Model.place_component component_definition, boolean cannot be undone?

DanRathbun · January 29, 2018, 7:13pm

Discussed at length in the API Issue Tracker along with DefinitionList#load) …

Model#load_and_place_component

opened 01:27PM - 30 Oct 17 UTC

enhancement Ruby API SketchUp logged

The `next_transparent` parameter for `Model#start_operation` needed. The `M…odel#start_operation` method provides some control for plugin developers over the SketchUp undo stack. It has four parameters: - _op_name (String)_ - _disable_ui (Boolean) (defaults to: false)_ - _next_transparent (Boolean) (defaults to: false)_ - _transparent (Boolean) (defaults to: false)_ The `next_transparent` parameter is currently marked as ‘Deprecated’ in the API documentation and even has a ‘Use with extreme caution’ label. We have found ourselves in situations where we cannot do some operations without the `next_transparent` argument set to true. For example, when we want to load a component from a file and place it into the model. We do it when a user presses a button on the toolbar - so we want that the loading and the placement appear as a single operation in the undo stack. The following code example loads and places the component, but it commits two operations into the undo stack: ```ruby model = Sketchup.active_model component_def = model.definitions.load(path_to_component_file) model.place_component(component_def) ``` We can try and make the `#place_component` invocation transparent: ```ruby component_def = model.definitions.load(path_to_component_file) model.start_operation "Loading and placing component", transparent=true model.place_component(component_def) model.commit_operation ``` But this doesn’t work, because operations in SketchUp cannot be nested. The following solution resolves the problem: ```ruby model.start_operation "Transparent component placement", disable_ui=false, next_transparent=true, transparent=false component_def = model.definitions.load(path_to_component_file) model.commit_operation model.place_component(component_def) ``` Since both `Model#place_component` and `DefinitionList#load` methods commit operations into the stack and operations cannot be nested, it’s impossible to unite their invocation into one operation without the next_transparent parameter. Please make sure not to remove this parameter in future versions of the Sketchup API.