Show a connection/relation between two objects

Developers Ruby API
1

I’m trying to create a plugin that will allow creating and modifying links between objects (nodes placed in 3d space)

The link is there to represent a connection between the two objects
I would like to drag and drop the link from one node to another, and have it update when I move the node.
I’d also like to save the coordinates and additional attributes of the nodes and the connectors in a separate file.

I’m not sure where to start with this. I’m at the stage of looking for other scripts that have any part of this functionality.

If anyone has some insight, knows of scrips that do any part of this already, or sees a major flaw in terms of executing on this, I’d be happy to hear it.

-Thanks

2

Sounds like you want to create a custom Tool to draw these connections between objects:
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/tool

Then for when you move a node you probably want to use observers to monitor for changes and do whatever updates you need to do.

If you’re new to SketchUp extension development you might find some of my articles on the subject useful:

3

Any idea what I can use to show the lines between the nodes?
Is there an alternative to creating the actual geometry?

4

While the custom Ruby Tool is active you can use View.draw* to draw points, segments and polygons. But if you want something permanent you need to use actual geometry, curves for instance.