Automatic SketchUp
Google SketchUp has become one of the most popular tools available for three-dimensional modeling. Its users include architects, engineers, woodworkers, and hobbyists from all across the world. Most designers rely on the toolbar and menus, but SketchUp provides a programming interface that makes it possible to construct designs with scripts coded in the Ruby language.
Automatic SketchUp focuses on this Ruby interface, and explains how to write and execute scripts in the SketchUp environment. With scripts, you can not only form lines, points, and surfaces, but also access advanced features such as animation and web dialogs. You can create custom plugins that extend SketchUp’s capabilities with new tools, menu items, pages, layers, and dialogs.
Automatic SketchUp takes a step-by-step approach to presenting this powerful programming interface, and begins with a simple introduction to the Ruby language. Successive chapters build upon one another, and each provides a wealth of example code to demonstrate the concepts being presented.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to SketchUp Scripting
Chapter 2: Ruby Lesson #1: Data Structures
Chapter 3: Fundamentals of SketchUp Scripting
Chapter 4: Transformations and Additional Geometry
Chapter 5: Ruby Lesson #2: Control Structures and Files
Chapter 6: Colors, Textures, and Materials
Chapter 7: Managing Geometry: Layers, Groups, and Components
Chapter 8: Ruby Lesson #3: Classes and Modules
Chapter 9: Attributes, Options, and Observers
Chapter 10: The SketchUp Interface: Dialogs, Menus, Commands, and Plugins
Chapter 11: The SketchUp Interface: Views, Cameras, Pages, and Tools
Chapter 12: Actions and Animation
Chapter 13: WebDialogs
Appendix A: Classes and Modules
Appendix B: Advanced Geometry
Appendix C: Miscellaneous Tables
About the Author
Matthew Scarpino is a software consultant in the San Francisco Bay area. He is the author of the Skel module, whose Ruby classes enable skeletal animation in SketchUp. His other books include Programming the Cell Processor and SWT/JFace in Action.
