Class: Sketchup::ToolsObserver Abstract

Inherits:

Object

• Object
• Sketchup::ToolsObserver

Overview

This class is abstract.

To implement this observer, create a Ruby class of this type, override the desired methods, and add an instance of the observer to the Tools object.

This observer interface is implemented to react to tool events.

Some of the code below mentions tool_names and tool_ids. Here is a list of the common tool IDs and names:

• 21013 = 3DTextTool

• 21065 = ArcTool

• 10523 = CameraDollyTool

• 10508 = CameraOrbitTool

• 10525 = CameraPanTool

• 21169 = PositionCameraTool

• 10520 = CameraWalkTool

• 10509 = CameraZoomTool

• 10526 = CameraZoomWindowTool

• 21096 = CircleTool

• 21013 = ComponentTool

• 21126 = ComponentCSTool

• 21410 = DimensionTool

• 21019 = EraseTool

• 21031 = FreehandTool

• 21525 = ExtrudeTool

• 21126 = SketchCSTool

• 21048 = MoveTool

• 21024 = MeasureTool

• 21100 = OffsetTool

• 21074 = PaintTool

• 21013 = PasteTool

• 21095 = PolyTool

• 21515 = PositionTextureTool

• 21041 = PushPullTool

• 21057 = ProtractorTool

• 21094 = RectangleTool

• 21129 = RotateTool

• 21236 = ScaleTool

• 21022 = SelectionTool

• 21337 = SectionPlaneTool

• 21020 = SketchTool

• 21405 = TextTool

Examples:

# This is an example of an observer that watches tool interactions.
class MyToolsObserver < Sketchup::ToolsObserver
  def onActiveToolChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id)
    puts "onActiveToolChanged: #{tool_name}"
  end
end

# Attach the observer.
Sketchup.active_model.tools.add_observer(MyToolsObserver.new)

Version:

• SketchUp 6.0

Instance Method Summary

• #onActiveToolChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id) ⇒ nil

  Once you subclass ToolsObserver with your unique class, you can override the #onActiveToolChanged method to receive tool change notifications.

• #onToolStateChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id, tool_state) ⇒ nil

  The #onToolStateChanged method is invoked when a tool reports a state transition.

Instance Method Details

#onActiveToolChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id) ⇒ nil

Note:

In SketchUp 6 and SketchUp 7.0, tool names on the Mac have some of their first characters truncated. For instance, on Windows, a tool is “CameraOrbit”. On the Mac, is comes across as “raOrbit”. Therefore, use the tool_id to keep track of which tool you need to watch for, or use logic that corrects for the error. There is an example method of one way to do this shown below. (This example is not a comprehensive list of the tool names.)

Once you subclass Sketchup::ToolsObserver with your unique class, you can override the #onActiveToolChanged method to receive tool change notifications.

Examples:

def onActiveToolChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id)
  tool_name = fix_mac_tool_name(tool_name)
  puts "onActiveToolChanged: #{tool_name}"
end

# Returns the "correct" tool name to account for mac API differences.
#
#   Args:
#     tool_name     The tool name to fix
#
#   Returns
#     string   corrected tool name
def fix_mac_tool_name(tool_name)
  if tool_name == "eTool"
    tool_name = "ScaleTool"
  elsif tool_name == "ool"
    tool_name = "MoveTool"
  elsif tool_name == "onentCSTool"
    tool_name = "ComponentCSTool"
  elsif tool_name == "PullTool"
    tool_name = "PushPullTool"
  elsif tool_name == "ommentTool"
    tool_name = "CommentTool"
  end
  return tool_name
end

Parameters:

• tools (Sketchup::Tools) —

  A Tools object.

• tool_name (String) —

  The name of the tool.

• tool_id (Integer) —

  The ID of the tool. This is a predefined number unique to a given tool. For example, the Materials Browser is tool_id 21074.

Returns:

• (nil)

Version:

• SketchUp 6.0

Known Bugs:

• Prior to SketchUp 2026.2 the tool name was incorrect for the following tools:

  • CommentTool (Was 'ommentTool')

  • FlipTool (Was 'lipTool' on Windows and '8FlipTool' on Mac)

  • IglooTool (Was 'glooTool' on Windows and '9IglooTool' on Mac)

  • LassoSelectionTool (Was 'assoSelectionTool' on Windows and '18LassoSelectionTool' on Mac)

#onToolStateChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id, tool_state) ⇒ nil

Note:

Behavior changed in SketchUp 2016. Tool state changes are queued and may be delivered after the tool operation has completed. Multiple state changes can be coalesced and some tools may never trigger this callback. The tool_state value is an internal integer that is not standardized across tools and often remains 0. Do not rely on specific numeric values. Prefer #onActiveToolChanged for reliable notifications of active tool changes, or tool-specific observers when available.

Note:

In SketchUp 6 and SketchUp 7, tool names on the Mac had their first few characters truncated. For instance, on Windows a tool name was “CameraOrbit”, while on the Mac it came across as “raOrbit”. This bug was fixed in SketchUp 8.0. Use tool_id if you need a stable identifier.

The #onToolStateChanged method is invoked when a tool reports a state transition.

Examples:

def onToolStateChanged(tools, tool_name, tool_id, tool_state)
  puts "onToolStateChanged: #{tool_name}:#{tool_state}"
end

Parameters:

• tools (Sketchup::Tools) —

  A Tools object.

• tool_name (String) —

  The name of the tool.

• tool_id (Integer) —

  The ID of the tool. This is a predefined number unique to a given tool. For example, the Materials Browser is tool_id 21074.

• tool_state (Integer) —

  A tool-specific state code. Not standardized and often 0 in modern releases.

Returns:

• (nil)

Version:

• SketchUp 6.0