Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

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Architectural Design with SketchUp Figure 6.1: A parabola-shaped park Figure 6.2: Parametric solar shading 230 Fortunately, for the user, both versions of SketchUp (the free and the Pro version) come with a scripting language preinstalled and readily available. Also, when it comes to scripting, there is almost no difference between the feature sets of the free and the Pro version, providing the user of either version with a significant tool set. The scripting language SketchUp uses is called Ruby. This language, created in the mid- 1990s by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in Japan, might be unknown to many software users (for example, Microsoft Office products usually ship with another language called VisualBasic and websites typically use a language called JavaScript). However, it has been a very popular language among Web application developers, and many large and popular websites (Twitter,
Chapter 6 Creating Geometry Using Ruby Scripting Groupon, and Hulu are among them) run on code written in Ruby. Besides, it is a very object-oriented language that is actually quite easy to learn, as you will see. (See Figure 6.3.) SketchUp itself provides a large variety of tools and procedures that are available to the Ruby scripting language using what is called an application programming interface (API). This gives you access to tools such as Move or Copy, as well as the entire collection of materials in your SketchUp model, through many well-documented functions. Having said all of this, it is important to note that any tool or method has its limitations. Consequently, scripting in SketchUp also has limitations. For example, curved shapes are not implemented as perfect curves, in SketchUp’s tool set nor in the API. Because Figure 6.3: The Ruby language’s website SketchUp is a polygon-based modeling software, it naturally does not have a way to define perfect curves. As you know, circles are always made up of several polylines in a SketchUp model. While this certainly is a limitation, it is also important to keep in mind that in real construction, curved shapes may be approximated by planar elements (e.g., plane glass panes on a curved-looking facade)—often for constructability and cost reasons. As a result, SketchUp’s API does not natively support NURBS (nonuniform rational B-splines)—at least not without a plugin. This is better implemented in other software programs (McNeel’s Rhinoceros and Autodesk’s AutoCAD, Revit, and Maya, for example). Nevertheless, creating scripted geometry is quite possible using the freely available version of SketchUp, which lowers barriers of entry and offers the potential for everyone to dabble in this exciting field and create advanced geometry. This chapter approaches SketchUp scripting in a pragmatic way. This means that every step in the process of geometry creation and manipulation does not necessarily have to be scripted—after all, we are not writing a plugin, and SketchUp already has a great set of builtin modeling tools. We’ll script only what can’t efficiently be modeled by hand, using standard SketchUp modeling tools to start or finish a project. First, let’s set up your computer so that you can easily script using Ruby. Setting Up Your Computer Before we do any modifications to SketchUp, let’s use Ruby as SketchUp provides it to get you started quickly. In SketchUp, look for a menu item in the Window menu called Ruby Console. When you click on it, you should see the dialog shown here. This is the built-in interface for the Ruby scripting language. It works simply by accepting a line of code in the text box at the bottom. Once you hit Enter, the line is executed, and the result appears in the field at the top of the box. 231
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Architectural Design with SketchUp
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Contents Acknowledgments . . . . .
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Chapter 4 Using Plugins Effectively
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Page 287 and 288: Appendix A SketchUp Quick Reference
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Appendix B Ruby Class and Method Re
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Appendix C SketchUp API Class and M
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Appendix D Creating Your Own Plugin
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Appendix D Creating Your Own Plugin
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Appendix E Dynamic Component Functi
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Index Boolean operations, 44, 86 Bo
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Index Extrude: Edges by Edges, 96,
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Index J Jim’s SketchUp [Plugins]
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Index Modeling: accurate, 24 basic,
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Index Random_pushpull, 93 Randomizi
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Index STL, 103, 115 Street View, 73
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Index Workflow processes, 56 Wudwor
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