More new ideas for Space Design

Add Toolbar Icon to produce report (using default report format and default attributes)

Add Combine components made unique (Copy in name) - Like (# in name)

Add Navigation buttons on add / edit Attributes in Design Space Design Attributes. (currently take a while to load an attribute for editing and then saving) so being able to edit the next / previous attribute may help speed it up.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 31, 2011 at 7:42am

1. A quick report button is a good idea. Let me see if I can make it work. This would load the default attributes and the default settings and just take off. I will probably still load a simple dialog first with a couple of options - like "Make Name Unique", "Load PDF file after report created", etc. Or perhaps I will add another option as to whether to load a dialog before the report.

2. Can you be more specific about what the names look like for "Combine components"

How did you create a component with "Copy" in the name?

3. Good idea. I think I can add a drop down as well, to quickly select another attribute.

Prev, Next and the drop down will probably only show attributes already included in the report (either visible or suppressed)

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Permalink Reply by Uzeno on May 31, 2011 at 10:07am

Hi Al,

1. A quick button for reports , should be just that, using default options. If dialogs are presented than its not much different to the sd Report window, may be better to have a seperate tab on the sd Reports for quick report options.

2. Combine Components:
On sd Report there is a tick box - Combine components mande unique (# in name)
My understanding is that SD will combine instances of a component which is a copy of another component differenciated by a # in the component name.

On creating a component with copies of a subcomponent, ( http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=114549 ) the subcomponents name has "copy" in its instance name. eg:

Strip

Strip copy 001

Strip copy 002

Strip copy 003

Could you create a tick box to also combine those components.

3. Being able to select another attribute or a Prev, Next will help in editing and testing calculations, and only showing attributes already included in teh report will not be a problem.
It would be good if you could add a "Create More" button on the Add Attribute dialouge box, so when creating multiple attributes you dont need to OK, then add attribute for each one. I added about 40 attributes this way and its a slow process.

Can you also make the Minimum With & Decimals box "landable" with the tab key, if using the tab key to cycle through the options, for those two boxes you have to use a mouse.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 31, 2011 at 10:15am

Strip

Strip copy 001

Strip copy 002

Strip copy 003

It is unfortunate that they used just the word "copy" here. (I prefer more unique things to check for).

However, I can add a check box to combine components with the letters: " copy ", (including spaces), in the names. (This will work best for users who do not put the same letters in their other components or sub-components.)

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Permalink Reply by Uzeno on May 31, 2011 at 10:27am

Hi All,
If it helps it always has 3 numbers after it, and they all belong to a master component.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 31, 2011 at 10:48am

I was going to use the "3 numbers", but first I would have to see what happens when I add more than 1,000 pickets to a fence.

The answer, after making a fence long enough is that they use three digits for 0-999, and then use more digits if needed - Picket copy 1218.

I could check for "copy " and 3 or more digits, but I think I will just take the easy route and check for "space-copy-space".

Similarly, users will have problems it they create components with a '#' in the name. I created a component called '#1#2#3' - when I made a copy and made the new one unique, SketchUp named it: "#1#2#1' - replacing the number after the last # sign - rather than adding a new # sign, or finding some other solution. So combininb duplicated components won't work properly if users create components with # signs in the names already.

Also, I went with a single setting for both:

Combine components made unique or duplicated ('#' or ' copy ' in name)

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Permalink Reply by Uzeno on May 31, 2011 at 11:07am

Hi Al,

You will have to put in a disclaimer, if components have # or copy in the names then dont use this option. :)

I think the single setting for both will work for the time being, but I'm sure that at some point in the future you will be asked if they can be seperated.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 31, 2011 at 1:18pm

I changed the documentation to read:

Combine components made unique or duplicated ('#' or ' copy ' in name) - if checked then component names will be truncated before any # sign (for "make unique" components), or before the word " copy ", (lower case and with spaces - for duplicated pieces in Dynamic Components).

This will report components which have been :made unique" on the same line if all other attributes are the same. This will also report copied parts of dynamic components as the same component. Note: This may cause problems if you use a #-sign or the cord "copy" in other components.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on June 1, 2011 at 8:53am

Navigation Buttons:

I added Prev..., Next..., and Apply.

(Apply is necessary if you change the format from Text to Numeric and want to test a calculation. You will need to "Apply" the changes first. This could be necessary for other changes as well.)

At this point, you will need to exit and Click "Add Attribute" to add new attributes.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on June 1, 2011 at 9:02am

Quick report

I added a quick report icon to the toolbar:

SD - loads a dialog which lets you define how SpaceDesign will be loaded when you load SketchUp.
Attributes - load the SpaceDesign Attributes Wizard.
Report - load the SpaceDesign Report Wizard
Quick Report - generate a report with the current settings.