Is there a way to add more segments to the arch?
This week’s release of 0.9.3 should see 3D mouse events handled properly. I’m doing something similar to your code but instead of passing through when there is nothing I’m passing through NDOF event values. So hopefully this will let a 3D mouse be used for navigation.
Glad you’re getting into Blender!
2 Likes
When using the arc tool, you press the up arrow or hold Ctrl and use the mouse wheel to adjust the segments. Works with circles too.
1 Like
Thanks very much for your reply. That’s fantastic. I am very excited to start using your addon with 3dmouse support. I will purchase now and look out for the update.
Could you give more info on how you will pass the NDOF event? Is it something I could add to CAD Snap Utilities? I asked mano-wii to support the 3dmouse but sadly it was not possible at the time and now all support for the addon has now finished. Such a shame, it was a great addon. You cant beat the push pull tool with snap! 
2 Likes
Thank you for the quick response.
1 Like
I’m not doing anything special at all, just passing through the NDOF events. I don’t have a 3D mouse so I’m working with someone to test that this works. If you’ve got time, I can send you a pre-release version to see if it works with your mouse.
Agree with the push pull. Looks like it’ll be in Blender soon though with Extrude Manifold.
1 Like
Hi, I really appreciate your help. If you send it through I can test it and give feedback asap. Thanks
1 Like
I’ve just released the latest version of Construction Lines (0.9.3) so please check Gumroad or Blender Market for your updates. I’ve put the release notes below along with aims for the next release. Also as previously requested here’s a link to a video outlining all the changes and features: https://youtu.be/rUf0fRPtLqs
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions and to all those who helped with the testing.
Version 0.9.3 - Current Version
Release Notes:
Features & Updates:
- Snapping can now occur when line/tape is dragged perpendicular or is an extension to an edge (snap is highlighted for both cases - pink for perpendicular and purple for edge extension)
- Numeric input is now triggered after the Enter key is pressed. This allows for the Numpad and number row to be used for camera orientation during normal operation. Pressing Enter again, after typing a value, will apply the number/expression to the current operation
- Select a guide edge and create true geometry for use outside of CL using the context menu (hold Shift and click guide edge to select. The guide will change to an orange colour when selected )
- Added new preference to override Unit Length with Unit Scale when adding guides and new geometry (this is useful when working with custom scales)
- Added new preference to set guide scale. This will affect all new guide points. Existing guides can be updated by using Scale All from the context menu
- Default scale for guide points is now smaller
- 3D mouse events are now passed through to Blender, so using a 3D mouse to navigate should now be possible
- Strength of axis snapping has been reduced, allowing for greater freedom of movement when drawing and measuring
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed OpenGL issue with dashed tape measure not displaying on some Apple Mac computers
- Fixed bug when calling undo multiple times, where undo will lead outside of current Blender context and cause a crash
- Fixed issue with correct measurement display when changing length units
- Fixed bug which allowed some non-numeric values to be used in metric mode input, causing a crash
- Fixed issue with numeric input when using Imperial units and typing a number with greater than one decimal place as the first value
- Mouse clicks outside of viewport area are now handled correctly (either passed through to Blender or ignored)
- RGB values for guide colour in preferences are now correctly limited
- Numerous performance and stability improvements along with lots of minor fixes
NEXT version main aims:
- Rotation of geometry and guide edges
- Face cuts when adding geometry to existing faces that are unconnected to an edge. This will allow for primitives to be drawn onto an existing face, unconnected to any of the face edges, and split the face so that extrude can be used to pull out or cut holes into the face
- Select and move guide edges
- edit mode actions
8 Likes
Thanks 
1 Like
You really opened the door for a group of people who had wanted to switch to Blender for a long time. Congratulations for this update. I am sure that this will be one of the most successful addons for blender. 
4 Likes
Thanks, Mario I really hope so
3 Likes
Hy to all
I’m new here, but leaving sketchup for sure.
Hope Dan, you will be able to do better then sketchup help lines.
help lines are essential for accurate drawing in architecture
I know that many of us are willing to go for blender, with your type of plugins, and archipack tools.
Maybe a new start for us.
Waiting for your new version.
features I’m (we are) looking for are
- snapping on intersections of construction lines
- snapping intersections of construction lines and objects (segments / faces)
- offsetting guide lines
- duplicating guide lines after offsetting (divide by # guidelines or multiply by # guidelines)
- creating guidelines on an edges
Many other but I’ll (we’ll) be patient
Many thanks
3 Likes
Thanks for the input Karim. Points 1, 3 and 4 are on the development list already and I’ve now added point 2 (thanks for that one, it will definitely be useful to have). Can you explain point 5 please? I’m not quite sure what that refers to.
I’m setting up a Trello board which I’ll share with the forum soon, so you can see all the things on the development list and those currently in development, hopefully this will give a good indication of where things are headed and you can let me know any other developments that would be useful.
Thanks
1 Like
Is point 2 added to construction lines and can it be downloaded on gumroad? Thanks
Hi Dan
Very happy to have points 1 2 3 4.
Waiting for new release !
5 / behavior is simple
a/ select an edge, double click (for example on this edge) to create a construction line precisely on this edge
This construction line is bound to be “infinite” or long enough to intersect all existing objects, or as long as a given setting in pref
2 / if it is not possible to snap directly on construction line and objects (faces segments) because of blender’s workspace, it would be helpful to click on construction line, then click on the the edge or face to create the correct snap point.
I have a point 6 and 7 if you don’t mind :
6/ in sketchup, all intersecting objects, a segment crossing a face, 2 crossing segments, 2 co-planer overlapping faces, 2 non co-planer intersecting faces can be snapped directly, without any construction line.
If that behavior is not possible blender’s workspace, it would be helpful to create a construction line on theses intersections that can be snapped.
7/ while creating flat or 3d object, I mean planer shapes, rectangle circle arcs line …, cube sphere…, could it be possible to have 2 king of boolean operation :
One that will merge the 2 objects into a single object, keeping all edges, but splitting them into independent edges ? therefore the new object is made out of independent filled faces, independent segments that can be independently deleted, extruded , and as soon as a segment is deleted create a new face out of two faces overlapping faces ?
And 4 other 2d / 2d Boolean operations : union, subtraction, intersect, trim (like union but keeping objects independent) removing unwanted edges and faces ?
If you need samples, please do ask
Best regards
1 Like
For the points you’ve highlighted that don’t rely on construction lines, such as No. 6, you might find CAD like transform addon useful as it implements some of the feature sets from SketchUp in Blender. Things like moving and scaling to specific distances and inference points.
Edit:
OK, turns out my problem with numeric input is more to do with unit conversion, but I’m still not sure how to set things up. My Blender units are Metric, Millimeters, with a Unit Scale of 0.001. This is my normal setting, so when I model, I just type, for example, 20, and Blender correctly assumes I mean 20mm. When I use the add-on and drag a tape line, the add-on displays the current length in the upper left corner in millimeters, as expected. But if I then type, for example, Enter, 1, 8, Enter, It actually creates a line of 18 micro-meters. This is whey it looked initially to me like the tape-line was just snapping back to its start point. It was actually snapping back to its start point + 18 micrometers. To get an 18mm tape-line, I have to type in 18000. So somewhere something is off by a factor of 1000. Is there a setting in the add-on that I have to use to correct for this?
End Edit:
This is looking awesome. One step closer to shelving Sketchup forever. I was waiting for the numeric input situation to be fixed, but still can’t get it to work on version 0.9.3.
“Numeric input is now triggered after the Enter key is pressed. This allows for the Numpad and number row to be used for camera orientation during normal operation. Pressing Enter again, after typing a value, will apply the number/expression to the current operation”
Using the tape in edit mode (with a simple cube) , I left click on an edge, start dragging in y direction until dragged tape line inferences and turns green (brilliant by the way), then on the numeric keyboard, I hit Enter, 1, 8, Enter, (without the commas) hoping to make that tape line 18 units long. But instead, the endpoint of the tape line snaps back to the point I originally click on to start the line, resulting in a zero length line. (But see Edit above)
Any pointers? Thanks!
Edit: Meant to say it appears that the addon is getting the numeric input OK as it is echoed in the upper left of the screen.
Hi Dave,
Sorry you’re having issues with the numeric input. Just to check, is there any reason you have Unit Scale set to 0.001? There is a property that can override the Unit Length (mm, cm, etc.) with the unit scale Edit->Preferences->Add-ons->Construction Lines->Override Unit Length Scale but it seems that you just want to work with mm. Does it work correctly if you set Unit Scale to 1?
Glad you like the look of CL by the way. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the quick reply, and sorry for my late one.
When using Blender to model for 3D printing, I prefer millimeters, and I had finally found a combination of settings along with unit scale = .001 that let me do that. I think that was what was messing with the add-on. However, I have now found another combination that almost works with your add-on
In Scene Properties:
Unit System: Metric
Separate Units: OFF
Unit Scale: 1.00
Length: Millimeters
In the “N” panel, View tab:
Focal Length: 50mm
Clip Start: 1 mm (Needed to change this)
End: 10000000 mm
In the Add-on Preferences:
Override Unit Length Scale: ON (otherwise tick marks are way too big)
Guide Point Scale: 0.01
As far as I have tested, everything now seems to work with the Add-on except that the Guide Point Scale won’t go any lower than 0.01. In my setup, the tick marks (the ‘empty’ left after dragging with the tape), draw about 20 mm wide. For objects on the order of 30 mm x 30 mm x 30 mm (typical for the objects I 3D print), this is too big and distracting. I feel like 0.001 would do the trick (0.0001 for sure). Perhaps you can change the minimum limit of the Guide Point Scale??
So thanks again for the quick reply. There is a lot of excitement about this add-on, especially given the evolution of the Extrude Manifold command in Blender 2.9. My last tie to Sketchup is the ease with which precision modelling can be done with it, and now Blender is catching up thanks in large part to this add-on. I bought it as soon as I became aware of it.
1 Like
Thanks Dave. I’m glad you got it working and thanks for the settings write-up. I’ve just updated the guide point scale limits to start from 0.0001 to see if that solves the guide scaling. I’ll send you a .zip for you to try if you like? If it works I can update for the 0.9.4 release.
I think Extrude Manifold is going to be a game-changer for SketchUp users, I’m currently working on making this work for primitives drawn in the center of faces, so we can cut holes in geometry just like in SU with Push/Pull.
Thanks for your comment. If you’re interested in trying the guide scale change can you PM me your email address and I’ll send a patch version through.
1 Like