Itoo Software Forum

RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: Pixelab on November 24, 2015, 02:03:17 PM

Title: Need advice to make an acoustic wall
Post by: Pixelab on November 24, 2015, 02:03:17 PM
I made an acoustic wall with random spacing of wood elements

(http://s1.postimg.org/svgnx10nz/Capture.png) (http://postimage.org/)

Client is asking me for a test with the wood elements à 45° and eventually 90° (horizontal)

What's the best way to approch this problem and eventually make a parameter to define the angle ? Array 2S ?

Title: Re: Need advice to make an acoustic wall
Post by: Paul Roberts on November 24, 2015, 05:52:42 PM
Hi,

Thanks for the question, this was surprisingly tricky to solve due to the irregular shapes of the panels.  The normal way to create an angled array is using a Clipping Spline and Extend X/Y Size to Area because you can then easily rotate the entire array using a single parameter. The acoustic panels are each separate, with a main face and a return so this will involve using a separate RC object for each face, each with its own clipping spline.

I created this by extruding your path and then turning each face into a closed spline used the Edit Poly modifier's Create Shape tool. You then need to create a RC object that is aligned with each face (using autogrid for example). The style itself is a simple A2S Array as shown below:

(http://i.imgur.com/Qz9KEBV.png)

It's more or less the same as your original style but converted to an A2S array with a size determined by the Clipping Spline. It also has an exported Z Rotation property so that the angle can be easily adjusted from the Parameters rollout.

The disadvantage is that we have many RC objects to manage if you want to make a change, but there is a quick way to update all the objects in a couple of clicks.

The changes will now be applied to all the selected styles.

I hope that helps, I've attached a sample file and if you have any further questions please let me know.
(http://i.imgur.com/S9fOWSs.png)

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Need advice to make an acoustic wall
Post by: Pixelab on November 24, 2015, 06:10:55 PM
Thanks a lot Paul.

I was afraid going into the multiple RC objects + clipping spline approach, but it is indeed the way to go. The real drawback of this method is that you have to realign the RC object and re-export the clipping paths when modifying the paths of the panels.

Fortunately, on this particular project the design of the room is fixed and the panel "path" from above won't change.

I was aware of the copy/ paste style option, and I was thinking of another improvement you could make to RC :  it would be nice to be able to do this on the RC segments in the style editor (copy pasting the parameters between segments)  in a similar way of the clone multiple tool, or direclty. Or eventually, if you select multiple segments, you now edit all the selected segements (could lead to some conflicts if you select differents type of nodes)
Title: Re: Need advice to make an acoustic wall
Post by: Paul Roberts on November 24, 2015, 06:17:59 PM
Hi,

Yes, I'm afraid that is the drawback in this setup. Thanks for the suggestions, we'll add them to our wishlist and discuss them here.

Many thanks!

Paul