To me it sounds as if you are trying to reinvent the wheel that is spinning right in front of you: SketchUp.
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Much of this discussion makes so little sense that I have come to suspect that you havenât managed to convey what you are really seeking (or maybe donât understand it yourself?). So, Iâm going back to your original post and starting over.
This quote may go to the crux of your misperceptions. The screen displays a scaled perspective representation of the model contents, just as a photo displays a scaled perspective representation of some real object. But just like in a photo, the size and shape seen on the screen are not necessarily the actual size and shape of the displayed entities. Just like when setting up a camera, SketchUp lets you move around the model to look at it from different directions, to zoom to a greater enlargement of some detail, etc. These actions change the view, not the model!
SketchUp captures a database in the model of the 3D geometry at actual size. It is only the screen view that is scaled or undergoes perspective. Saying you âconstruct something on the screenâ puts too much emphasis on the presentation rather than the content. The screen is just a means to look at and manipulate your model, it is not the model itself any more than a photo is the object it shows.
Once you realize that SketchUp (and other modeling software) captures actual 3D geometry data, much of the rest of your musings are baseless.
In SketchUp you can activate the Tape Measure tool, pick the two ends of an edge, and type a value. If you click âyesâ on the resulting dialog, SketchUp will resize everything in your model proportionally to how you changed that one edge. You donât have to do anything else. If you move an entity, everything that shares its vertices will distort to stay connected (thatâs why groups and components are essential - they limit the scope of such vertex sharing).
The phrase âprovide the measurementsâ then takes on a clearer meaning. SketchUp knows the measurements because all the geometry is captured at actual size. If you want them âprovidedâ you have to tell SketchUp how and where. You can use dimensions, the tape measure tool, the entity info window, etc. to read out the measurements of anything in the model.
Hitting on one more point from that initial quote that seemed to cause confusion in the continuing discussion: you initially wrote âall sections of the constructionâ, which to me clearly means âall existing sections of the constructionâ. That is, all the things you have so far placed into the model. But then some of the subsequent posts seem to imply that you also want new things not yet in the model to have measurements inferred from the one you entered. Or that you want SketchUp to somehow create new content. Unless you use SketchUpâs inference engine to match the new sizes to existing ones or are using some parametric system, that idea is clearly nonsense. If I size one rectangle to 72", why would that have any bearing on the size of other rectangles I add later unless I force them to the same size?
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I hadnât planned on saying anything more, and I had assumed that others felt the same way. However, that doesnât mean that I am unwilling to listen. Anyway, I found these two statements to be promising:
"SketchUp captures a database in the model of the 3D geometry at actual size. It is only the screen view that is scaled or undergoes perspective.
âIn SketchUp you can activate the Tape Measure tool, pick the two ends of an edge, and type a value. If you click âyesâ on the resulting dialog, SketchUp will resize everything in your model proportionally to how you changed that one edge. You donât have to do anything else.â
Iâll keep them in mind as I begin my SketchUp explorations. That should be tomorrow, as Iâm working on a sound editing project. Thanks for the further input.
Sounds like whatâs needed here is a converter to take a .skp file and convert it to something like a LOGO program in 3D space. Then you have a list of all the lines in the model, their lengths and endpoints.
Unfortunately, I donât know enough to know if youâre ribbing me or offering useful advice. In any event, my SketchUp education startsâŚTODAY. Well, actually I did start yesterday, but I had to quit after getting nowhere. Iâm going to try another video todayâŚ
What for !? LOGO is like 49 years old, and is a dialect LISP.
(LISP is also known as âstupid parenthesis landâ to procedural programmers. IMO, LISP is one of the worst languages I ever had to program in. Totally hate it.)
SketchUp comes, out of the box, with Ruby 2.x integrated and running within SketchUpâs process. Ruby is a modern dynamic, multi-paradigm, object-oriented procedural programming language, that has everything Lisp ever had and more. Ruby supports reflection, introspection, composition and inheritance.
We can already get a collection of edges (SketchUp doesnât have âlinesâ,) via the SketchUp Ruby API.
edges = Sketchup.active_model.entities.grep(Sketchup::Edge)
See: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/edge
Each edge object in the collection, already has a length property accessible via itâs length() instance method.
See: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/edge#length
Each edge object in the collection, already has itâs vertices accessible via itâs start() and end() instance methods.
See: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/edge#start
and: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/edge#end
From the vertex object(s) you can get the virtual Geom::Point3d object:
See: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/vertex#position
There is no benefit to creating a model in SketchUp and exporting to a Logo program. âSmartâ plugins (extensions) can be more easily programmed right inside SketchUp, using Ruby. (But hey, if you love Logo, then go right ahead.)
SketchUpâs Ruby API has a Tool class interface.
It would be quite easy to program a âTriangle 3-4-5â tool for SketchUp. The only question is what are the steps for drawing it. How to tell the tool which side you are drawing (the 3, 4 or 5) and how the triangle is oriented from that drawn edge.
But the reality is (if you look at the example I posted above,) it took mere seconds to draw a full size 3-4-5 triangle. A minute to add dimensions, and then select it all and right-click âMake Componentâ. It is just so darn easy to draw triangles (and rectangles) in SketchUp, that the whole premise of this thread is useless, âŚ
⌠and as Steve so eloquently detailed above, ⌠is also baseless.
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Dan Rathbun,
I didnât think Iâd have to return, but there is something that has me swearing, and Iâm not a swearer. How do you get rid of of those %^$#%#$$%@ unwanted lines? I know I can use the eraser and there are âundoâ commands, but I talking about stopping them from appearing in the first place. To keep it simple, letâs say I have finished a line, so I click on it. Thatâs supposed to end the line, but oftentimes it doesnât. I try to make my clicks as brief as possible, but that doesnât seem to help. This may seem like a trivial issue, but itâs really raising my blood pressure.
After I learn to stop growing unwanted lines. I have one more problem at this point. I want to put the measurements on my box (letâs keep it simple). I donât know how the program determines the measurements, but that is not my concern at this point. I can find the programâs measurements and label all visible sides of the box with them, but I want to build a box to my dimensions. Right now, all Iâm trying to do is to build a box with dimensions of 6âx12âx18â. How do I do this?
Niku
PS: I have found a series of tutorials that I am going to finish, but I would appreciate your help with these two questions.
PS: I donât know what you mean by âunwanted linesâ. Could you provide an example?
Well, suppose you want to draw a line between point A and point B. You draw the line and you then click on B to end the process, to stop the line. The problem is that oftentimes you just canât shake that damned line from your pencil. It just keeps lengthening. Thatâs when I have to get out the eraser, or click on some âundoâ command, or evenâsometimesâclose out the window and start again from scratch. A line is the simplest thing I can make, but the same problem continually appears in other ways.
Is this what you mean?
If so, thatâs just the line tool trying to be helpful by letting you continue to draw from where you placed the last point. Hit esc or activate a different tool to âfreeâ the line tool from the last point. Thatâs what I did at the end of the animation.
If you donât want to EVER draw continuous lines (one after another) you can go into your Preferences window, Click on Drawing, and uncheck the âContinue line drawingâ box.
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Steve,
Well, there is apparently some minimum level of motor skill required that requires practice.
For example, I have learned to raise a roof over a box, but Iâm not always successful. I always do the same thing with the same tools: (1) Find mid-points on two parallel sides (1) connect mid-points on two parallel sides with the pencil button (2) highlight the connecting line between the two mid-points with the SELECT button (4) Lift the connecting line with the âMove/Copyâ button to make a roof, but it doesnât always work. It reminds me of what they say about cooking: two cooks can use the same recipes and the same equipment but produce different results. Anyway, my success ratio with the roof-raising busies is getting better and better. Someday I will be able to expect success, even with shaking off that sticky line. Not yet.
Now youâre talking. I sure didnât know about that, but Iâm certainly going to investigate it. Thanks.
Now youâre talking. I hadnât thought of Preferences. Now, thanks to you, the âContinue line drawingâ box no longer has a checkmark in it. If necessary, Iâll also experiment with the other settings. Thanks a million. Iâm just beginning with SketchUp, and I donât need that anchor/torture rack.
Niku
Just remember, one manâs torture rack is another manâs⌠well⌠I guess a torture rack is always a torture rack, but you may find, at some point, that turning that option back on again will actually help to speed up input!
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Youâre probably right, but only when I have enough skill to use it. This wouldnât be the first âlabor savingâ device that requires practice and experience to benefit from it. Iâm sure that you can think of many. As to being a natter of taste, well, I never saw the movie, "Shades of Grayâ and never will, but, well, you get the idea,