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Author Topic: A few bridge questions?  (Read 4937 times)

barry john

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A few bridge questions?
« on: December 17, 2014, 01:41:27 PM »
Hi
I am new to railclone pro and have a few questions regarding some bridges i am building.( i have watched some of your tutorials)


1.Is there a way to specifically place the bridge supports in a specific position?(could be where vertices are, if that possible?)

2. Is there a way of creating a end/start of the bridge with a solid support underneath?

3. The bridge supports that stretch (mid model) are a concrete  material how do you stop the uvs stretching?

4. I have made a few bridge variations in my library, and i noticed when i bring them into a new scene the material are xrefed is there a way to avoid this?


Thanks for any help and your products are amazing

Paul Roberts

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2014, 09:36:32 PM »
Hi,

Thanks for the kind words and questions, we're glad you're enjoying using our plugins.

Quote
1.Is there a way to specifically place the bridge supports in a specific position?(could be where vertices are, if that possible?)
Yes, you can attach all the segments for the supports into the Corner element instead of Evenly. In this way you can place individual supports simply by adding a vertex. You can select the type of vertex used to place a support from the Generator's Properties > Rules > Corner settings.



Quote
2. Is there a way of creating a end/start of the bridge with a solid support underneath?

Probably the easiest way to do this is to create the solid support as a single segment and then add it to the Start and End inputs of a new generator. You can see here I’m using the same techniques as the Bridge Tutorial to set the height of the segment based on the position of the spline.



Alternatively you could use material IDs to assign different generators to splines at the start and end of the bridge. You can see a procedure for this technique in our documentation here.

Quote
3. The bridge supports that stretch (mid model) are a concrete  material how do you stop the uvs stretching?

Unfortunately the automatic box mapping tools work before scaling on the Z axis takes place, however if you're a V-Ray user, this can be solved with  the new RailClone 2.4 beta. This release includes a UVW operator that we can use to adjust the tiling of your uvs.  To do this:

  • Add a new UVW Xform operator and connect the support Segment
  • Right Click on the UVW Export operator and export V Fixed Tile
  • Attach an Arithmetic operator and set the mode to Divide
  • In Slot 1 attach the Numeric/Arithmetic node that generates the new height for the segment
  • In Slot 2 attach the original height for the segment, this could be a constant or you can export the height from the segment by right clicking and selecting  Export Parameters > Size > Z.

Quote
4. I have made a few bridge variations in my library, and i noticed when i bring them into a new scene the material are xrefed is there a way to avoid this?

We're looking into this as it may be a bug.

Please find below a link to a file to illustrate a few of these techniques. I hope that helps, please let me know if you further questions.

Bridge File

Many thanks,

Paul
« Last Edit: December 18, 2014, 11:07:03 AM by Paul Roberts »
Paul Roberts
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barry john

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2014, 01:36:56 PM »
Thanks Paul,
Really grateful for your help.
i am still having a bit of trouble with number 2 as the solid should be vertical and the road should be able  to go down to ground level, making the solid into a wedge shape i have tried your file but can`t seem to make it do that.

Thanks
Barry
« Last Edit: December 18, 2014, 02:08:07 PM by CD7429 »

Paul Roberts

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2014, 09:48:13 AM »
Hi Barry,

Apologies for the delayed response. The issue here is that Flat Top/Bottom, which I would normally recommend using, does not work when the segment is below the base spline. To resolve this I've rejigged the style a little so the the curvature of the bridge  is still determined by the base spline but the height is set from a Numeric Parameter. This enables the spline to be below the segments so that Adaptive mode with Flat Top/Bottom can be used to create the wedges at each end of the bridge.



To achieve this the basic style is more or less the same but with the pivots moved from the tops of many segments to the bottom. I've also introduced a Bridge Height parameter which is used to offset the deck on the z axis and is added to the fixed scale calculations for ends and mid-supports.  As with the previous example, the RailClone objects position on the Z axis in relation to the spline defines the ground plane.

Here's an example file:

Bridge Ammends 2 (Req. RailClone 2.4.x beta)

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have further questions.

Many thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
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barry john

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2014, 12:07:38 PM »
Hi Paul,

Thanks for looking into this, and your response was remarkable quick.
I`m a bit unsure that will work as the spline is a static point as it will need to meet with the road at the bottom of the bridge. Its not a big issue as the wedge could easily be modeled.

ON a separate matter i have come across a issue i am a bit unsure how to fix, I have created one of the bridges in my project which is fine and then created a railing ( modified from the library) and mirrored it using the same spline as the bridge. one end the railing fits the bridge great but the other end seems to have twisted. attached image.

Thanks again

Paul Roberts

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #5 on: December 22, 2014, 02:04:37 PM »
Hi Barry,

Are you able to attach that file or send it to support@itoosoft.com so I can take a closer looks at it?

Cheers,

Paul
Paul Roberts
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Paul Roberts

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2014, 04:57:59 PM »
Hi Barry,

Many thanks for the file, I can see what's causing the issue. In this case the mismatch is because the segments used to create the Railings are using Vertical deform mode, while the road surface is using Adaptive. To fix this you can change the mode of the bridge sections that are used for the deck to Vertical to match the railings.



I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.

Many thanks,

Paul

« Last Edit: December 22, 2014, 05:12:12 PM by Paul Roberts »
Paul Roberts
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barry john

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2014, 05:03:19 PM »
Genus !! :D

Many Thanks

barry john

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2015, 03:46:11 PM »
Hi Paul

I am looking to model this bridge and was wondering the best way to do it, i have attached a simple model of where i am with it, but am a bit unsure how to make the supports hit the arch, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Barry

Paul Roberts

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2015, 08:12:45 PM »
Hi Barry,

please find attached an example that uses a similar technique as found in this post, using trig to find the angle of the sections. Due to the curve the maths isn't perfect but it get some of the way there.



However this technique does involve scaling the segments and I'm guessing that you'll want to reproduce all the rivets so that might not be suitable. I'm going to look at another technique using clipping splines to see if I can come up with something better. I'll update here tomorrow.

Many thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
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barry john

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Re: A few bridge questions?
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2015, 10:22:22 AM »
Thanks Paul much appreciated