Space Design - Feature Requests (Wish List)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Howard Leslie on May 10, 2011 at 5:05am

Al,

Could you also please consider adding the following additional features to Space Design:

Reports (CSV & PDF) - Filtering

Implement "Filter using Expressions". I've had a go using it, it doesn't appear to work. A quick check of website suggests it hasn't been implemented yet - is this still the case or have I done something wrong (quite possible) ???

eg Ability to only Report out on Components / Groups where $layer = "Steel" & "*" etc.

 

Reports (PDF & Possibly CSV) - Adding Filenames / Scene Names / Dates / Page Numbers Automatically

Ability to add Filenames Scene Names, Dates, Page Numbers etc to: Title, Heading, Caption, Intro Text, Body, Trailer, Footer. (Ability to add Filename &/or Scene Name to Title, Heading and Caption especially would be VERY useful). You could then set up a Scene and certain elements would appear automatically on the Page (PDF file). eg Ability to add: &Filename, &Scene etc etc (similat to MS Word, MS Excel etc). When a CSV is produced (as opposed to a PDF) these elements could possibly be used to create Worksheet Tabs, Filenames etc.

................

Thanks once again

Regards

Howard L'

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 10, 2011 at 5:54am

Group Copies eg if 4 of same Group already exists, becomes 1 Component (with 4 Copies).

 

Hmmm... Any ideas how I am going to know that copies of a group are the same. This seems like a lot of work.

 

I am posting a thread on SCF to see if anyone has ever tried this.

 

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=37164

 

[Edit: The SketchUp forum post provided a clue that there is a way to determine which groups are "identical" - have been copied, but not changed - so they could all be made into the same component.]

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 10, 2011 at 7:54am

 

Groups to Components

Ability to Convert Groups to Components. Drills down into Model. By default, the original Group Name is transferred to both the Components Definition Name and its Name. (Definition Name may end up having #1 etc at the end if Definition Name already exists in the model). Group Copies eg if 4 of same Group already exists, becomes 1 Component (with 4 Copies). Script to work on user selection or on whole model if nothing selected ? A similar script already exists for this but the naming part is not carried over. Components as well as being useful for repeating Geometry in an efficient way also gives us another built-in ($) attribute - very useful for use in Space Design.

This wasn't too hard with the work thomthom had done already. I added the naming stuff you had mentioned.

(If the group has a name, then the name is used as the base name of the new component)

 

I think I am going to add it to RpTools rather than SpaceDesign. (I think this is more of a tool, then a reporting function)

 

It will be a right click edit on a selected group.

 

This won't be as handy as you would like (e.g. it will not automatically drill into the model and replace all groups with components) But it should still be a useful tool.

 

[Edit: If you want to fix thomthom's script to set the new comonent definitaion properly, see this post:  http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=14975&... ]

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 11, 2011 at 8:26am

Reports (CSV & PDF) - Filtering

Implement "Filter using Expressions". I've had a go using it, it doesn't appear to work. A quick check of website suggests it hasn't been implemented yet - is this still the case or have I done something wrong (quite possible) ???

eg Ability to only Report out on Components / Groups where $layer = "Steel" & "*" etc.

I think I have this working now. We will try to get a new version out today or tomorrow.

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Howard Leslie on May 12, 2011 at 4:31am

Al,

Thanks very much for working on some updates to Space Design.

I'm continuing to have a look at Space Design to see if it will be of use for our purposes and I have a few more ideas / suggestions / requests:

Import / Export of Attributes (CSV) (see screen dump)

Potentially I think this feature is REALLY useful.

Currently as far as I can see it only works with Components (Not Groups).

The reimport of data uses the Component Definition Name from the CSV file to associate the newly edited attributes back to the appropriate Component - unless I misunderstand this feature. This is a bit limited.

.................

This feature would be much more useful if the user could choose which field is used to rejoin any attributes from a CSV file back to Components / Groups. Currently its not possible to populate INDIVIDUAL instances of a particular Component from a CSV file- unless the Component is unique.

...............

Suggested possible future way of working with CSV files with Space Design:

1. User Exports out CSV - All Fields or Selected Fields - Effectively this would be the same as existing Space Design feature CSV Report - you could even drop current method and use CSV Reports which work really well. Components AND Groups are processed.

2. User adjusts attributes in Spreadsheet as required.

3. On reimporting attributes, user is prompted for which field from the newly updated CSV file to link back to which field from the Components / Groups inside SketchUp. (eg a user defined ID field).

4. This way, users could for example define an ID field (if required) for Groups / Components and be able to uniquely identify geometry. This ID field would be set up (and populated) using Space Design inside SketchUp BEFORE the CSV file was initially exported out.

..........................................

Long term it would be REALLY good if you could have a live link to a database eg MS Access / MySQL etc.

............................................

Thanks once again

Regards

Howard L'

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 13, 2011 at 3:40pm

I added these two features to the latest version (KE13)

 

• Added additional built-in attributes - $iname, $dname and $material - see SpaceDesign Attributes
• Added filters to report on Components and Groups based on attribute value filters. See: SpaceDesign Filtering

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Howard Leslie on May 22, 2011 at 4:04am

Al,

Thanks very much for your work on SpaceDesign version KE16.

I've been juggling between SD and the native Skketchup Generate Report Tool.

...........

To that end I have a feature request:

 

Attributes - $path and $nest

Could you please add 2 further built-in attributes $path and $nest (like the native Generate Report Tool).

These are SO useful and allow listing of a full model heirarchy in its correct order ie

Components are listed, then their underlying subcomponents. Next Component is then listed and so on.

.......

Currently in SD I can't find a way to list out INDIVIDUALLY, ALL instances of SubComponents BELOW their respective parents.

See attached files. SubComponents are listed at the end in SD reports (see attached *.skp and *.jpg). What I'd like is a listing as follows:

1

a

b

 

2

a

b

 

3

a

b

etc etc

Inclusion of $path and $nest in SD would allow us to create a full model heirarchy. In the CSV file we could then sort on these 2 fields to create a list as above and not as shown in the jpg below.

Hope this all makes sense !!!

...................

Thanks once again.

Regards

Howard Leslie

 

Attachments:

• Component_SubComponent_Reporting.skp, 59 KB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 22, 2011 at 10:33pm

I ran the standard CSV file on your model.

There is a column labelled PATH. I presume that is what you are thinking of for $path.

 

It appears the PATH uses the Entity Name when available, or the Definition Name if the Entity Name is blank, but never the Entity Description.

 

What would $nest be?

 

Is it what they call LEVEL?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Howard Leslie on May 23, 2011 at 4:25am

Al,

Thanks very much for your reply.

...............

Yes, Path in the standard CSV is what I was thinking of for $path.

Level would be $nest, ie Nest Level. It tells you how deep a group or component is buried ie sorts the heirarchy.

It tells you how far you have to drill down into a group or component to get at a particular group etc.

...............

Note, the model that I attached is very simple - only 2 nest levels.

(Try running on a complex model if you have one).

 

With deeply buried groups components, the path would read (for example),:

4/a/component3/group4/group5/10/

 

(Nest)Level in this case would read: 6

...............

Hope this helps

Regards

Howard L'

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 23, 2011 at 4:45pm

Here is the logic I am using:

 

1. The $path starts with the component or group (not Model/)

 

2. for $path, the Instance Name is used if set, otherwise the Definition Name.

 

3. Level starts with 0 for the top level components.

 

I should have a version ready for testing tomorrow.

(Of course you can use better column titles for the $attributes in your own reports)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 23, 2011 at 5:19pm

We have uploaded a new version, KE23, if you want to try this out.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Howard Leslie on May 26, 2011 at 10:36am

Al,

Thanks very much for creating KE23 - the version that includes $path and $level.

They both work like a charm and are REALLY useful.

............

Regards

Howard L'

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion