Itoo Software Forum
RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: GeraldW on May 08, 2017, 06:57:02 AM
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Hey everyone
I need some help creating a facade like this (see attachment).
I tried increasing the Y translation with XSplinePosition, but can´t figure out how to keep the bottom and top straight.
Any solutions?
Thanks,
Gerald
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Hi Gerald,
Thanks for contacting us. Probably the easiest way to create this is using RailClone's vertical deform and clipping features. For example:
1 - Add a simple box to RailClone to represent the glazing panel. In the Deform settings change the mode to Vertical
(http://i.imgur.com/vnXPHZj.png)
2 - Add a spline to the X Spline Input and change the start or end to get the desired skew. The glass panels will deform to follow the spline, but retain vertical sides.
4 - increase the Y size so that array is large enough to cover your facade, extending above and below.
3 - Add a clipping spline to remove the excess facade at the top and bottom.
(http://i.imgur.com/MQH5Unx.png)
Please find attached a sample file to illustrate this technique.
I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.
Many Thanks,
Paul
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Hey Paul,
thanks for your fast and detailed answer.
I realize I over-simplified my example. The real project will have a lot of corners in the XSpline and the spline will be kinda long.
So I will end up with a ton of geometry that I clip away afterwards and I manually have to adjust the spline vertices on each corner.
Is there a more flexible solution?
Thanks and best regards,
Gerald
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Hi Gerald,
Thanks for clarifying. Please find attached another approach. Because RailClone use a grid like array, it is necessary to slice your segment so that it can be used in a grid that will be sequentially offset.
I've cut it like this, the important thing here is that both the top and mid section are an identical height.
(http://i.imgur.com/RJho0Zk.png)
Once that has done we need to create the pattern. To do this I have used the Selector operator and an arithmetic expression that uses the modulo function. This is ideal for creating repeating counters that are perhaps more complex that the built-in sequence operators allow. The expression I used was
if(mod(SegmentXCounter-SegmentYCounter,Input1)+1=1,1,2)
Input 1 represents the number of segments over which you'd like the pattern to repeat on the X and Y axis. As you can see this expression is taking into consideration the segment count on the X and Y axis.
Apart from that the rest of the style is pretty straightforward. I've added Start End and Evenly in case they are needed and used a separate generator for this for greater flexibility.
I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.
Many Thanks,
Paul
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Hey Paul
Thanks for the help and the max file.
Your solution looks pretty good. Nice idea slicing up the segments, didn´t think of that :)
best regards,
Gerald