SketchUp-Ruby Resources

[Jim]

Official Google Sketchup API Documentation

• SketchUp API Blog
• Google SketchUp API Home (Google Code)
• Google SketchUp Developers Group (Google Groups)
• Google SketchUp API Documentation (Reference)

Ruby Operator Precedence

The reserved words and, or and not have a lower precedence than &&, || and !. The tricky part is that their precedence is lower than the assignment operator = .

a = false or true evalualtes to (a = false) or true.
You probably meant one of:
a = (false or true)
a = false || true


Avoid using the typename method

In this discussion, user AlexMozg presents evidence that avoiding the object.typename can give your script a considerable performance increase.

Instead, use object.is_a? Class::Type.

He also says in a model that is less than 10 MB, there may not be a substantial increase, but for very large models the speed increase is considerable.


Installing Extensions

• How to find the Plugins folder?

Here's a method that tells you right where your version of SketchUp is looking for extensions. Copy and paste the code into the Window > Ruby Console dialog, and press ENTER. It works for all versions of SketchUp, and on all operating systems, too.

Code: Select all

Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins")


And in my case the location to install plugins is C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 7/Plugins


Links to important and notable Dev Forum posts past and present. Let me know if there is a topic that should be included here.

• Building Ruby C Extensions compatible with SketchUp
  
  
• Set.insert vs array << x unless array.include?(x)
  
  
• How to enable thumbnail preview (windows)
  
  
• Google SketchUp Ruby API - What's New in SketchUp 7.1
  
  
• WebDialogs - The Lost Manual -- thomthom (Nov 2009)
  
  
• Report Ruby Bugs and Documentation issues in this thread. The SketchUp developers are aware of, and read it.
  
  
• [Code] Real UV from UVHelper data - thomthom (Oct 2009)
  
  
• State of Observers — 19 July 2009
  
  
• [Code] UnicodeEx - Sketchup + Character Encoding (thomthom)
  
  
• SketchUp RUBY API Wishlist (way of coding wishes, please)
  
  
• WebDialogs: How to Hide the Scrollbars
  
  
• SketchUp-Ruby Resources
  
  
• Must Have Ruby Plugins - Visual Index
  
  
• < SCF Toolbars Authors >
  
  
• Collaborative Effort - Ruby Template, RDoc, and Localization
  
  
• Word of warning to developers
  
  
• Ruby Forum Code Search

SketchUp & Ruby Development Discussions

• Rick's Words of Warning - Important points to remember for writing plugins.
  
• How do you make plug-ins for sketchup
  
• What is needed to script?
  
• ruby dev environment
  
• Creating an API
  
• $ versus @
  
• Manipulating the InputPoint

Ruby Editor Suggestions

• ConTEXT Editor w/Ruby Highlighting
  
• Notepad++ editor
  
• Notepad++ AutoComplete files
  
  • by Didier Bur
    
  • by radhikari
    
• EditPlus editor
  
• RDE

Ruby Challenges

1. UI.play_sound jukebox (RickW)
2. best fitting bounding box (Matt)

Ruby Docs

• Ruby-doc.org
  
  • Arrays
    
  • Strings
    
  • Hashes
    
  • Enumerable (module)
    
  • IO
    
  • Time

Ruby Books

• Automatic Sketchup
• Ruby Best Practices
• The Book of Ruby

Extension Collections

• Smustard(TM) - the Companion to Sketchup(TM)
• Ruby Library Depot Here are the contributions of the Ruby developers of the SketchUp community since 2004.
• Jan Sandström (Pixero)
• Soap Skin & Bubble
• Mario Pehle (azuby) under Software
• Accustudio File Repository - appears to mirror the Ruby Library Depot.
• SketchUp Plugins Blog

Resources

• Ruby Scrambler Download

[Heven7_floor]

Great Jim

Your suggestion is usefully to every newer like me .

Thanks

[watkins]

Dear Jim,


Many thanks for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Bob

[sepo]

Just found this depository of Plugins for SU. There a lot of known ones but nevertheless mayby useful.
http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?opt ... lect&id=23

[Oaht]

Thanks for your effort. Cheers

[vashstamp3de]

I hope this helps...(and not violating someone )


http://xoomer.virgilio.it/kites/program ... ugins.html


Good Luck!

[remus]

I imagine a link to contact each plugins developer would be appreciated by the authors

[Pauline01]

thx again it's very very nice!

[Align]

thanx for this awesome thread! i give it a 10

[thomthom]

Jim, maybe include the path to install plugins on Mac as well. That one seem to be the most confusing amongst users it seems.

[RickW]

I hope this helps...(and not violating someone )
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/kites/program ... ugins.html
Good Luck!

Just point the Windowizer link to Smustard, please. It currently points to a broken link on RLD.

[thomthom]

Might be worth noting that definition names can't be trusted to be unique: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=28094

[Dan Rathbun]

---

RUBY PROGRAMMING REFERENCES - CHM format*
Method References for Ruby Core and Extended Modules & Classes

~ Arranged by Ruby version and PatchLevel ~

---

1.8.6

END OF LIFE

announced 2011-09-11

Ruby ver 1.8.6 p398

ruby-1.8.6-p398-doc-chm-2.zip

dl.txt
DL library documentation (from v1.8.6-p287)
Online version at ruby-doc.org

Latest ver 1.8.6
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

1.8.7

END OF LIFE

2014-06-30

Ruby ver 1.8.7 p330

ruby-1.8.7-p330-doc-chm.zip

Latest ver 1.8.7
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

1.9.1

END OF LIFE

2012-01-31

Latest ver 1.9.1
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Keywords <> Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

1.9.2

END OF LIFE

2014-07-31

Latest ver 1.9.2
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Keywords <> Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

1.9.3

END OF LIFE

2015-02-23

Latest ver 1.9.3
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Keywords <> Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

2.0.0

SECURITY MAINTENANCE ONLY

ends 2016-02-24

Ruby ver 2.0.0-p247

ruby-2.0.0-p247-core-doc-chm.zip

ruby-2.0.0-p247-stdlib-doc-chm.zip

Latest ver 2.0.0
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

2.1.6

STABLE - MAINTENANCE

Ruby ver 2.1.6

ruby-2.1.6-core-doc-chm.zip

ruby-2.1.6-stdlib-doc-chm.zip

Latest ver 2.1.6
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

2.2.2

STABLE - CURRENT

Ruby ver 2.2.2

ruby-2.2.2-core-doc-chm.zip

ruby-2.2.2-stdlib-doc-chm.zip

Latest ver 2.2.2
Online at Ruby-Doc.org
Core <> Libraries [framed webpage]

---

* Compiled HTML Help Markup

NOTICE: CHMs for older patchlevels under each version may be deleted to save server space.
( Get 'em while they're hot! )

[Dan Rathbun]

---

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
|--<<< RUBY RESOURCES >>>--|
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

---

Ruby Newbie's Guide to Getting Started
viewtopic.php?f=180&t=10142&start=15#p298780

---

TUTORIALS & PRIMERS


~ Ruby (Generic) ~

Introduction to Ruby
http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/Tutorial/

Ruby User's Guide
by Mark Slagell, Iowa State University
http://www.rubyist.net/~slagell/ruby/

Ruby Study Notes
by Satish Talim
http://rubylearning.com/satishtalim/tutorial.html

Learn to Program
by Chris Pine
http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/


~ Sketchup Specific ~

Edges to Rubies - The Complete SketchUp Tutorial
by Martin Rinehart
http://www.martinrinehart.com/models/tutorial/

Ruby Tutorials
SketchUcation Forums
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=52665#p52665

Tutorial Index
SketchUcation Forums
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18%26amp;t=8767

---

BOOKS


~ Offline (PDF, CHM, TAR, etc.) ~

The Book of Ruby
by Huw Collingbourne
** PDF
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/IMG/zip/book-of-ruby.zip

The Little Book of Ruby
by Huw Collingbourne
** PDF
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/IMG/pdf/LittleBookOfRuby.pdf

Mr. Neighborly's Humble Little Ruby Book
by Jeremy McAnally
** PDF
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/hlrb.pdf

Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, 1st Ed.
(aka "The Old Pick-Axe Book" circa Ruby ver 1.6.x)
by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
** TAR archive of website
http://phrogz.net/ProgrammingRuby/ProgrammingRuby_20061016.tar.gz
** CHM edition file is included w/ Win 1.8.6 One-click install
see your /ruby/doc directory OR
download from SketchUcation

Extending Ruby 1.9 - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide
by David Thomas
http://media.pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/ext_ruby.pdf

Ruby Best Practices
by Gregory T. Brown
** PDF
http://sandal.github.com/rbp-book/pdfs/rbp_1-0.pdf

Automatic SketchUp
by Matthew Scarpino, Eclipse Engineering LLC
http://www.autosketchup.com/downloads/Automatic_SketchUp.pdf


~ Online ~

Ruby Essentials
Techotopia
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Ruby_Essentials

Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, 1st Ed.
(aka "The Old Pick-Axe Book" circa Ruby ver 1.6.x)
by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
http://phrogz.net/ProgrammingRuby/frameset.html OR
download from SketchUcation


~ Previews of Ruby Books for Sale ~

Learn to Program, 2nd Ed.
by Chris Pine
(expanded from the original tutorial)
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/ltp2/learn-to-program-2nd-edition

Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, 2nd Ed.
(aka "The New Pick-Axe Book" circa Ruby ver 1.8.x)
by David Thomas, with Chad Fowler and Andrew Hunt
http://pragprog.com/titles/ruby/programming-ruby

Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide
by David Thomas, with Chad Fowler and Andrew Hunt
http://pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9

The Ruby Programming Language
by David Flanagan and Yukihiro Matsumoto
http://books.google.com/books?id=jcUbTc ... GordbwjC...

---

TECHNICAL REFERENCES


Ruby Cheatsheet
http://www.zenspider.com/Languages/Ruby/QuickRef.html

Ruby Base Classes - circa ver 1.6.x
(but most still OK for 1.8.x which has more methods)
http://phrogz.net/ProgrammingRuby/builtins.html

Ruby Core Documentation
(may be ver 1.9.x)
http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/

RDoc Documentation
http://rdoc.rubyforge.org/

RubyGems User Guide
http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/1

RubyGems Manuals
http://docs.rubygems.org/

---

INDEXES


Resources
(SketchUp Sage)
http://sites.google.com/site/sketchupsage/resources

---

SKETCHUP SPECIFIC


~ API ~

SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet
by Alex Schreyer
http://www.alexschreyer.net/cad/sketchup-ruby-api-cheatsheet/

SketchUp Ruby API
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/

SketchUp Ruby API - Class Index
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/classes.html

SketchUp Ruby API - Method Index
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/methods.html

SketchUp Ruby API - Class Diagram
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/diagram.html

Sketchup Ruby API Class Diagrams
by Jim Foltz
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2008/08/sketchup-ruby-api-class-diagrams.html

Google SketchUp API Blog
http://sketchupapi.blogspot.com/

PickHelper - Visual Guide
by Thomas Thomassen
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=30232&p=266685

WebDialogs - The Lost Manual
by Thomas Thomassen
http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?id=36664


~ Indexes ~

SketchUp-Ruby Resources
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180%26amp;t=10142


~ BBs / Forums ~

Developers Forum - Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/group/google-sketchup-developers

Developers Forum - SketchUcation Community Forums
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewforum.php?f=180


~ Code Snippets ~

Code Snippets Index - SketchUcation Developers Forum
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180%26amp;t=28846


~ Plugins ~

Plugins Index (by author) - SketchUcation Plugins Forum
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=28782

Plugins Visual Index - SketchUcation Plugins Forum
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=16909

Trimble SketchUp - Plugins (Download Page)
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/plugins.html

Trimble SketchUp - Ruby Scripts (Download Page)
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/rubyscripts.html

Jim Foltz SketchUp Plugins
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/09/plugin-index-page.html

Ruby Libray Depot
! URL Removed due to too many outdated plugins !

Smustard(TM) - Plugins and Scripts
http://www.smustard.com/scripts/

JohnJ - Plugins for Sketchup
http://www.johnj.com/drawing/sketchup/ruby-plugins-for-sketchup/

---

[thomthom]

Very nice list Dan!

Ruby Best Practices, by Gregory T. Brown
** PDF
http://sandal.github.com/rbp-book/pdfs/rbp_1-0.pdf

This one looks very interesting.

[Dan Rathbun]

Very nice list Dan!

Thanks.. (but I didn't find all these myself.) I had it posted over at GG, but it kept getting farther down the topic stack. Over here I know right where it is, and can format it.

This one looks very interesting.

Jim found that one.

P.S. - @Jim your free to cut and paste anything from here to the top of the thread.

[Dan Rathbun]

---

Ruby Interpreter DLLs (Win32)

---

Instructions: (Win32 ONLY)

---

These Instructions Were Aimed at SketchUp Releases 6.x & 7.x ONLY

---

Navigate (Explore) on your computer, to the Google Sketchup application folder, and ...

1. Backup the current "Deceased" 1.8.0 dll, msvcrt-ruby18.dll by renaming it:
   • msvcrt-ruby180_p0.dll
   • or similar if it's a newer version. For example, if the old dll is v1.8.6-p287, then rename it msvcrt-ruby186_p287.dll
2. Download your choice of a newer version Ruby Interpreter Win32 DLL (below)
   
   
3. Make a copy of the new file and name it: msvcrt-ruby18.dll
   (Sketchup is hardcoded to load this DLL filename.)

---

ALL Ruby 1.8 Trunk Releases Are Now Obsolete

---

1.8.0

OBSOLETE

ruby-1.8.0-p0-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

---

1.8.1 .. 1.8.4

OBSOLETE

1.8.1 thru 1.8.4 are obsolete (no sense posting them.)

---

1.8.5

OBSOLETE

ruby-1.8.5-p0-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

ruby-1.8.5-p231-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

---

1.8.6

OBSOLETE

ruby-1.8.6-p287-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

ruby-1.8.6-p369-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

---

1.8.7

OBSOLETE

ruby-1.8.7-p330-i386-mswin32-dll.zip

---

ALL Ruby 1.8 Trunk Releases Are Now Obsolete

---

[Dan Rathbun]

---

UPDATES / ADDITIONS (in this topic.)

---

Ruby Interpreter DLLs (Win32)

Edited Instructions to be more clear and precise.

Added DLL for:

• latest Ruby v 1.8.7 p330

---

RUBY PROGRAMMING REFERENCES - CHM format

Added CHMs for:

• latest Ruby v 1.8.7 p330
• latest Ruby v 1.9.2 p136

---

[Dan Rathbun]

---

Ruby Newbie's Guide to Getting Started

---

Go to this post... Ruby Resources

(1) make a checklist of all the Tutorials, and go thru them 1 by 1, and check them off the list as you do.

(2) make a checklist of all the free downloadable books, and down load them one by one. Put them in a folder on your Desktop (or wherever you can find them easily.) And read them.

(3) For Standard ruby Reference, get the CHM for Ruby here, put it in this same folder.

Get comfortable with Standard Ruby. When your ready to script for Sketchup:

(4) On the Reference list (link above,) go to the Sketchup Specific section, and download Alex's Cheatsheet, and bookmark the Sketchup API Documentation website. (You'll be referencing it a lot.) It has the methods for the modules and classes for 'talking' to Sketchup, and manipulating it's models.

(5) Go through all the available Sketchup Ruby tutorials (on the list.)

(6) Read the code examples in your plugins/Examples folder.

(7) Have fun. Start fooling around with Ruby under Sketchup. Usually the best thing is to start by customizing the examples.

(8) Whenever you have questions, come back to this forum, and first do a search (it's likely your question has already been asked.) If not.. start a new topic (make the the topic title simple but informative... a shortened version of your question. Don't make it "Help Me!", that does not work well.)

(9) Before going into advanced Sketchup scripting, download more advanced plugins from the plugins forum (or other websites.. see the Resource list,) and examine them. See how they did things. This the best way to learn how to do things right. If you have a question about why an author did something a certain way... you can either Private Message them, or see if there is a discussion topic specific to their plugin, here in the Developer's forum, and post a question at the end of that topic. If no topic exists, create one by putting the plugin name in square brackets following by 'coding questions.' Please don't ask coding questions in the Plugin distribution topic of the Plugins forum. Ask them here in the Developers forum.

And ... welcome to the world of Ruby !

[Jim]

This site has many videos of Ruby talks recorded at various Ruby Conferences - http://confreaks.net

Some good stuff there - if you can find them...

[rricon]

Hello,

Where to find the .h file of msvcrt-ruby18.dll file ?

Regards,

[Dan Rathbun]

Where to find the .h file of msvcrt-ruby18.dll file ?

In the source:
ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6-p287.zip

[Dan Rathbun]

book: "Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide"
Copyright © 2000 Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

ProgrammingRuby.zip

Released under the terms of the Open Publication License V1.0.

[todd burch]

Chunky Bacon. I didn't see a link for Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby. A true classic.

http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-gui ... ter-1.html

[Dan Rathbun]

The Bastards Book of Ruby
A Programming Primer for Counting and Other Unconventional Tasks

---

Regular Expressions

Cheatsheet

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

[mptak]

http://rubyjs.org/

Javascript implementation of Ruby. For what its worth.

[Jim]

http://opalrb.org/

Ruby to JavaScript compiler, for what it's worth.

[August]

In his main post above, Dan basically suggests becoming very familiar with Ruby before beginning to use it with Sketchup. And he has a very good point, especially when it comes to the powerful and rather esoteric ways that Dan himself can use Ruby.

However, in the other direction, the Bastard's Book above, http://ruby.bastardsbook.com/, makes the point that "Programming and knitting are both skills that require continual practice but aren't easily improved by doing things other than, well, actually programming or knitting." So he presents lots of simple ways to get in your practice. "The good thing about programming compared to knitting a scarf is that you can experiment and mess up all you want without having to go out and buy more yarn."

Even further in that direction, Matthew Scarpino's book, "Automatic Sketchup", gives you ways to get that fundamental practice by working in Sketchup. And that's your goal, isn't it? I would even recommend Matt's book and SketchUp Ruby for initial programming instruction -- the instant gratification of creating SU objects is hard to beat.

And don't let the Amazon price for this out-of-print book scare you off. It's available free at the author's site. See also this thread, Automatic Sketchup book can now be freely downloaded.

[Dan Rathbun]

WIN32OLE Sample scripts from the Ruby 1.8.6-p287 distribution:

win32ole_samples.zip