The most valuable information I leaned this last week was about
Ruby Scripts. This was something I didn't know much about and just thought that it wasn't necessary. There is no doubt that Sketchup will ever replace Civil3D because of the way that program connects and integrates pipe networks, surfaces, profiles, etc. Also, there will be many times when we are working with other people or firms who are using different cad software. However, Sketchup offers a unique way to show projects in 3D and rather than re-drawing every project in Sketchup, we can use the cad file as a base.
The time consuming and challenging part of taking a cad drawing and turning it into a 3D model comes from cleaning up the cad file and then making faces. When
line work doesn't connect where it is supposed to, or line work overlaps, we have to manually fix these problems before we can use it properly in Sketchup. There are a series of Ruby Scripts that can be run in a particular order that will speed up the process. All of theses scripts are
avalable on
Smustard.com.
CloseOpens - This script looks for lines that are supposed to touch and don't, and then draws a line connecting the open segments. Open line segments keeps faces from being created.
ExtendCloseLines - This script will find lines that fall short of touching their intended target and extends them in a straight line to touch their intended target.
DeleteShortLines - This script will remove those annoying little lines that overshot their target.
MakeFaces - This script will create faces where it is possible to create faces. A critical time saver for transferring Cad files to Sketchup.
MakeFaces is a free scrip and the others are all under $20 each. I can guarantee that you will save more time and money purchasing and using these scripts than doing all that work by hand.
In order to run most of these scripts you need to add another basic one. It is called
ProgressBar and is free. This will display a progress bar on the status line while a script is running to let you know how long it will take to complete the script.
By clicking on any one of these links above it will take you to the Smustard website link directly to that script. You can then download and/or purchase the script. In later blogs I will make some video tutorials that show how to use these scripts and show the benefits of them.
Happy Sketching!