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Author Topic: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?  (Read 7060 times)

TL1895

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Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« on: November 08, 2013, 02:40:07 PM »
Using the new RC 2.1.6
Cannot get this to work, ready to abandon ship, lol.  So I assign a default stone curb to my spline and the troubles begin.
Now I have to increase the adaptive display to 1000000 to see what is really there.

The problems with preset/default
1. curb always facing wrong direction.  The vertical side of the curb should always sit on the spline.
2.  If left at default, the sloped side of the curb sits on the line so my curb sits one whole curb-width off to the inside (into the grass or sidewalk.
If I fiddle with some of the settings, the best I can do is have the curb placed correctly but the slope faces away from paved area (wrong.)
See screen cap please.  You can see the spline sitting under the front of the sloped face of curb.  If I leave it this way, the curb sits within my sidewalk.
This should be really easy to change, in my opinion.  It is so much simpler with a sweep object that I cannot believe RC has this hang-up.

3.  In same screen cap you can see the RC added joints everywhere there is a vertex.  I cannot seem to find the setting to change this so the joints are just evenly.  But shouldn't the default be set up this way already?  Who makes a normal curb with little slivers everywhere?  No one does.

I recall being informed the curb presets were going to be corrected before version 2 released but they seem to behave exactly the same (in this case anyway) and generally useless at their default settings.

I'll make a small scene file if needed...
Not trying to rant here, but it is frustrating after all this time the preset is still bunk.

Thanks


edit:  Added image to show setting RC to "Reversed."  Now curb is sitting in good location, but is facing backwards.
edit2: Attached scene file
« Last Edit: November 10, 2013, 09:37:23 PM by TL1895 »

iToo

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Re: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2013, 10:32:12 AM »
I'm sorry you have problems with the curbs, but in this case there are multiples ways to define this preset. Please, let me to explain:

1) Depending of the scene, some users may use the spline to define the start of the sidewalk, the road or any other point. In this preset we choosed that the curb is aligned with the road, but you can modify it easily: change the Y alignment of the Segment from "Bottom" to "Top".

2) The direction of the spline also is significative here. You can reverse it editing the spline, or from the Generator properties (Geometry->Reverse).

3) This preset uses vertices of type "Corner" or "Bezier-Corner" to define the Bevels (miter joints). Your spline use corners for all vertices, so RailClone generates a bevel for each point. The type of vertex used for Bevels is defined at Generator->Rules->Corner->Vertex Type. In this case, i suggest to modify the spline, setting corner vertices only at mitter joints, bezier-corner or smooth for the others, and setting Generator->Vertex Type to "Corner". But other combinations may work as well.

Take in account that we include these presets as a quick way to create predefined objects, but users may require to adjust them according to their needs. Also remember that you can create your own libraries, editing the including styles or creating others (see here for details).
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

TL1895

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Re: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2013, 06:43:29 PM »
I'm sorry you have problems with the curbs, but in this case there are multiples ways to define this preset. Please, let me to explain:

1) Depending of the scene, some users may use the spline to define the start of the sidewalk, the road or any other point. In this preset we choosed that the curb is aligned with the road, but you can modify it easily: change the Y alignment of the Segment from "Bottom" to "Top".

Yes, I see.  I just want my backside (vertical) of curb to be align with road edge and spring from there out onto road rather than back into grass or mulch. 

2) The direction of the spline also is significative here. You can reverse it editing the spline, or from the Generator properties (Geometry->Reverse).

Yes, I tried this first.  I also tried different combinations of reversing the spline itself and reversing RC, but the curb (sloped side) always faces wrong side or placed into grass.

3) This preset uses vertices of type "Corner" or "Bezier-Corner" to define the Bevels (miter joints). Your spline use corners for all vertices, so RailClone generates a bevel for each point. The type of vertex used for Bevels is defined at Generator->Rules->Corner->Vertex Type. In this case, i suggest to modify the spline, setting corner vertices only at mitter joints, bezier-corner or smooth for the others, and setting Generator->Vertex Type to "Corner". But other combinations may work as well.

That is good advice, thanks :)

Take in account that we include these presets as a quick way to create predefined objects, but users may require to adjust them according to their needs. Also remember that you can create your own libraries, editing the including styles or creating others (see here for details).

Yes, true, next time I have free time I'll try to work out a style that is correct for my scenes.

Perhaps it would be a great help if the railclone curbs had info about it's  Height & Width dimensions (i.e. 6"W x 7"H)  That way, I could use the width value to offset the railclone object with no accidental gaps between adjacent geometry (like grass/road/mulch.)  The underlying issue is that to avoid the curb from overlapping the grass or mulch it is easier to have the curb sit on top of the road.  Attached new scene to better illustrate the issue.  There is a RC (unmodified from preset) and a bit of road, grass, ans the curb's back line.  Also there are the same elements except using a 3dsMax sweep object.  The sweep object is the goal and I cannot make it happen with RC.  In this simple scene, yes you could do workarounds maybe, but on really complex larger landscapes you need to stick with all the splines borders, etc from the civil drawings.

Thanks again for trying to help :)

Paul Roberts

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Re: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2013, 07:41:08 PM »
Hi,

I've had a look at your file and it seems that Carlos' solution in part 1 creates the behaviour you are looking for. I've attached a modified version of your scene file and a screenshot to help illustrate. It shouldn't be necessary to specify an offset value if you change the Y alignment to top so that the back of the segment aligns to the spline.

Hope that helps.

kind regards,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

TL1895

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Re: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2013, 07:55:12 PM »
Hi,

I've had a look at your file and it seems that Carlos' solution in part 1 creates the behaviour you are looking for. I've attached a modified version of your scene file and a screenshot to help illustrate. It shouldn't be necessary to specify an offset value if you change the Y alignment to top so that the back of the segment aligns to the spline.

Hope that helps.

kind regards,

Paul

Hi Paul,

Nice work, thanks a lot for helping.  I also found a solution, too, but yours is simpler!
Best regards Paul and Carlos

iToo

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Re: Hmm have the stone curb presets been fixed?
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2013, 08:34:45 AM »
I've attached a modified version of your scene file and a screenshot to help illustrate. It shouldn't be necessary to specify an offset value if you change the Y alignment to top so that the back of the segment aligns to the spline.

Yes, when possible is preferable to modify the Segment's alignment instead applying Y Offset to the spline. The offset procedure generates a new spline (solving intersections and geometric issues), which may differ slightly from the original path.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software