Vertex Tools for Google SketchUp

Vertex Tools • version 1.01st edition – 7 July 2010

Thomas Thomassen © 2010http://www.thomthom.net/software/vertex_tools/

C o n t e n t sG e t t i n g S t a r t e d4 • Installing4 • Uninstalling4 • Activating/Deactivating

Us e r I n t e r f ac e5 • Menus5 • ContextMenus5 • Auto-Smooth6 • Show Normals6 • Toolbars6 • Vertex Mode Toolbar6 • SketchUp Toolbar6 • InformationPanel

Too l s7 • Select7 • Selection Shapes8 • Soft Selection8 • Ignore Backfaces8 • Move9 • Rotate9 • Scale9 • Insert9 • MakePlanar

Shor t c u t s10 • ProxyFunctions10 • Available Proxy Functions11 • Example

Pr e f e r e n c e s12 • Language12 • InitialTool12 • VertexSize12 • NormalSize13 • Toolbar13 • ContextMenu

Tran s l a t i on s14 • .langFileFormatSpecification15 • Tipsandrecommendations

Known I s s u e s / L i m i ta t i on s

Known Bugs

C r e d i t s

Contac t

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G e t t i n g S t a r t e dINSTALL INgThezipfilewithVertexToolscontainsafile,tt_vertex.rbandafolderTT_Vertex.TheseshouldbeextractedtoSketchUp’spluginfolder.Thelocationofthisfolderdiffersfromplatformtoplatform.OnWindowsitisinwhateverfolderSketchUpwasinstalledto.OnOSXitisatafixedlocation.

Windows32-bit:(Default location for SketchUp 7)C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\

Windows64-bit:(Default location for SketchUp 7)C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\

OSX:(SketchUp 7)/Library/Application Support/Google/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/

ForotherSketchUpversionreplacetheversionnumberinthepath.

NoteOSXusers:ThepathisundertherootLibraryfolder,notunderyouruserfolder!

ThefootprintofVertexToolsinthePluginsfolderis:• [..]/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/TT_Vertex/

• [..]/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/tt_vertex.rb

Ifyourunintoproblemsinstallingensurethatthefilesarelocatedinthecorrectlocation.

UNINSTALL INgRemovethefilett_vertex.rbandthefolderTT_VertexfolderfromwhereVertexToolswasinstalled.

ACTIVAT INg/ DeACTIVAT INgVertexToolscanbeactivatedanddeactivatedviaSketchUp’sextensionmanager.Ifyoudon'tseeVer-texToolsinyourToolsmenu,ensurethatthepluginisenabledunderWindow»Preferences»extensions.

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Use r I n t e r f ac eMeNUSVertexTools’menusarelocatedunderSketchUp’sToolmenu.Vertexeditingmodecanbeactivatedfromitssubmenus.editVerticesandPreferencesarethemainitemsinthesub-menu.Theothermenus,suchasMove,Rotate,Scale,etc.arethereprimarilytoactasshortcuthookssothatSketchUp’sShortcutmanagercanbeusedtoassignshort-cutstothevariousfunctions.ThisisdescribedindetailintheShortcutssection.

CONTeXT MeNUSWhilevertexeditingadifferentcontextmenuisavailable.Itgivesaccesstofunctionsandpreferencesdependentontheactivevertexeditingtool.Thecontextmenucontainssomeitemsthatareonlyaccessiblefromthecontextmenu:

Auto-SmoothWhenafaceisdeformedinsuchawaythatitsverticesarenolongercoplanar,SketchupAutofoldsthefacebyaddingnewedges.Theseedgesarenormallynotsoftorsmoothwhichasaresultproduceafacetedsurface.

WhenAuto-Smoothisenabledthesenewedgeswillbesoftenedandsmoothedensuringacontinuoussurface.

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Show NormalsTurnthisonforvisualcluerepresentingthenormalsforthesurfacesconnectedtothevertex.Thenormalspointinthesamedirectionasthefrontsideoftheconnectedfaces.

TOOLBARS

Vertex Mode ToolbarVertexTools’maintoolbarappearsonlywhenvertexeditingmodeisactivat-ed.ItisdrawndirectlyontoSketchUp’sviewportandbecauseofthatitdoesnotbehaveexactlylikethenormaltoolbarsinSketchUp.

• Itcannotfloatoverotherwindows.• ItcannotmoveoutsideSketchUp’sviewport.

SketchUp ToolbarAnormalSketchUptoolbarisavailablethatprovidesasinglebuttontoactivatevertexmode.Thistoolbarisbydefaultnotvisible.DuetoSketchUp’stendenciesunderWindowstoshuffletoolbarsaroundtheproceduretoen-

ableitisdifferentthantheOSXversion.OSX:View»Toolbars»VertexToolsWindows:Tools»VertexTools»Preferences–Toolbar

INFORMATIONPANeLTheinformationpanelfloatsonthescreenwhileeditingverticesdisplayingvertexstatisticsofthecurrentselection.Itcanbemovedaroundbyclickinganddraggingwithinthedottedframethatappearwhenthemouseisoverit.

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Too l sThetoolsavailabletomodifyverticestriestomirrorSketchUp’snativetoolsascloselyaspossible.WherenewtoolsareintroducedwithoutanativecounterparttheirbehaviourtriestokeepwithnormalSketchUpconventions.

KnownIssue:DuetolimitationofSketchUp6,inferencescannotcorrectlylocktouserdefinedaxiswhentheuserpressesthearrowkeys.

SeLeCTAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»SelectActivatesthelastusedselectionshapetool.Normalselectionmodifiesappliestoallselectionshapes:

• Addingtoselection:PressandholdCtrl(MicrosoftWindows)orOptions(OSX).• Toggleselectionstatus:PressandholdShift.• Removefromselection:PressandholdCtrlandShift(MicrosoftWindows)orOption(OSX).

Whenaselectiontoolisactiveasecondrowofbuttonsbecomesavailable.

Selection ShapesRectangularSelect–Pressandholddowntheleftmousebuttontocreatearectangularselectionareaorclickavertex

toaddindividualvertices.CircularSelect–Pressandholddowntheleftmousebuttontocreateacircularselectionareaorclickavertextoadd

individualvertices.PolygonSelect–Clicktoaddpointstopolygonselection.Doubleclicktofinishpolygon.FreehandSelect–Pressandholddowntheleftmousebuttonwhilemovingthecursortocreateafreehandselection

shape.

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Soft SelectionSoftSelectionissetbytypinginaLengthintheVCBwhileaselectiontoolisactive.Verticeswithinthisdis-tancefromtheselectedverticesarealsoaffectedbytoolsthatmodifythegeometry.Thefurtherawayfromtheselection,thelesstheyareaffected.Thisisillustratedbycolour-codingtheverticesfromRed,Orange,Yellow,greenandBlue–whereRedis100%andBlueis0%.Therearetwotypesoffall-offforthesoft-selctionradius:

Linearfall-off Cosinefall-off

Linearfalloffaffectstheverticesdirectlyproportionaltotheirdistancefromtheselected.Cosinefalloffaffectstheverticesusingacosinecurve.

Ignore BackfacesTurnthisontopreventselectingverticesattachedtofacespointingawayfromthecamera.

Notethatthisisnotthesameasselectingonlyvisiblevertices.Verticesconnectedtofacespointingtowardsthecamerabutobscuredbyotherobjectswillstillbeselected.

MOVeAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»Move1. Pickapointfortheoriginofthemove.

2. Movethecursortomovetheselectedvertices.ThedistanceisdisplayedintheVCB.3. Tocompletethemove,eitherclickasecondtimeorenteradistanceintheVCBforanaccuratedisplacement.

InferenceandaxislockisavailablefortheMovetool.AftercompletingaMoveoperationthedistancecanbecorrectedbytypingalengthintheVCBimmediatelyafterwards.

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ROTATeAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»Rotate1. Pickapointfortheoriginoftherotation.Likethenativerotatetoolyoucaninferandlocktheplaneofrotationby

pressingandholdingShiftbeforeplacingthefirstpoint.Thesamegoesfortheclick-dragmethodofdefiningtherotationplane.2. Pickasecondpointtodefineareferenceaxis.3. Movethecursortorotate.TheangleisdisplayedintheVCB.4. Tocompletetherotation,eitherclickathirdtimeorenteranangleintheVCBforaccuraterotation.

AftercompletingarotationtheanglecanbeadjustedbytypinganewangleintheVCB.If‘enableanglesnapping’ischeckedintheUnitsPaneloftheModelInfodialoguewindow,theprotractorwillsnaptothespecifiedangle—justlikethenativeRotatetool.

SCALeAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»Scale1. PickthecentrepointtoscaleaboutortypeascaleratiointotheVCB.IftheVCBisusedthecentrepointofthe

selectionisusedasthepointtoscaleabout.2. Pickasecondpointtodefineareferencelength.3. Movethecursortoscale.ThescaleisdisplayedintheVCB.4. Tocompletethescaling,clickathirdtimeorenterascaleratio.

AftercompletingascaleoperationtheratiocanbeadjustedbytypinganewvalueintotheVCB.

INSeRTAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»InsertVertex1. PickapointonanedgeoraFace.

edgesaresplitatthepointpicked.WhenthepointpickedisonaFace,newedgesarecreatedfromeachvertexoftheFacetowardsthepointprovidedtheydonotcrossanyexistingedges.PressCtrltotogglebetweensoft&smoothversushardedges.Thetoolmakesuseofsnappinginference,butnoinferencelocking.

MAKe PLANARAlsoaccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»MakePlanarSelectedverticeswillbeprojectedtoabestfittingplane.

Softselectedverticesareaffectedbutdonotcontributetothecomputationoftheplane.

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Shor t c u t sShortcutstoVertexTools’functionsareassignedusingSketchUpshortcutmanager–Window»Preferences»Shortcuts.

ToquicklylocateVertexTool’sfunctionsusetheFilterboxabovethefunctionlist.

PROXYFUNCTIONSSomeofVertexTools'menushavedoublefunctions.UsingTools»VertexTools»Moveasanexample:

• WhenvertexmodeisactivethistriggerVertexTools’Movetool.• WhennoteditingverticesthistriggerSketchUp’snativeMovetool.

Thisallowsusertohavetheirshortcutsfunctioninginsideandoutsidevertexmodebecausethemenusactasproxiesthatknowswhichtooltoactivate.

Available Proxy Functions• Select(All select variant will trigger the native select tool when outside vertex mode)• Move• Rotate• Scale• SelectAll• SelectNone• InvertSelection

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ExampleIfanyofVertexTools’menusforSelectisactivatedwhileavertexselecttoolsisalreadyactiveitwillexitvertexmode:

1. SpacehasbeenassignedtoVertexTools»Select:2. Vertexmodeisactive;theMovetoolistheactivetool.3. TheuserpressesSpace,theVertexSelecttoolisactivated.4. TheuserpressesSpaceasecondtime,vertexmodeisendedandSketchUp’snativeSelecttoolsbecomeactive.

Limitations:TheDeletekeycan’tberemappedinSketchUp.ThisisaSketchUplimitation.

Note:WhenchangingthelanguageofVertexToolsanyshortcutsmustbereassigned.ThisisbecauseSketchUpusethemenutexttoidentifythecorrectfunctiontotrigger.

Note:IfshortcutsareassignedtoVertexTools’functionsandVertexToolsisuninstalled,theshortcutsmustbemanuallymappedbacktotheiroriginalfunctions.SketchUpwillnotdothisautomatically.

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Pr e f e r e n c e sAccessibleviaTools»VertexTools»Preferences

LANgUAgeListofavailablelanguagesforVertexTools.SketchUpmustberestartedforthenewlanguagetotakeeffect.

Note:IfshortcutshasbeenassignedtoVertexTools’functionstheymustberemappedafterchanginglanguage.

INIT IAL TOOLBydefaultVertexToolswillstartwiththelastusedvertextoolwhenenteringvertexmode.Thiscanbeoverriddenheretoalwaysselectaspecifictool.

VeRTeX S IzeThisvalueaffectsthevisualsizeandclickableareaofavertex.Thevaluemustbebetween4and10.

NORMAL S IzeVertexnormalsindicatethedirectionofthefacesconnectedtoeachvertex.Facesconnectedbyasoftedgewillshareanormalindicatoraveragingthenormalsofthefaces.

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TOOLBARThepurposeforthissettingismainlyforPCusers.ItisaworkaroundfortheWindowsversionofSketchUpwhichhasanunfortunatetendencytoshuffleabouttheuser’stoolbarswheneverapluginwithatoolbarisadded.BecauseofthistheVertexTools’toolbarisnotavailablefromView»ToolbarsbydefaultunderWindows.Thetoolbarmustbeenabledthroughthissettingbeforeitbecomesavailable.

NotethatitwillstillcauseSketchUptoshuffleaboutthetoolbars,butitgivesusersthatdonotwishtousethetoolbaranoptiontoavoidbeingaffected.

OSXusersdonothavetousethispreferenceasthetoolbarwillbeavailablefromView»Toolbarsbyde-fault.

CONTeXT MeNUenablethistoadda"editVertices"menuiteminSketchUp’scontextmenutoactivatevertexmode.

Tr an s l a t i on sVertexToolscanbetranslatedintodifferentlanguagesbycreatingsimple.langfileslocatedintheLocalisation folder.

UsetheNorwegianlanguagefile(no-nb.lang)asatemplatewhentranslatingasitwillalwaysbeupdatedandcontainallthestringsavailable.Additionallyitincludescommentswithhintsandadescriptionofthefileformat.

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. LANgF I Le FORMAT SPeCIF ICAT IONI. FileMUSTbeplaintextUTF-8encoded.BOMissupported.Ifany.langfileisnotUTF-8encodedstrangechar-

acterswillappearanditcanaffectallothertranslations.RefertoyourchosentexteditorforhowtoencodefilesinUTF-8.

II. ThefilenameMUSTbesavedwithASCIIrangecharacters.SketchUp’sRubyversion(1.8)doesnothandlefileswithnon-ASCIIcharacters.

III. Pleasenameyour.langfileusingthelanguagecodeSketchUpreportsforthatlanguage.ThiswillensurethatVertexToolstriestoloadthelanguagewhichmatchesthecurrentSketchUplanguage.Alistoflanguagecodescanbefoundhere: http://download.sketchup.com/OnlineDoc/gsu6_ruby/Docs/ruby-sketchup.html#get_locale exampleforFrenchlanguagefile:“fr.lang”Ifyoucan’tfindthelanguagelisted,justuseanynameaslongasitdoesnotconflictwithanyofthelanguagecodesonthelist.

IV. @titleMUSTbethefirstlineinthefile.Thisisaspecialtagthatcontainsthenameofthelanguagewhichap-pearsinthelistofavailableLanguagesunderPreferences.Thetitleshouldbethenameofthelanguageinitsnativelanguage–notenglish.

V. @authorand@contactaretwooptionaltagsthatMUSTappearrightafterthe@titletaginanyorder.ThisisthecreditandcontactinformationthatappearunderthechosenlanguageunderPreferences.

VI. @contacttagMUSTstartwith“http://”,“https://”or“mailto:”.

VII. excepttheheadertagsthecontentofthefilecanbeinanyorder.

VIII. Aftertheheadertagscommentscanbeaddedbyprefixingthelinewith#.

IX. The%symbolisaspecialcharacter.ItrepresentsavariableandMUSTbeincluded.Ifyouneedtoaddapercentsymboltothestringsyoucandosobyusingadoublepercentsign:%%example:“Hello %% World”becomes“Hello % World”Allthestringsaresprintfformatted.Formoreinfo:http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Kernel.html#M005962

X. Anothersetofvariablesare@@n-wherenrepresentanumber.Theseareusedbywebdialogs.WhenpresentintheoriginalstringtheyMUSTappearinthetranslatedstring.example:“Hello @@1 World”becomes“Hello 123 World”

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XI. Donotinsertlinebreaks.Thestringsmustappearonasingleline.

T IPS ANDReCOMMeNDATIONSPleaseincludeyourname,contactinfoandthedatethefilewaslastrevised.TocheckformissingstringyoucanopentheRubyConsoleandtypeTT_Vertex::S.checkThiswillcompareallthelanguagefilesagainsttheNorwegianfileandlistanymissingstringsforallthelanguages.Donotliterallytranslatethewords,translatethemeaning.Ifpossible,usethesametermsusedinSketchUpifSketchUpexistinthetargetlanguage.Lookatother3dmodellingandgraphicsoftwareproductstofigureoutwhatthenormis.greatrepositoryoftranslationstermsinMicrosoft’sproducts:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/goglobal/bb688105.aspxLookforguidancefortranslatingtoyourownlanguage.OftenyoucanfindguidesprovidedbyOpenSourceprojects.

Known I s s u e s / L i m i ta t i on s• NowaytohookintotheuseoftheDeletekey.SketchUplimitation.• SketchUp6doesnotrecognizeuserdefinedmodelaxis.• Rotationtoolmightrotatetherotationplaneiftheusermovesthecursortooquicklyafterplacingtheinitialreferencepoint.DeviationfromthenativeRotatetool.Investigating.• VCBisalwaysenabled,evenfortoolsthatdonotacceptinput.Technicallimitation.

Known Bugs• InsertVertexoccasionallycreatesnewfaceswhenthereareholesintheface.Investigating.• Rotationgizmo’sguidelinedoesnotalwaysappearasaninfiniteline.Investigating.

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C r e d i t sThankstoallthebetatestersthatprovidedinvaluablefeedbackandsupport.Thankstothetranslatorswhocontributedtranslationsandinterestingsemanticdiscussions.ThankstoSketchucationforthesupportduringthedevelopment.ThankstogoogleforlettingmeusesomeofSketchUp’scursorsandtoolbaricons.BigthankstoTBDandAdamBforhelpingmegetstartedwithRubyCextensionswhenIneededtocrunchnumbersinaspeedymanner.

Con tac tUsethecontactformatVertexTools’websiteforanyquestionsorfeedback.http://www.thomthom.net/software/vertex_tools/contactIcanalsobefoundlingeringaroundtheforumsatSketchucation.