[Plugin] Curve Maker v1.2.2 - 7 March 2011

[max-cx]

The Curve Maker plugin has been updated to include more interactive drawing and editing options.

You can now draw and edit a catenary, parabola, sine or cosine curve interactively.

It's pretty much like using the rectangle tool as shown in this example video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4QUO0PaI_E

You can download the updated plugin from here:
http://www.drawmetal.com/download

[mitcorb]

Hi, max-cx:
Thank you for sharing this information.

[jsteacy]

Awesome update, thanks!

[d12dozr]

Great update, works well! Thanks Terry

[Michaelv]

Terry,

From one blacksmith (hobbyist) to another, thanks!

I will PM you the 2 scripts to which I added the toolbar.restore line to make the toolbar remember its previous status (displayed or not) on Mac (I think on PC toolbars work differently).

I also have everything working except parabola and catenary, which do not want to work right, it displays a tiny line, which is unrelated and not correct regardless of zoom.
I am on Mac book pro, OS 10.5.8 and Sketchup 8.0.4810. I typically work in mm.
Everything else works just fine.

I can't look at the ruby because it's scrambled so I don't know what's wrong. It could be the default unit. HAHA I just checked and that's exactly what it is. If I start with an inch template instead of mm it works just fine.

Michael

[jarynzlesa]

blacksmith plugin

i like this plugin . thanks .

[utiler]

Hi Terry, It seems that the Catenary Icon is not viewing in the toolbar...? Is this the case of am I crazy??

[max-cx]

Thanks to Michaelv for identifying a rather ugly "undocumented feature". The catenary and parabola logic was getting confused when the model units was something other than inches. Need to have a little talk with the QA department about that one.

I have also incorporated the suggestion of adding toolbar.restore to the appropriate scripts.

Unfortunately, Andrew, I don't have toolbar icons for the catenary or the parabola at this time.

[Gus R]

Excellent plugin Max. The update makes it even better. Now I can create curves including the common helix on the fly and they line up perpendicular to faces.

[dtrarch]

max-cx

Just plain thank you.
A real bread and butter add-on
We do not even have to do the math.
Very very nice

dtr

[Pilou]

Very cool Plugin!

[JClements]

Great update. Thanks.


Be slick to have interactive properties for the helix tool'sw diameter and length.

Any possibility of entering of start and end diameter for a helix?

[max-cx]

John -

Thanks for your encouraging feedback.

Will the Archimedes Spiral tool provide what you are after? Using the interactive tool, you can enter two radii to establish the rate at which the diameter of the spiral grows and set the height parameter to specify how tall you want the spiral to be - essentially giving you a tapered helix. See attached figure.

AS with height.jpg

The Archimedes Spiral option in the dialog box off the Plugins menu offers still more control because it lets you specify the radius at each of two particular numbers of turns - the first and the last in your case.

[JClements]

I must have overlooked this. Thanks for the quick reply.

[dereeei]

Please help!
I need to draw a Archimedes Spiral with this specs:

inner radius: 15mm
turns: 5
distance between turns: 2mm

I got the options panel attached here, but I get lost in it.
What should I input there to have the desired result?

[dereeei]

ERROR !
After using the plugin several times, I can't use it anymore. Every time I click OK on Parameters input box, it reappears. No error message, no error in Ruby console. It's a loop. Dialog disappear then is back... and so on.

EDIT: -it happened in the model I was working in. It didn't fixed after close and open. But in new model it worked. It seems that something that was saved inside the model while using the plugin, caused the bug.

[max-cx]

Is this what you are trying to draw?

Archimedes.jpg

[max-cx]

The most likely reason the dialog box keeps reappearing is that you have not entered a valid point for the curve origin. SU will not accept a ~ in any coordinate in a point - each value needs to be exact. The plugin could be friendlier in this regard.

[dereeei]

The most likely reason the dialog box keeps reappearing is that you have not entered a valid point for the curve origin. SU will not accept a ~ in any coordinate in a point - each value needs to be exact. The plugin could be friendlier in this regard.

Indeed I selected a guidepoint and its coordinate was with ~ . And the worse part was that if unselected it, hoping that the spiral to appear on origin, the previous value was retained in the inputbox, so I was triked again by the plugin. Maybe some fixes on that?


And yes, that is what I wanted to draw... after some trials and errors I got it (about one hour of playing). But I did it in a different manner, I don't know if that was the correct approach, or yours... I just changed the values until I noticed a pattern .
I still don't fully understand what are all that fields in inputbox. So many radii, turns, first turns, second turns... i'm dizzy . I tried to find the answer in the manual, but I couldn't.

[max-cx]

By design, the plugin remembers the previous inputs - including erroneous ones.

Perhaps the interactive versions of these tools will be more to your liking. Have you tried the Curve Maker sub-menu on the Draw menu? They might also help you understand what the dialog boxes are prompting for and the additional degrees of control that the dialogs offer.

[max-cx]

The Curve Maker plugin has been updated. It can be downloaded from http://www.drawmetal.com/download

Given the current Length Units Format, if a guide point coordinate's value can only be approximated (i.e. it displays with ~), then Curve Maker will now display the coordinate value as a decimal length. This should mitigate the problem that dereeei experienced with the curve origin field in the input dialog.