Variable Space Between lines

Developers Ruby API
42

TIG, it all about his odd input field, that takes spacings.

It is not two objects spaced 10m apart, it is 2 objects spaced at 5m intervals, from a common start point that might also have a 1st object. (Think fence posts, here.)

But then using the “odd” input defeats the automatic unit conversion of the inputboxs.

At this point @vanlion, I’d suggest switching to a list of spacings like:
[5.m,5.m,6.m,4.m,5.m]

It’s just too strange for the user interface with those embedded (x) multipliers.

43

or…

prompts = [‘Width’, ‘Height’, ‘Spacing’]

john

44

Consider:

prompts = ['Number:', 'Width:', 'Number:', 'Height:']
defaults = [2, 5000.mm, 2, 2000.mm]
input = inputbox( prompts, defaults, 'Title' )
return unless input # e.g. user cancels so it's 'nil'
w_number, width, h_number, height = input

Then check the 4 values for being suitable - e.g. not <=0 etc…

45

Hi Tig,

Reasson that i can’t use variable spaces in your example. That was the reasson for the odd way i’m using seen in a YouTube video (first post).

My first basic idea was to greate the same layout used in the Revit grid generator (see pic) maybe things are clearer now?

892×703 86.9 KB

46

But the Revit GUI has separate inputs for the Axis Spacing and the Number of Spacings - Horizontal and Vertical.
You could make a ‘webdialog/htmldialog’ which would mimic the Revit interface almost exactly.
You cannot do it in a simple input dialog - unless [as you have unsuccessfully tried] you input the ‘pairs’ of values with a separator etc.
Here is my ‘improvement’ of your code, keeping one entry per H/V orientation:
The user must know that the input is in the form 2x1234 or 2x1234mm
Just adjust the initial defaults, title, reference naming etc as you desire…

@horiz="2x5000" unless @horiz
@verti="2x2000" unless @verti
# this reuses the last entered values this session
prompts=["Horizontal: Number x Spacing ", "Vertical: Number x Spacing "]
values=[@horiz, @verti]
input=inputbox(prompts, values, "My Grids")
return nil unless input
return nil unless input[0]=~/x/ && input[1]=~/x/
# i.e. it's splitable at the 'x'
@horiz, @verti = input
horiz_number, horiz_spacing = @horiz.tr(' ', '').split('x')
verti_number, verti_spacing = @verti.tr(' ', '').split('x')
# note how the 'tr' strips out any spaces that might mistakenly surround the 'x'
# now change these values into an integer and a length...
horiz_number = horiz_number.to_i
horiz_spacing = horiz_spacing.to_l
verti_number = verti_number.to_i
verti_spacing = verti_spacing.to_l
# Now you have those 4 references correctly formatted...
47

Thanks Tig,

I can make a webdialog that way so i can fix that.

but the only thing i wonder is when you have a webdialog ready, how to collect the data like the Revit example into spacings for example the horizontal spacings and numbers as you can see in the picture. You have a rule 5000 2 times, 6000 3 times and 1 time 4000. So you can use the spacings and interval in the code Dan gave me? Underneath you saw how we collect the spacings

892×703 86.9 KB 

spacings = []
values = input.split(LIST_SEPARATOR)
values.each {|v|
  if v.include?('x')
    i = v.split('x')
    num = i.first.strip.to_i
    interval = i.last.strip.to_l
    num.times do
      spacings << interval
    end
  else
    spacings << v.strip.to_l
  end
}
48

@vanlion, One of the best ways to learn SketchUp coding is to read how others have done things.

FYI, The SketchUp Team has an example extension for interactively drawing construction grids: