 1.0.0 - 01.11.2023
Also note that if you purchase the mdkBIM bundle today it will include a license/serial for the following plugins:
Wall, Truss, Foundation, Floor and Project
Since the Floor plugin is not yet complete you will not be able to download and install this unreleased plugin but all of the others are available.
Also note that the price of the mdkBIM bundle has not increased.
P.S.
Use coupon code EARLYBIRD23 to get a 75% discount on the purchase of this new plugin.
I think I will use the Global Settings as my HTML template for the Project Info tool. I’ve already established the look and feel with the global settings so why not stick with what is tried and true.
I can then have multiple pages, the first few that come to mind are:
1.) Location: Name, Address, Lat. and Long. and Elevation
2.) Seismic
3.) Wind
4.) Snow
5.) EOR: Engineer of Record - This information will be used to populate the title block for the PDF reports created by the site criteria from above.
Thoughts?
P.S.
Right now I am putting my focus back onto the Floor plugin but I would like to at least push out Item #1 above so that the tool has something more than an icon in the main toolbar that does nothing.
Woohoo!
Maybe a scheduling function? Just throwing that out there.
I’m open to some sort of scheduler, but I’m not even sure what to put together for this sort of thing. Do you have any scheduling software that you are familiar with? Also how would this best integrate with what the plugins produce?
Version 1.0.1 - 01.14.2023
I’m a huge fan of the free Grid Tool provided by SketchUp in the Extension Warehouse. However my only one complaint is that with a grid like this it is hard to visually tell how many units over you are when trying to measure out a house or any other structure. After giving it some thought, I concluded that major grid lines would go a long way in alleviating this one deficiency.
I also thought it would be nice to include a grid tool in the plugin since it would eliminate the user from having to go out and install yet another plugin (ie. the SU Grid Tool) from the warehouse.
I’ve created an updated version of this classic plugin by adding in major grid lines (that default to 4 feet and minor grid lines that default to 1 foot). Currently these settings are hard coded into the tool however one can easily edit a grid once created and modify both minor and major grid line parameters in both the x and y directions. I will eventually add a global settings tab for this tool so one can set the global defaults.
First look at the project info tool:
I still have some major changes for the General tab. First and foremost I want to try to incorporate an interactive Google Maps window with a button to auto-geo locate based on the address that is input by the user. Then also have the ability to zoom the map as necessary and refine the geo-location on the map. Using the Google maps API I should be able to get the lat, long and elevation (which will be important for the determination of other site criteria).
I’ve already done a good bit of programming using the Google API’s on my website (running on my server) but this is something a bit new so I’m still uncertain if it will work within SketchUp. This should prove to be interesting.
Version 1.0.2 - 01.16.2023
This new feature is quite experimental so I am hoping for some feedback on it.
After testing this new feature further I can’t seem to get it to load reliably in SketchUp 2022 whereas it works pretty well in SketchUp 2017 (I haven’t had the time to test all of the other versions in between yet).
It appears that the problem has something to do with how Google maps behaves within the built-in browser in SU 2022. For some reason it does not want to load the Google API or at least the Map API just doesn’t render the map.
This is very disappointing because this new feature may never work with newer versions of SketchUp. I’m not getting any specific javascript (console log) errors so whatever the issue is it is not even clear to me what it is.
I guess I need someone to help me who is more intimately familiar with the built-in browser differences between the versions and how best to bridge those differences.
P.S.
After some fiddling with the Google API I somehow managed to get it to work. Not sure how but it works, I’ll take it.
Version 1.0.2b - 01.16.2023
!ATTENTION!
This is a critical bug fix for the Grid Tool and the Project Info tool. Please download and replace the previous version of the plugin.
Version 1.0.2c - 01.17.2023
Version 1.0.2d - 01.19.2023
Tutorial 1: Introduction (20.01 min.)
I like the idea of generating a small title block that can be positioned within the model. The problem with this might be how to configure its look and feel, everyone is going to want something a little different. I’m kind of thinking along the lines of how I already generate a legend for the Electrical plugin, and then it can be positioned within the model and will retain its position even if it is regenerated. I will give this some additional thought.
@ArtisanTony gave me the idea and now the gears are turning…
