Marissa Farrell

I'm working on developing a version of the Compose node that won't rely on the Vectorworks Menu Command since that ends up not always behaving as expected in all cases.
I figured I'd share my progress with it. It's not done, I haven't explored all edge cases, and it's possible that it's still buggy enough that you could end up in an infinite loop in some cases.

With this in mind, I highly recommend saving your work before testing this node. I'd appreciate any feedback on where it's failing or where you would expect a different behavior so I can add error handling/improvements.

The attached file is in 2025 version. I think it would be safe to export back a few versions, so if you're on an earlier version of Vectorworks but would like access to test, let me know and I can upload a copy for that version as well.

11 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Submitted December 13, 2024

Create Textures and Image Props

How to Use the Marionette Script:
Step 1: Install the Pillow Library
The script requires the Python library Pillow for image processing. If you’re unsure whether you’ve installed it before, you can safely install it again.
To install:
   1.   Select the Install Pillow node in the script.
   2.   Click Run in the Object Info Palette (OIP), or
   3.   Right-click the node and select Run Marionette Script.
Step 2: Add Commands to Your Marionette Command Library
To make the script easily accessible:
   1.   Right-click on each wrapper.
   2.   Select Convert to Menu Command….
   3.   Name the command as you want it to appear in the Tools > Marionette Commands menu.
Step 3: Use the Commands
   1.   Select an image (bitmap) on your drawing area.
   2.   Navigate to Tools > Marionette Commands > [Your Command Name].
   3.   Test with sample bitmaps provided in the file’s Sample Images design layer.

Special Notes:
   •   Running Commands:
Important: These Marionette Wrappers cannot be run directly from the drawing area because they act on selected objects. You must run them from the Tools > Marionette Commands menu.
   •   Installing Pillow:
The Pillow library will be installed to your User Folder. If needed, reinstall it using the provided Install Pillow node.
   •   Image Import Settings:
For the AI to Prop commands, always import images as JPEG. Importing as PNG will cause display issues.
Use the AI to Prop with Dialog command to manually adjust import settings if needed. Once configured, the non-dialog version will reuse the last settings automatically.
   •   Temporary Files:
The script creates temporary images in your User Folder. These files can be deleted at any time.

25 downloads

marionette
texture
(and 3 more)
Tagged with:
- marionette
- texture
- image prop
- script
- scripting

(1 review)

0 comments

Updated December 2, 2024

Marionette Faceted Facade

This object will create 3D polys with random peaks to display a faceted facade.

This object requires the installation of Python libraries Numpy and Scipy. If these do not already exist in [User Folder]/Python Externals, you will be prompted with a dialog to install them.

367 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Updated November 1, 2022

Marionette Triangulation

A recent discussion with a coworker prompted the idea of populating a source shape with random triangulations - this is what has evolved.

Notes:
These objects require the Python libraries NumPy and SciPy to be installed to your computer. A prompt will appear when you modify any of the objects.
These libraries will be installed to your User Library > Python Externals. It is 100% okay to delete these libraries at any time, the only thing that will happen is that networks that rely on those libraries will require you to download them again.

214 downloads

triangulation
random
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:

(1 review)

0 comments

Updated October 27, 2022

Image Processing

By Marissa Farrell in Marionette - Networks

This network will read the data in an image existing in your file, for example, the color of each of the pixels, and create rectangles/extrusions with the same fill color. The extrusions are created at a height correlating to their brightness. The data extracted from the image could be used in many additional ways.

Please look at the different version options to locate a file for the Vectorworks version you are running.

346 downloads

image processing

(1 review)

13 comments

Updated October 27, 2022

Open Database Connection (ODBC)

ODBC connection is useful for those that have an external database and want to use values from it within Vectorworks. It is also helpful going the other way, allowing users to edit their external database from within Vectorworks.
These are more advanced nodes that will require an understanding of setting up and working with external databases.

87 downloads

odbc
productivity
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Updated March 15, 2018

Scale Poly By Area

Starting in Vectorworks 2018, users can now create menu commands defined by Marionette networks.
To do this, select a wrapper in your file, right click, and choose "Convert to Menu Command..."
This will open a dialog window where you can name this command. A background process will save your Menu Command to a file in your User Folder.
Once that's complete, you can access the menu command by navigating to Tools > Marionette Commands > [YOUR COMMAND HERE]

This node when converted to a Menu command will scale the selected poly to a target area of your choice.

This menu command will take into account your primary unit settings. Feet & inches will scale by sq feet, inches will scale by sq inches, etc.
It works on selected objects and will prompt you for an area (but does not define which units in the dialog)

184 downloads

(2 reviews)

0 comments

Updated March 6, 2018

Prefix Classes

Starting in Vectorworks 2018, users can now create menu commands defined by Marionette networks.
To do this, select a wrapper in your file, right click, and choose "Convert to Menu Command..."
This will open a dialog window where you can name this command. A background process will save your Menu Command to a file in your User Folder.
Once that's complete, you can access the menu command by navigating to Tools > Marionette Commands > [YOUR COMMAND HERE]

This node when converted to a Menu command will prefix all of your classes, excluding None and Dimension, with the Prefix of your choice.

By default, the prefix will be "Prefix-"

Keep in mind, if you want the dash to appear for hierarchical display, you must include it in the string.

220 downloads

(0 reviews)

1 comment

Updated November 17, 2017

Change Multiple Values with Popup

This object is a result of working with @TSG-Sim on a challenge where a popup was to control both the color of an object as well as text.
The method behind this is to combine smaller lists into a larger list to easily distribute the values. I used a Point 2D node in this example, but you could use any other list handling that you would like.

115 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Updated October 24, 2017

Align Objects

This node will take an anchor object and a list of other objects to align.
The OIP has X and Y position options on how the objects should be aligned.

This node will only align objects in 2D.

93 downloads

align
marionette
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
- align
- marionette
- node

(0 reviews)

3 comments

Updated October 16, 2017

New Class from Object Attributes

Starting in Vectorworks 2018, users can now create menu commands defined by Marionette networks.
To do this, select a wrapper in your file, right click, and choose "Convert to Menu Command..."
This will open a dialog window where you can name this command. A background process will save your Menu Command to a file in your User Folder.
Once that's complete, you can access the menu command by navigating to Tools > Marionette Commands > [YOUR COMMAND HERE]

This menu command will allow users to select an object and create a class defined by the current object's attributes.
v1.0 will set the following. There are plans for improvement.
Fill Color Line Style Line Weight Line Color
If there's an attribute you need/want right away, let me know, and I'll do my best to get it in.

One note: the new class will not be set to "Use at Creation," this must be set in the Edit Class dialog.

109 downloads

(0 reviews)

1 comment

Updated September 28, 2017

Color By Size

Starting in Vectorworks 2018, users can now create menu commands defined by Marionette networks.
To do this, select a wrapper in your file, right click, and choose "Convert to Menu Command..."
This will open a dialog window where you can name this command. A background process will save your Menu Command to a file in your User Folder.
Once that's complete, you can access the menu command by navigating to Tools > Marionette Commands > [YOUR COMMAND HERE]

Try this out with the attached file. After creating your menu command (I named mine 'Color By Size' when I created it), select some or all of the objects on the drawing area and run the command!

108 downloads

(0 reviews)

5 comments

Submitted September 25, 2017

Menu Command - Arrange Shapes by Size

Starting in Vectorworks 2018, users can now create menu commands defined by Marionette networks.
To do this, select a wrapper in your file, right click, and choose "Convert to Menu Command..."
This will open a dialog window where you can name this command. A background process will save your Menu Command to a file in your User Folder.
Once that's complete, you can access the menu command by navigating to Tools > Marionette Commands > [YOUR COMMAND HERE]

Try this out with the attached file. After creating your menu command (I named mine 'Arrange By Size' when I created it), select some or all of the objects on the drawing area and run the command!

279 downloads

(2 reviews)

0 comments

Updated September 18, 2017

Center Text on Object

This circle object will center text on it. Easily modifiable to use your own custom text, currently will place the coordinates of its center.

87 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Submitted April 25, 2017

Golden Angle Node

The golden angle node will give you the location of points following the 'Golden Spiral' which presents itself everywhere in nature.

63 downloads

(1 review)

0 comments

Submitted April 25, 2017

Parametric Button

A parametric button - again, simple.

Please let me know if you run into any issues while changing parameters in 3D - there's an inconsistency I'm trying to track down.

Not shown in image - you can choose the number of holes to thread through.

44 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Updated February 1, 2017

Threaded Bolt

Attached is a Marionette Object of a threaded bolt, still in progress.

Current "NumThreads" must be >0 and <=10, or you will get a failure. This will be fixed (and later removed and replaced with overall length). Fractional values should work.

There is much more ahead on this, but I figured sharing now and allowing the community to play with it/improve on it could be beneficial.

I will update the variables as I go to follow standard dimensioning of threaded objects, I just haven't gotten around to the math in some areas (such as major diameter, etc.)

It will also later include a head, since that's obviously not there

71 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Submitted February 1, 2017

Parametric Door Hook

I've recently purchased a 3D printer (I'll share more details with anyone who asks ) and decided that it would be fun and gratifying to begin modeling objects using Marionette with the intention of printing them.

My first share is this parametric door hook. Although simple, it was a great drawing project (I actually took much longer on this than I thought I originally would...). Once I get around to printing one (or four) out, I'll happily share the results!

If there are any questions on the best practices for using Marionette to model for 3D printing, I would love to be a resource for you. I'd also love suggestions as to what other objects might be fun to model for print!

46 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Submitted February 1, 2017

Freeform Truss Objects

The 3 attached files demonstrate using Marionette to generate a roof truss from a guide curve.
- Truss Network.vwx : This file contains a network that uses a named curve and some dimensional input parameters to produce truss geometry as extrudes on the layer plane.
- Truss Node.vwx : This file wraps the truss network from the first file and uses it within another network. This network takes a freeform NURBS surface, slices it into a series of curves using the contour node, and generates a truss from each curve.
- Truss Object.vwx : This file demonstrates the truss network wrapped and converted to an object. You can change the parameters in the OIP or reshape using the reshape tool.

885 downloads

(0 reviews)

0 comments

Submitted February 1, 2017

Stair Object

This file contains a simple stair object to show that Marionette can be a solution to an over-complicated problem. Marionette will allow you to generate your own plug-in objects to give the user as much or as little control over the object as you would like. I hope to expand upon this object in the future to show more opportunities for control over a stair object - both simple and complicated.

238 downloads

stairs
stair

(1 review)

0 comments

Updated November 9, 2016

Bedroom Set