LSS Arch 1.6.1

Minor update of LSS Arch extension for SketchUp went live today. First of all it contains a couple of fixes and a couple of small improvements.
For those who have missed for some reason announcement of version 1.6 here is a small presentation with description of new features.

LSS Arch 1.6 from Кирилл Баннов

Continue reading to learn more about fixes and new features of this minor update.

LSS Arch 1.6

New version of LSS Arch extension for SketchUp went live on Extension Warehouse: http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/lss-arch

 

The above video makes clear why it is safely possible to claim, that LSS Arch became awesome on multiple levels after this particular update. Continue reading to learn more about features introduced in this update.

LSS Arch Lite

 
Simplified version of LSS Arch extension for SketchUp went live on Extension Warehouse http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/lss-arch-lite. This version may become a perfect solution for those users who are going to use extension only for architectural modeling so no extra functions like labeling or reporting are needed. All tools for basic building's elements modeling are included in lite version.
Lite version doesn't have tools for advanced modeling like mesh tool, grid and contour tools and lacks service utilities, which are present in full version. But SketchUp power user can combine other existing extensions (including free ones), which provide tools for advanced geometry modeling with LSS Arch Lite in order to achieve the maximum effect.

Blob Body Type

As you may already know new mesh body type was introduced in a new version of LSS Arch extension for SketchUp. It is possible to think of blob body type as of conventional mesh but in spherical coordinate system.

Blob Body Type Explanations from Кирилл Баннов

As is evident from the presentation above adaptation of mesh logic from Cartesian  to spherical coordinate system was more or less obvious for three of algorithms implemented earlier ("IDW", "average", "minimize").
Adaptation of the rest two algorithms was a bit more tricky for the following reason. Both "trend" and "predict" algorithms use fit_plane_to_points method provided by SketchUp API. This method allows to estimate a trend plane from a given set of scattered points. The point is that trend plane does not make sense for spherical data set.

LSS Arch 1.2.3

This minor update contains a couple of new interesting features and some important fixes. Chart above shows key new features.

LSS Arch 1.2 Went Live

Congratulations to us all LSS Arch 1.2 made it through reviewing process and went live on Extension Warehouse: https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/lss-arch
Here is a small presentation dedicated to this event. Presentation is focused on new features and gives brief explanations of 'meta-object' concept.

Lss arch 1.2 from Кирилл Баннов

LSS Arch 1.2

Despite the fact that it is a minor update, it contains some really interesting and innovative features: new tools for advanced geometry modelling and grid "meta-object".

Brand new tools available in a new version are:

•  Thick Face tool
•  Mesh tool
•  Grid tool

Learn more about other new features and ideas implemented in a new version >>

LSS Arch 1.0

The new extension for SketchUp. Its goal is to help architects to design medium and small scale projects.
Extension can be installed directly from SketchUp 2015. Here is a link to extension's page at Extension Warehouse: http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/lss-arch

UTC Setting and Chronolux...

Preamble: questions about how UTC setting affects insolation duration and shadows in an active model keep coming. That's right it is not an obvious question, so finally I decided to write some more or less detailed explanations in this regard...

Just a Test of Brand New Feature of 3D Warehouse

As you might already know 3D Warehouse was completely redesigned and what is more important now it is possible to embed interactive 3D view of a model from 3D Warehouse.

LSS Zone 1.2.0 beta

I'm really happy to announce this minor update, because it contains a feature, that I was working on since the very beginning. I'm talking about automatic contour tracing.

LSS Zone 1.1.1

Small Announcement

This is a really minor update. But looks like it might become significant milestone just because I plan to switch to other projects.
Anyway here is an information about this update.

New Features

• floor, ceiling and walls cumulative area added to 'Properties' dialog
• supressing units in an active model now affects zone labels, list and properties representation

Fixes

• hang after applying new properties to a set of transformed zones removed
• an error fixed in 'Attach Labels' dialog if a label has a length value measured in feet and inches (appeared in a model with feet and inches)

You can download the latest version here >>

Read more about new features and fixes here >>

LSS Zone 1.1

Despite the fact that it is a minor update it is an important one, because in addition to some interesting new features it has fixes of some more or less critical issues.

New Features

• 'Layers Toolbar' added
• 'Filter Zones' dialog added
• handling of three zone types added (room, box, flat)

Fixes

• 'List Template' dialog updates results after 'Query string' changes as expected
• report generator display properly grouped string values in a zones' list now
• proper handling of a zero height of a zone implemented
• picking a floor face in a model with multiple identical component instances works well now

You can download the latest version at official Download page.

LSS Zone at Extension Warehouse

Great news: 'LSS Zone' extension successfully passed quality assurance tests and was approved for publishing in Extension Warehouse. So now it is possible to install it easily and safely directly from SketchUp 2013 EW dialog.
Here is a link to extension's page at Extension Warehouse: http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/lss-zone

LSS Zone

Today I'm proud to present a reason of my recent social media inactivity (and actually some other kinds of inactivity as well): "LSS Zone".
It took a while to code this extension and now first beta version is available to try out.

Lss zone from Кирилл Баннов

You can download version 1.0.0 beta here.

Chronolux 1.2.1

First of all this new version was adapted to Extension Warehouse requirements. Plus it has some significant new features and numerous minor fixes.

Lss chronolux 1.2 features overview from Кирилл Баннов

Here is a list of related links:

• LSS Chronolux Home Page
• LSS Chronolux page at Extension Warehouse
• On-line copy of Help System

The best way to install new version is to do it from Extension Warehouse window right in SketchUp2013.

SketchUp 2013 and Extension Warehouse

You might probably already know about new version of SketchUp and its brand new feature called 'Extension Warehouse'. Well now we all have a place to get cool stuff from. Hallelujah!

Here are some reasons to get extensions from Extension Warehouse only:

• it is a place where only serious developers may post their applications, because each candidate has to be approved before he will be allowed to post anything to Extension Warehouse
• all extensions have to pass quality assurance test before publishing in Extension Warehouse, so all of them safe guaranteed and meet some certain quality standards
• installation process from Extension Warehouse is easy and safe: now no one need to extract files and folders manually, just click "Install" button right in SketchUp's Extension Warehouse window

You might want to hear some more details about what exactly 'quality' means. Well here is some guidelines for developers published on 'Developer Center' page:

Extensions offered through the Warehouse must be:

Useful: The extension should provide some useful functionality for SketchUp users.

Unique: Extensions must not simply duplicate existing features or services of the SketchUp client—they must significantly extend some core feature or add entirely new functionality.

Functional: Extensions must install and operate as advertised. The extension should not cause SketchUp to crash or perform slowly.

Safe: The extension should not, through the developer's malice, cause damage to the user's data nor to their operating system.

Documented: The extension should be documented. The SketchUp team will not document your extension for you.

Supported: The extension's developer should be available to answer technical support questions after users have installed the extension. The SketchUp team will not offer support to your users.

Packaged properly as an RBZ Archive: RBZ files are nothing more than ZIP archives of ruby scripts and other assets with a particular, internal folder structure. More on that below.

That's why it was decided to adapt all previously released LSS tools to Extension Warehouse requirements. And we are very glad to announce that LSS became approved publisher at Extension Warehouse and two extensions already successfully passed quality assurance test and were published!

Here is a link to LSS Store at Extension Warehouse: http://extensions.sketchup.com/ru/user/2681/store

And published extensions are:

• LSS Matrix 
• LSS Chronolux

Layout

Since I finally bought SketchUp Pro in addition to cool features of Pro version I gained Layout (it is a stand alone module, which is included in Pro version, for creating 2D design documents). First thing, that I decided to do with it, was creating portfolio of my SketchUp projects. The great thing is that possible to export layout document to PDF.
It took a while to gather all three-dimensional data for that purpose because I decided to include some old projects, but finally I completed this task and here is a result of my efforts:

Projects 2009-2013 from Кирилл Баннов

'Layered Cake' Concept Explanation

The most interesting approach implemented in version 2.0 of 'LSS Toolbar' is that result of each tool processing is a parametric object, so it is possible to continue interaction with it any time later after tool termination. Each 'LSS Object' has two basic parts:

• 'passive' part — new geometric entities (a direct result of tool processing)
• 'active' part — existing (initial) and/or newly generated (utility) entities

So it is possible to continue interaction with an object by modifying its 'active' part.
The significant side effect of the above mentioned approach is that it is possible to make 'layered-cake' objects: use 'passive' parts of some already made objects as an 'active' part of new ones. Extension refreshes the whole 'layered-cake' object in a cascade manner after an active part of a 'bottom level' object changes. It is also possible to play with 'active' parts at any level to affect 'top level' results obviously. The combine use of multiple 'LSS Toolbar' tools for object creation demonstrates synergistic effects of the whole extension.

'LSS Toolbar' Productivity Hints

Usual way of 'LSS Toolbar' typical tool processing has following steps:

• activate a tool dialog
• pick all necessary entites in an active model one by one
• adjust then apply settings to generate results

But actually it is possible to select all necessary entities before tool activation if you know in advance what entites are needed for tool processing. The more entities are to be picked the more handy 'preseleciton feature' becomes, because it is possible to select all necessary stuff at once using selection rectangle instead of picking objects one by one.

'Make 3D Mesh' tool demonstrates 'preselection trick' advantage in a most clear way when it is necessary to make terrain surface from existing point cloud. Preselection becomes actually the only reasonable way to solve such task when point cloud has hundreds or thousands of points.

Note that obtaining a point cloud from CSV file feature added in 'beta 1' of 'LSS Toolbar 2.0'.
It is not an intellectual CSV parser yet, so this functionality has a lot of limitations and it processes only properly formatted CSV files. Appropriate file has to contain only XYZ values separated by comma.
Here is an overview of steps to prepare CSV file for processing with 'LSS Toolbar' when it does not match required formatting.