Itoo Software Forum

RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: cc8boy on June 24, 2014, 01:15:19 PM

Title: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 24, 2014, 01:15:19 PM
May I ask how to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2. Can itoosoft give me a MAX2012 example file or a tutorial? See my picture in my attachment.‍
I can't handle the big step platform in every corners of the star.
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 24, 2014, 04:59:18 PM
Hi,

Thanks for your question. Please see the attached file for an example of how this could be achieved.

The way I've tackled this is to break the stairs down into two generators: One for the stairs themselves and another for the landing. These are limited to the appropriate sections of the spline using the Limit by Material ID option:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/772b85f12bc14e3aa9bb11d93c60b97a.jpg)

With this style, to create a landing use a material ID of 2, and for the staircases use an ID of 1.

The generator for the stairs uses the same technique as the stairs  (http://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/tutorial_stairs.php)tutorial. For the landing though I have created some new segments to fill in the corners. These are then used in the second generator. The segments have been modelled to ensure they are the same width as the stairs, (though if you wanted to make a more complex style this could be done parametrically).

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/aa52762e5e684a0bbacd6df533dd3394.jpg)
The segments are aligned so that the start/end segments are on the outside of the landing spline, therefore filling in the corners:
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/0d6daa390eb942668a58670442dbaabb.jpg)

To ensure that the start and end segments are correctly positioned in relation to the ends of the splines, adjust their alignment properties as follows.
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/173054eb5c184097a8fbb48d41d7ee47.jpg)

You will now have a working staircase. If you adjust the width of the stair treads you just need to remember to also change the landing segments.

The Handrail is also mostly the same as the stairs tutorial. The only change is to add a corner segment to the generator. For this example I've added a pre-formed 90 degree bend in the handrail. For this to align correctly you would need to make the following adjustments:
If you'd prefer newel posts, you can easily use these in the corner input. They're much easier to align!

The finished style looks like this:
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/950f6ed843184a18816cca52da386385.jpg)

I hope that helps, if there are any other questions you have about this or other issues, please let me know and I'll be happy to help out.

Kind regards,

Paul

Update
The attached style was created with the RailClone 2.3 Beta. It shouldn't make a difference but if the behaviour is not as expected you may need to update to the most recent version.

Update 2
Also attached is a parameterised version of these types of stairs with separate adjustable tread and landing widths. Just made from boxes but it helps get across the idea. This one  requires 2.3.
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 24, 2014, 07:12:54 PM
Many thanks for your tutorial ! I will give it a try . :)
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 25, 2014, 11:50:47 AM
I've managed to modify `the stair path` of the scene file that you gave me. But the corner of the handrail broken down when I tried to modify the length of the path. (See the screenshot of my attachment) And the big landing platform split up a little too. I haven't modify your segment objects structure and railclone object network. I just want to fit the stair to my scene. What's wrong with the setting of the railclone object?
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 25, 2014, 01:07:16 PM
Hi,

I opened your scene file but I didn't get exactly the same problem. Instead my corner segments seemed to have become distorted.
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/a69bd84580134154a824183503f78d16.jpg)

Opening the style editor and clicking Reload Segments ((http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/0826431f930441288db548242e0b7f88.jpg)) fixed this though, and the style seems to be working fine.

I notice that the gap on the landing is too small for a baluster so in the attached version I've added a conditional node so that it only adds one if the section length is above a certain size.

Let me know how you get on. Which version of RailClone are you currently using??

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 25, 2014, 02:29:16 PM
I am using MAX2014 64bit with railclone 2.23. Because MAX 2014 is much faster in navigating the viewports. I must (some other plugin only work in MAX2012) save the scene as MAX2012 format to render.
I don't like to use the beta version of railclone in my work because I must finish the job before the deadline safely.  I find the railclone objects in MAX2012 is slightly different from those in MAX2014.
Must I click `the reload segment` in MAX2012 one by one? That's very boring. I hope the Railclone objects that model in 2014 are exactly same in MAX2012.
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 25, 2014, 02:41:25 PM
Hi,

There should be no differences between Version 2014 and 2012 caused by RailClone, it is not dependent on Max version (For some tasks I use it on Max 9 with no problems!). You should only need to reload the segments once per RailClone object, and only if you wish to make further changes to source object that has been changed in a way that loses the connection with RailClone (usually collapsing to a editable poly or adding an XForm modifier).

In the example you sent me, it seemed the segments had corrupted in some way, so reloading them fixed this problem. It may not be necessary in your case.

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 25, 2014, 02:54:47 PM
By the way, should I always keep the segment objects in my scene to prevent the segment distortion problem?
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 25, 2014, 03:13:40 PM
To be honest, this is the first time I've seen this problem. If it's not going to cause issues then I'd recommend keeping the original geometry hidden in the scene. Just in case.
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: Paul Roberts on June 25, 2014, 05:54:00 PM
Just a thought about the deformation. It might be worth checking that the spline's vertex types are set to Corner rather that Bezier-Corner. Otherwise sometimes the tangent handles cross over causing some odd results.

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: How to make a U-turn dog-legged stair with a single spline in Railclone 2?
Post by: cc8boy on June 28, 2014, 11:43:19 AM
My customer told me the first step of each flight of stairs is different from that in real stairs. The first step was too lower. I tried to modify the setting of railclone object. But I can not get this result as my photo. Can you help me?  Maybe it's too complex to make the stair with one spline? Many thanks.