Having problems with some segments.

[Asplan Viak]

I am having some issues with an awning model I'm trying to create.
Specifically, the "planks" in the ceiling underneath. There should be a set of 3 planks with a custom hole for a lamp, set after each other for the evenly slot (set to 300cm).
I can not for the life of me get these 3 planks to behave. They do not align up with the lamps either like they should.

Please see https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11737977/RC-Awning.max to check it out for your selves.

What am I doing wrong?

CME

[iToo]

By default, set always Segment's X Aligment to "Automatic". That should solve the problem in this case.

Depending if used as Default, Corner or others, RailClone expects that the pivot of each piece is X aligned at a certain position. Since it's not easy to know the best option in each case, the best choice is "Automatic". Instead, Y and Z alignments are not critical, so set them as you like.

[Asplan Viak]

Setting all the planks alignment to X -> Automatic did not work, but did change the way it distributes it.
Can you post a scene file where you a certain it works?

[iToo]

Please, try the following changes in your scene:

1) Set all X Alignments to Automatic.
2) For the Lamps generator, set Corner->Bevel mode to "Extend", so it matches with the Planks generator (if not, the evenly positions may be different).

I attach a screenshot of the resulting geometry. It looks right, but if there is some fault in, please tell me.

[Asplan Viak]

Ok, its better, but the next plank after the composed 3 planks is sliced for some reason. You can even see it in your screenshot. Why is the nest "default" plank not placed correctly, and why is there no hole & lamp right before the corner. There should be one according to the evenly number.

[iToo]

The default plank is sliced because once placed the evenly planks, the remaining gap doesn't fit with an exact number of default segments. So, the only way to fit is slicing them. Really is not the next plank after the evenly, but just before it (spline is clockwise oriented).

You can adjust the evenly distance to avoid this issue, or use an alternative construction mode, i.e. a sequence of 14 x default planks + A + B + C. Obviously, in this case the evenly features (as "Justify") will not be available.

There is not hole before the corner, because "Adjust to End"  is set to 100% for this generator. This parameter is described here.

Note: before computing the evenly positions, the spline is divided in "sections", and the evenly sequence is adjusted for that section. A section is the portion of path between two vertices. If the evenly rule doesn't work as expected, check if there are extra vertices in the spline. You also can change Generator->Corner->Vertex Type to modify this behaviour.  We have plans to change slightly this functionality.

[Asplan Viak]

So what I'm looking for would be a "mode" or option to force/adjust the evenly distance to the closest "correct" value based on the default segments, so the evenly segment only appears after or before a complete Default segment.......if you catch my drift. Not sure if this is something one would want regularly or just for these types of compound set-ups.

[iToo]

Evenly segment doesn't work in that way, because it has prority over the default segment: First the evenly positions are computed based on the distance parameters, and then the gaps are filled with default pieces.

The only way to get the behaviour that you like is using a Sequence operator, but then you cannot use the "Justify" feature. Take in account that both options are excluyent: we can place columns in specific positions according to the evenly distance, but them the gaps between them will not be exact. On the other side, if we place an exact number of planks (without slicing them), the positions of the columns will be undefined (it will depend of the length of each spline's section).

[Asplan Viak]

Evenly segment doesn't work in that way, because it has prority over the default segment: First the evenly positions are computed based on the distance parameters, and then the gaps are filled with default pieces.....snip....

Yes, it obviously does work that way. I was just saying an optional mode or something might be interesting to have for these cases, where you use the linear array as a sequencer, but with more control than by just using a bunch of sequence nodes. Come to think of it, it it could be like "adjust to end" but specifically adjust for segments and not path position (if I have understood this correctly).
The evenly parameter could then read as circa/approx 300cm etc.
As I said, this would only be useful for times when distributing objects where you have lots of short repeating segments. At a distance you would not be able to see that the "even" distance was actually 300cm - 7,5cm, or 300cm + 7,5cm.