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Author Topic: Railclone on square splines oriented differently  (Read 5664 times)

UP1808

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Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« on: June 06, 2014, 01:05:12 PM »
Hi!
Please take a look at this shoot:
http://www.ossosso.com/scambio/shoot_14.JPG

The scene is for external architectural, I'm realizing metal frames for windows. The original path is a single object composed by different subobject splines like input path for railclone. Every sub-splines is perfectly square or rectangular, they have just different orientation, in this particualr case the entire architecture isn't orthogonal to XYZ world space, so some windows could have an angle along Z of 26 degrees for example, anyway they are perfectly rectangular.

The section is a simple C shape spline with an Extrude modifier on it.

As you can see some frame section is oriented in a manner and other frames in another. I can guess obviously is because the spline paths have different orientation, but I can really understand the reason. The same problem appears if I use the Sweep modifier instead of Railclone. I hope I can solve with Railclone 'cause has much more options then Sweep modifier.

I simply want the C section for all windowss is oriented internally.

Thank you for any explanation.

iToo

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2014, 01:27:20 PM »
Please, would you upload a couple of those splines ? We'll check them.

RailClone uses a specific algorithm to smooth the rotation of the object along the 3D space, probably the problem is caused by that. I think the Sweep modifier uses the same method.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

UP1808

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2014, 02:45:43 PM »
This is the spline I use:

http://www.ossosso.com/scambio/test_02.max

Thank you for your support.

iToo

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 04:57:55 PM »
Ok, i see the problem. There is a simple workaround:

- For each one of the rectangles, select the top-right vertex (usually Vert.4) and click "Make First". That changes in RailClone the initial direction of the path, aligning correctly the frame.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

UP1808

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2014, 11:06:31 AM »
Thank you very much man, always clear and fast support.

Bye!

UP1808

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2014, 11:19:00 AM »
Hi!

I've a question about the same problem. In the scene above all the shapes are closed and rectangulare. Now for some splines I have to delet the segment at the bottom, so it results an inverted U shape. In that case the problem persist even if I do "make first".
Can be solved in some way?

Thank you!

iToo

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2014, 11:30:42 AM »
Please, upload an updated scene with one of those splines. We'll check it.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

UP1808

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2014, 11:42:05 AM »
I've attached a file. The sqare closed spline once done "Make First" is corrected, the U shape I don't know how to fix. Thank you.

Rokas

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2014, 12:36:06 PM »
Interesting problem,
i too wonder how to resolve this (no pun intended)
Rokas

UP1808

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2014, 01:05:09 PM »
:)
In this case I can solve leaving the U shape closed like the others and translate down under the ground the bottom of the segment.
Anyway could be useful to understand the problem even if it isn't a common situation. Most of the time a building is projected with orthogonal walls and it's not so usual a rotated along Z window frame.

Thank you for your support!

iToo

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Re: Railclone on square splines oriented differently
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2014, 01:24:20 PM »
Well, i think would be interesting to explain the theory behind this problem:

- RailClone computes an initial vector based on the direction of the first segment of the spline. When this segment is aligned with the Z axis (in local coordinates of the spline), the way to compute it is slightly different, rotating the geometry (really it's not rotated, but aligned with the X local axis).

With closed splines, we can use the "Make first" trick, so the first segment is not Z oriented. But unfortunately, this doesn't work with open splines. You can see the initial vector for each one of the splines in the attached screenshot.

Although it's possible to solve this issue modifying the local axis of the spline, it's a complex and non intuitive procedure. We can use a different workaround here:

1) Create a separated spline with the U shapes.
2) Create a copy of the RC object and assign this spline.
3) Use Generator->X Rotation to rotate the geometry to the desired orientation.
4) If needed, use Alignment parameters to change the position of the Segment.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software