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Author Topic: railclone surface scatter  (Read 4743 times)

tripleking

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railclone surface scatter
« on: December 26, 2014, 10:01:33 AM »
Dear all,

Im very new to railclone and I have a question.
I would like to scatter a wooden square item on a specific surface.
As I would like it to scatter in two dimensions, I use the array2s with below settings.
I use a segment (wooden box) and i select the surface I would like it to scatter on.
For the spline I made a spline surrounding the surface object.

Can someone please advice me how I can make railclone scatter the box on the surface?
Underneath you can also find a reference photo of the effect I would like to achieve.

Thanks in advance,

iToo

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Re: railclone surface scatter
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2014, 12:36:23 PM »
Hi, I'm afraid it's very difficult to solve this case using RailClone. Although it includes support for surfaces, there are certain limitations with segments crossing the edge.
You can see a detailed explanation here:

http://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=2476.msg9365#msg9365

In any case, the procedure should be to create a closed spline from the surface's boundary, and use it as Clipping Area.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

tripleking

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Re: railclone surface scatter
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2014, 04:39:17 PM »
Thank you for your reply! Greatly appreciated.

I tried to draw two splines, one above, and the second one on ground level to use as a clipping area. He starts scattering the boxes now on a flat plane in between the clipping area on top... He doesn't follow the surface which I linked him to.... :-(
Maybe I have to adapt something in the clipping area properties?

iToo

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Re: railclone surface scatter
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2014, 05:51:58 PM »
Try applying a Normal->Flip Normals modifier to the surface. To get it work, surface's normals should point upwards, relative to the local axis of the RC object.

If you don't want modify the surface, alternatively you can create the RC object in the "bottom" viewport.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

tripleking

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Re: railclone surface scatter
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2014, 07:57:01 PM »
Thanks! It works!! Amazing!

What if I rotate the segments 45°, how come they leave some space in between each other, I would like the gaps to be filled with the same segments...

iToo

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Re: railclone surface scatter
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2014, 10:52:03 AM »
Those gaps are caused by the bounding box of the rotated segment, which is used to place each segment next to the other (see image)

This pattern can be solved easily rotating the generator 45º, instead the segment (Generator->Clipping Area->Z Rotation). You can find other common patterns in the Parquet Floor tutorial.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software