Itoo Software Forum
RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: Alessandro Guida on October 12, 2014, 12:54:14 PM
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Hi all,
I'm trying to build a simple facade on the attachement.
My approach was:
-splines to define the facade where the planks are different in height
-use a limit by ID material to define voids (windows)
I don't know how:
-define a different height on a section of the spline for balconies (blu sections)
-define a variation in height (purple section at the bottom)
problems:
-when I set evenly segments they don't align nicely to the grid (see grid.jpg)
-when I refine the spline to set different ID to segments the all planks move and I miss a plank in one point plus I have anoter plank that move up (I think is something related to the corner definition)
I don't know if my apporach is right or not, maybe I should try Array 2S instead but seems more complicated to control (at least for me)
sorry for my concise message :) I put also the definition of the rail clone in the attachement, of that some of you guys could give me an help
thank you
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
Thanks for contacting us with your questions. I've tried to answer each one below and have attached a scene file to help illustrate.
-when I set evenly segments they don't align nicely to the grid (see grid.jpg)
This is being caused by the Bevel Corner value which changes the length of the spline being used to calculate the evenly spacing. Turning off bevel corner resolves this issue.
-define a variation in height (purple section at the bottom)
One way to do this is with a small expression:
- Wire the segments to a new Transform node and Export the Fixed Size Z value.
- Wire the exported value to a new Arithmetic Node.
- Set the Arithmetic node to Expression and enter abs(XSplineCoords.z). For each segment this returns the distance from the RailClone objects local position to the Z coordinate at the segments position on the spline. Abs ensures this value is positive.
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/0180b5411a314a9ea2ba0a65081e628b.jpg)
You can read more about this technique in the second part of the Bridge Tutorial (http://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/tutorial_bridge1.php)
-when I refine the spline to set different ID to segments the all planks move and I miss a plank in one point plus I have another plank that move up (I think is something related to the corner definition)
-define a different height on a section of the spline for balconies (blu sections)
If you are using a generator's limit by ID option this will effectively break the spline for each material ID, causing the generator to recalculate evenly distances mid-facade. Instead of using the limit by ID you could use the Selector Operator set to Material ID mode. This will not cause the generator to reset evenly distances and will enable you to pick from a number of types of segment using a single generator. The node tree for this setup looks like this. In this example ID1 = Full height, ID 2 = window, and ID 3 = balcony.
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/98b3e4625fd740ee8f718922f356ffd6.jpg)
Note that I have also set the generator so that the Corner segment is only created using the Bezier Corner type. I can then use vertices of the Corner type to create the material ID breaks.
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/310bc52b338a4b0ca9d60743e5994eef.jpg)
I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.
Many thanks,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
thank you for your support, your definition is working well :)
I have a doubt about the expression:
- If I move a point up or down in the spline (or refine) the segments move on the x of the spline. Is that normal?Is there a way to prevent that?
see attachement and file
thank you,
Alessandro
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Lately when I need variable heights for cladding/balconies, I do a fixed scale on the Z axis by the material ID, so I just set the material ID of the segment to how high I want it to be. In your case though, you only have the single balcony height that's different so I'd just do it with a different matID (like for the window gaps).
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Hi Alessandro,
You're right the spacing will be different. Unfortunately this is unavoidable as the spline will be longer due to the diagonal, which results in different spacing. In this instance I think it may have to keep the spline flat and manually adjust the RC object, you for example try using proboolean to snip off the bottom of the fins.
Many thanks,
Paul
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Hi George and Paul,
thank you for your replies
Alessandro
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Hi,
just another issue that I didn't notice before.
The corners are all set as Bezier-Corners but on the first point of the spline the segments don't rotate as they should.
thank you,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
Thanks for reporting this problem, I can confirm the the issue has been resolved in the next RailClone update. In the meantime you may be able to work around this by changing the first vertex so that it is not on a corner.
Many thanks,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
thank you for your reply.
If I change the first point of the spline (not more on a corner) the new "first point" breakes the alignment of the planks with the grid so that I have to tweak it manually (something that I'd like to avoid).
Is that what you meant?
thank you,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
Yes you're right a certain amount of manual adjustment is necessary with this technique. I'm afraid this is the only workaround I can think of at the moment, though this issue has been resolved for the next RailClone release.
Many thanks,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Thank you for your support :)
Best,
Alessandro
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Hi,
just another small issue.
Some planks are going down instead of going up...there is something wrond with the spline?
thank you,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
Thanks for reporting this, we apologise for any inconvenience. We have isolated a small bug that occurs in rare situations where a particular spline shape is combined with using the selector operator. We've been able to resolve this for the next update. Until then, as a workaround, slightly moving the corner vertex so that it is not exactly 90 degrees should fix this issue and shouldn't be visible in the render.
Many thanks,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
yes it works, thank you!
Alessandro
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I'm working on the windows now :)
I used the splines where I want the frames but I need different size in different locations, I tried to work with the selector in conjunction with the trasform operator without luck.
In the example on the images I would need three frames instead of five, the defalult segment is set as adaptive now
thank you,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
In this case I'd probably break the window into smaller components, one for the glass and a single side:
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/2da9459185694bc49bfa84253b4844d6.jpg)
You can then use the side segment to create the start and end , using a mirror operator to create the other side. For the corners and evenly segments you can combine the side and a mirrored version together to create the joins between two windows:
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/ea31054746fc4609b6a45d129e5edd97.jpg)
The advantage of this is that you can make the windows any length without deforming the width of the side of the frames.
The final step is to create the divisions. Using another composer operator to combine two side segments, you can then use the Evenly input to divide the window. You can easily duplicate the generator and use different material IDs if you need to adjust evenly distances in other locations.
Please find attached an example using this technique.
I hope that helps, please let me know if you have further questions.
Cheers,
Paul
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Thank you Paul! It works very well :)
cheers,
Alessandro
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Hi,
I need to integrate a fence made with small wooden poles in my project, I set 30 different poles to give variation.
The only way I know to randomize segments on a spline is to use the randomize operator. The problem is that I have to pick every segment indipendently and also to give a bit of transformation to the poles (rotate and scale a bit every pole) I have to change the parameters for every pole. Is there a way to speed up this process?
I tried to use Forest Pack to achive the same effect and seems working nicely...maybe I should use Forest for this kind of geometry?
thank you,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
we acknowledge that adding lots of segments can be a time consuming and simplifying this process is on our wish list. There is however a simpler way to randomise the transforms of the poles without adjusting every segment node individually.
- Create a new Transform (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/RAILCLONE/Operators#Operators-Transform)node and wire it between the Randomise operator and the Default input
- From the Transform operator's properties, adjust the Transform > Random values to add scale, rotate and transform variation
Using Forest is also a perfectly viable alternative, it just depends on your preferred workflow.
Cheers,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
I should have thought about the transform operator :(
A bit "off topic" question regarding Forest and materials:
In Railclone I use multitexture map to give variations on the materials and is working well (because it recognizes the different ID of the objects), as far as I know in Forest you can't assign a material with multitexture to a single geometry on the list of Forest to get same geometry with different maps but you have to create different materials and assign them to different geometries in the list because every geomtry can have a single material.
Is that right or am I missing something? Is there a way to use Multitexture within Forest?
thank you very much for your support!
cheers,
Alessandro
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Hi Alessandro,
No problem at all. Forest actually comes with Forest Colour, a specialised map that is designed to randomise textures on Forest Geometry. It has some advanced features like the ability to randomly tint the bitmaps and even extract colour tints from a map and randomise by element or item.
You can see a thorough tutorial about this here (http://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/tutorial_forestcolor.php), or find out more in the documentation (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/FORESTPACK/Forest+Color).
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Good to know about Forest Colour! When I'll finish with this project I'll have a look deeper for sure :)
thank you,
cheers,
Alessandro
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Here my final result!
hope you like :)
Thank you Paul for the support!
cheers
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Very nice. Thanks for sharing !
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my pleasure!
cheers,
Alessandro