Slow Time for Scripts

Summer is typically a busy time at work (I work as a maintenance tech), and at home. I haven't spent much time writing or updating scripts for the past month, and it doesn't look good for the next month.

When I do get time, I want to get the mover plugin fixed up. There's several internal improvements that need to be made to make it easier to maintain. Plus several new features are on the table - like adding support for dropping Groups onto a sandbox terrain.

Get Center Point from of an Exploded Arc

Working on a plugin to get the center point of an exploded Arc.

New 3D Warehouse Sort Options

Google has added 3 new ways to view search results on the 3D Warehouse; you can now sort your search results by date, rating, or popularity. I've commented on each of the options below.

Date - Sorts models by posted date, most recent uploads first. Works as expected.

Rating - This is a little confusing. One would think sorting by rating would produce a list with the highest-rated models first. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. Sorting by rating appears to sort models into 2 categories: models that have been rated, and models that have not been rated. I'm not sure I see the value.

Popularity - I'm not sure what order the models appear when sorting by popularity. It is somehow related to a models ratings, plus some other unknown factors; possibly number of downloads and/or number of stars. I also suspect it is tied to Google Earth, since many of the most popular models were designed for downloading into Google Earth (basic shapes with texture images.) Since no one knows what it really means (outside of Google,) it is also of limited value for users.

Much more useful are some advanced search options, which will be the subject of a future post.

Door/Window Animator Plugin

I was sort of surprised when it hadn't been done yet, and even more surprised it apparently hasn't even been requested yet. I'm talking about a door/window animator plugin to open/close doors and windows.

Right-click a Door to Open/Close it. Open/close all doors globally. Configure angle of open-ness.

The real work would be to create/convert door components into something the plugin could recognize. Attributes would need to be defined such as; axis of rotation and weather a door opens in or out.

Not terribly hard to implement, overall.

SketchUp Art Prints

Fred Bartels has set up shop selling art prints created from SketchUp models.

Sunrooms

I recently did some work for Four Seasons Sunrooms. I did some cleanup and optimization of several sunroom models. They have posted the models to Google's 3D Warehouse.

SketchyPhysics Beta Tester

I've been invited to help beta test Chris Phillips' SketchyPhysics. SP is a SketchUp plugin that uses the Newton Engine to simulate real-world physical interactions on Groups. I'll post some videos as soon as I get permission.

Update: Chris has posted a video here.