Original LXSeries Forum

Id like to request a new menu, watermark, window, pop up, or I dont know what all one can do..

- But I find it illogical that in "inspector window" more or less everything you do is related to what you may have marked at the moment in your plot in what I would call an "objectlevel".

But since layers where introduced we also have a "grouplevel" representing a bunch of objects in the same layer as a choice in that very same inspector window.

And its just annoying to me to constantly keep checking in what layer I may be when i draw an object.
Because as it is now I can never see and/or alter both at he same time.

So often I end up drawing an object in the wrong layer.

The info about and ability to choose layer ought to come up a level higher somehow, while the detailed settings for each layers behaviours could perhaps stay in the inspector.

There are a couple of ways to switch between layers besides using the Inspector's Layers tab. First, there is a popup menu in the Navigator panel that shows and selects the current layer.

Second, saved views remember the current layer configuration. That extends not just to which layer is the current one, but also which layers are visible and selectable. Saved views can be restored by right-clicking or control-clicking the plot and a popup menu will appear.

Even with the ability to see the current layer in the Navigator, there are times when you may forget and draw objects in the wrong layer. In that case, the Format=>Arrange=>Send to Layer... command allows you to easily move the objects to the correct layer.

Yes all this I know already.

Maybe its just me being clumsy, I dont know.
But where else can the question be lifted but here?

So thank you for upholding a forum like this, lets see what it might bring.

I really like the current layer arrangements. I find it much more intuitive than complex layer based apps like Sketchup. I always seem to end up drawing Sketchup objects in the wrong layer and then shifting them in the Entity Info window. I guess it might be possible to add a separate drop down to the inspector tab that indicates layer info, or even a new window like Sketchup's Entity Info but all this would mean would be that there would now be 4 individual areas where you can deal with the layer.

Speaking of Sketchup - can Admin suggest any ways to import a 3D Sketchup set into LxPro?

For some time LXBeams has included plugins for SketchUp. One of these is an export function that allows the SketchUp model to be saved as a file which represents a collection of 3D faces. If you have SketchUp 8 installed, you can install the plugins by going to the LXBeams=>Install Extras=>Sketchup Plugins menu command. (This places the plugin files in the /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins folder. At some point, I imagine that this path will change because Google spun off SketchUp to Trimble) Once installed, you can export your model as a .faces file. The latest build of LXBeams includes a new version of the export plugin. This gives an option in how the export deals with complex shapes.

To use a SketchUp model in LXBeams' Model window, you need to place your .faces file in your user library. In the Finder, hold down the option key and select "Library" from the Go menu. Navigate to the Application Support/com.claudeheintzdesign.lxseries folder. Then, place the .faces file into the models folder. The next time you open the Model window, your model should appear in the popup menu of models.

The latest build of LXBeams (7627) also allows you to import the .faces file into a regular layer as a series of 3D lines. You can use the File=>Import=>Graphic... command to open the .faces file. Or, you can simply drag the .faces file to the plot window and drop it just like a PDF, JPEG or other any other graphic file. The lines into the model are imported into the current layer.

The new version of the export plugin for SketchUp deals with complex faces in 2 ways. For rendering, it breaks complex faces into triangles. These can be further broken down when the file is read into the Model window. This makes for better rendering.

For the purpose of importing into a plot, these triangles add a lot of unnecessary lines. So, the export plugin allows the option not to break complex faces into triangles and to export a series of lines representing their outline instead. This makes for a better graphic import.

Maybe I am trying to do too much but I have a set I designed that is 30MB Sketchup file. I have turned off as much of it as I can and then exported as a .faces file. It comes out as 469MB - needless to say this brings up the old spinning beach ball and a not responding LxBeams. How can I strip the faces file down to manageable proportions? Or should I just try with a much more basic set? Do you envisage making LxBeams capable of complex 3D set rendering or should we assume it will only ever do basic legs, borders and simple shapes?

I'm not familiar enough with SketchUp to know how to turn things off. It may be that turning things off does not prevent objects form being exported by the script. I'm using the free SketchUp not SketchUp Pro and that may make a difference. You could try a simple experiment and turn everything off and see if anything is still exported. The results of that experiment could help improve the script.

Even so, the export script has been improved with the latest build of LXBeams. It now has better clarity between exporting faces for the Model Window and edges for the plot. Today's build of LXBeams also has an option that only imports lines from a .faces file that are greater than a certain length. I've been experimenting with a set for "Carmen" that I found in the 3D warehouse. It runs about 10mb as an exported .faces file which produces a 36mb LXPlot file. However, excluding lines less than 6" (18cm) produces a plot with workable detail and only 5.4mb. Some of the arch detail from the front section is lost. But, what is left would be fine for lighting purposes.

Another strategy would be to import the faces from SketchUp into a new plot and then export the views as PDFs. Use Preview to convert the PDFs to JPEGs and then import them back into LXBeams as images in the plot, front and side sections. This probably could eventually be automated within LXBeams in some way. It is necessary to turn the views into JPEG or some bitmap format because simply using them as PDFs does not reduce the complexity enough to make an impact on rendering speed.

The full import of the "Carmen" file has thousands of 3D lines and that slows down the plot when you have both section views open. In fact, that type of problem is central to the question of 3D enhancements to LXBeams. As there is more 3D detail added, the more it puts a strain on the optimizations that make LXBeams a lighting program that does 3D rather than a 3D CAD program that does lighting. (there are several of those to choose from) More and better 3D tools are indeed a direction for LXBeams in the future. However, any 3D application is, by its nature, complex. One of the best things about LXBeams is how simple and direct it is for its primary purpose--lighting. So any 3D enhancements will need to be carefully added so that LXBeams' basic LD friendliness is not impaired.

Open to thoughts here on how to proceed...

Brilliant work, the new version works perfectly. As you suspected turning off parts of the drawing does not make any difference to what is exported into the .faces file. It was a pretty tall order for LxBeams as the Sketchup design I was exporting was a set I designed and it was my first major attempt at using the Sketchup Pro to create a set design. The set consisted of a lot of large timber apple storage bins which I made by creating in 3D each individual plank and then constructing the crates. The .faces file came out at 376MB but when imported as edges into a plot the file was 9.2 although I have not put the lights in yet. I set the edges preference to ignore any lines less than 0.3m. The critical thing for me is that the complex angles of the towers of apple crates have come in perfectly - scaled correctly and all in their right places. This is a big step forward in the capability of LxBeams. I would think in future I would duplicate the Sketchup file and then delete and/or simplify all the complex elements before importing. The side and front sections are perfect and I can see clearly where beams intersect with set elements. Well done Claude and thank you once again.

The 7629 build has some issues with dragging more than one selected object.

7630 fixes some of these and attempts to optimize redraw. It is important to download 7630 and replace 7629.

With a lot of imported 3D vectors from SketchUp, drawing can be slowed if both section views are open in addition to the plot.

Today's latest build ( v3.0.8 ) optimizes some issues with drawing thousands of objects imported from SketchUp. And it also solves some outstanding issues with manipulating objects in section view.

There are some re-draw issues with this weeks prior builds that were introduced as a result of trying to optimize. All known re-draw issues are solved with 3.0.8.

3.0.8 should be considered a release 3.1 candidate. So, please post or e-mail any issues you discover.