Itoo Software Forum

Author Topic: Cannot make evenly spaced grid of segments using corners / x evenly / y evenly  (Read 352 times)

tonyinseattle

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 25
Let's say you have a rectangular clipping spline and an A2S generator. You want "pillars" in all four corners as well as pillars evenly spaced vertically and horizontally across the area. Because evenly aligns segments evenly along splines without the ability to take into account the size of the segments in the corners, you end up with an uneven distribution of pillars. See the attached.

I've searched high and low for a solution to this -- even a mathematic one -- but I've not found one. This seems like such a common thing that people would want to do (and from what I'm seeing online, it is), and it also seems like it SHOULD be something RC could do in a snap.

But it's not. Not even using mathematics.

What's funny is that there's a Railclone tutorial that covers something similar to this regarding making boxed ceilings, but nowhere is it mentioned that the ceilings it generates **would never be built because the boxes are not the same size**. The video is also careful to only choose clipping spline dimensions in proportions where the differences are minor, and the instructor never resizes the splines to demonstrate the procedural nature of the ceilings, which would immediately make it obvious that the boxed ceilings are wonky.

https://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/creating-a-procedural-coffered-ceiling-with-3ds-max-and-railclone

So, how about some sort of evenly padding options so this can be done? If not, is there a solution?

Thanks for your help! This community and the iToo staff have always been prompt and helpful in their replies!

Tony


Dragan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1419
Hi,
We discussed this numerous times. Evenly is calculated on Spline evenly position and does not calculate any segment size.
There is math to make it even but it is different for each specific problem and that is one of the reasons why Itoo guys cant solve it that easily under the hood. There is too many variables for calculation (different sizes for start/end/corners etc.)
I shared a macro I created for Linear Generator that should accommodate most of the situations.
Please check the youtube video and in the description, you will find the link to my Gumroad page:
https://youtu.be/JJ232b7FeQI
Gumroad:
https://gumroad.com/dragan_prodanic

All macros are free for download, just enter 0 value for the price and proceed.

If you need to solve a specific problem post it here on the forum and we will try to help.
Reagrds

« Last Edit: December 30, 2021, 10:46:42 AM by Dragan »

Paul Roberts

  • iToo Software
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2991
Thanks for the detailed reply Dragan, that's a good summary of the situation (and a handy macro!)

To add to that. I'm attaching a simple macro that can create grids of columns with true Evenly distances.



Best,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

tonyinseattle

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 25
Dragan, thanks for the explanation. I'm not 100% sure what the answer is, but it seems like some kind of "padding" variables for evenly might solve most of the problems. But I'm sure there's much I'm not considering.

Paul, thank you tons for the macro! I'm going to incorporate that into my workflow.