[Plugin] Grow v2.3 20120519

[TIG]

There have been several threads about 'Grow' [they keep growing ]... so it's been decided to make one new central point where it'll be based - and that right HERE!

Usage:
Move/Place Objects,Select them and pick Grow.
Pick Point.
Enter desired data in dialogs and see results.
Undo is in 1 step.
Note that non-grouped Faces and Edges can stick together after 'Growing'.
Play around to see types of results...
Shape, location, scale, order all produce different results...
Linear Scaling goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7... on any scaling factor
Exponential + goes 1 2 4 8 16 32... on any scaling factor != 1
Exponential - goes 1 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16 1/32... on any scaling factor != 1
Fibonacci + goes 1 1 2 3 5 8 13... on any scaling factor
Fibonacci - goes 1 1 1/2 1/3 1/5 1/8 1/13... on any scaling factor

Note that this version [v2.1] is unchanged from the previous one you might have found somewhere else - it's just been rehoused here !

Any future updates [if any] will be posted here too...

Download and extract this zip file; place the .rb file into /Plugins/ and the /Icons/ subfolder [containing its .png cursor file] into /Plugins/ too.

The latest updates attempt to avoid issues raise by ill-considered rogue scripts which overwrite base call/methods and have miscast observers
Legitimate tools like this that follow the API should NOT have to include workarounds for this dross !!!

[Khai]

..and what does it do?

[Gaieus]

..and what does it do?

Grows. Take one every evening (and one extra before sex but never more than two a day)

[TIG]

Gaieus!
I've added an explanation to the download page...
It's been around so long that I forgot that it might be new to some of you...

[Gaieus]

Ah well, sorry for the bad joke indeed (I could not resist however)

[solo]

Csaba,you have grow.rb confused with viagra.rb.

[Gaieus]

You know, at my age you take everything whose label says "grow".

[TIG]

I've heard that the super-strength-viagra - like you use - is so potent, that if you don't swallow it quickly enough you get a stiff-neck

[Rich O Brien]

Keep on topic guys. I'd hate to have to shaft you outta here. So quit the dickin' around. It is easter after all. The time to reflect on what rose from the dead only to disappear again.

[Pilou]

Note that this version [v2.1] is unchanged from the previous one you might have found somewhere else - it's just been rehoused here !

So if I have the last previous one, non need to download this one?

My favorite one

[TIG]

Note that this version [v2.1] is unchanged from the previous one you might have found somewhere else - it's just been rehoused here !

So if I have the last previous one, no need to download this one?

Correct.
I suspect you already have the latest version.
Reinstalling it won't do any harm - it'll just be a waste of two minutes that you'll never see again

[Pilou]

I suspect you already have the latest version

yes old but yet 2.1 2007 01 21

[TIG]

I suspect you already have the latest version

yes old but yet 2.1 2007 01 21

It IS an 'oldie but a goldie'...
It would probably benefit from a webdialog interface etc etc... BUT four or five years ago when I wrote it it was the best I could do...
It still works!!!

[jim4366]

A question about "growing" things. No, not that, sketchup things.

To try to explain.
Okay, starting with something 10 units long in the red direction. Say it's just a line. And rotations all zero. Now if I set x copy scaling to 1.1 and xcopy scaling type to exponential, I get copies in the sequence:
11, 12.21, 13.331 ....units length.
What I expected, each new copy is 1.1 times the length of the previous copy. Good.

Now do the same thing only with xcopy scaling set to linear.
(as I am hoping to get copies in the series:
11, 12, 13, 14 ....

But what I get is:
23.1 ,37.51, 53.361 ....units length

I'm just not quite understanding this. The linear scaling.
Help??

[pyroluna]

Dude. Why didn't I discover this plugin sooner? This is the perfect plugin to make a spiral staircase!

[TIG]

Dude. Why didn't I discover this plugin sooner? This is the perfect plugin to make a spiral staircase!

That IS one of the demos from looooong ago...

[d12dozr]

Right, but I believe Pyroluna's point is that there are MANY useful ruby 'gems' buried here...we need that official Plugin repository so that they are easy to discover and understand each one's purpose!

[TIG]

Right, but I believe Pyroluna's point is that there are MANY useful ruby 'gems' buried here...we need that official Plugin repository so that they are easy to discover and understand each one's purpose!

That's why, after some prompting, I resurrected 'Grow' into the mainstream so you might all know/remember it...
Here're some [old] examples...

Grow Examples.zip

[d12dozr]

Thank you for those ...now isn't someone working on a video tutorial?

[TIG]

Grow is so old that there was only 16mm film back then

[d12dozr]

So a black and white silent film? That works!

[Pherim]

It doesn't work for me if SketchyPhysics 3.2 is installed. If I remove sketchyphysics.rb from the plugins folder, it works fine.

[TIG]

It doesn't work for me if SketchyPhysics 3.2 is installed. If I remove sketchyphysics.rb from the plugins folder, it works fine.

This is a known issue - SP messes with some existing base class methods and thereby affects a few other scripts...

[patricprz]

Thanks for recommending this. It works a treat.

[Sir.Swaffel]

What would be the best way to let it "grow along path"?

[TIG]

Not this tool...
Look for Chris Fullemr's ComponentStringer and RickW's ComponentAlongPath ...

[Sir.Swaffel]

Well I do need some kind of scaling. As you can see from the image, I'm trying to make a spiraling tower. I need to make windows in the vertical segments, but the tower is quite large and the vertical segments get smaller as the tower gets higher. So I need the windows to follow the spiraling path upwards AND have them scaled down according to the height. Then I'm going to subtract them from the vertical segments to create the arched openings. It's a total headache

tower.jpg

[TIG]

Try DrawHelix for the rail[s] - you can have different start/end radii and a straight-curve for the profile...

Capture.PNG

Here's quick example, worry about the fripperies like the door-arch later...

[mikenon]

Hi - This is almost exactly what I need, but I would like to use other functions. Is there a way to alter this so that instead of choosing from linear/exponential/fibonacci I have the ability to select my own values. I need some other periodic functions, like sine-wave. I imagine, the easiest way to do this would be to just allow values to be passed in a list. So if I want 100 copies, I pass in a list with 100 numbers for x-offset. Is this possible?

Mike

[TIG]

Yes IF YOU redo the code.
It's probably easiest to make a new tool that is run in a way that can take arguments - in your case an array of values, which it then uses to do something.
That way the processing is somewhat independent of the outcome...
Do not forget that there are already many tools that process CSV/TSV files so in your case you simply have a file in the format x,y,z [and even rotx,roty,rotz,scalex/,scaley,scalez etc] - one 'point' per line and then do something with the point - add cpoints, join up the points with lines etc, place an instance at every point and rotate it/scale it... You could make the 'table' file from Excel osa...
IF you explain better what it is you want to achieve and supply a typical xyz... data set I might be able to quickly bodge something together, though I am quite busy...