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Author Topic: New user / Newbie question  (Read 1686 times)

Jm/3di

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New user / Newbie question
« on: October 08, 2015, 01:03:50 PM »
Hi all,

I just purchased Railclone yesterday, and ran through most of the tutorials.
Then I decided to use it in my WIP project, and to rebuild a elliptical stair that I've made by hand, and which gave me hard time...

Here are some pics of the wip, stairs made by hand in context :







And screen of my raiclone tries :

original stair mesh


railclone test




Railing is ok (very simple railclone object), I have problems with stair steps creation. I subdivised the spline I used for the railings, and tried to create steps with another railclone object (again, very simple Linear1S, spline and segment).

So I'm probably missing something here but how do I control the number of the stair steps ? And how do I smooth the mesh under the steps ? I increased the curve steps but that's not solving the problem.

I can provide the max file and/or screen copies of the railcone param

Thanks in advance for your help ;)

Julien

Paul Roberts

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Re: New user / Newbie question
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2015, 01:08:51 PM »
Hi Julien,

Thanks for contacting us. The treads on these stairs look very complex with many custom shapes, not a simple repetition of a single step. However I'll happily take a closer look at it and scene files would be helpful if that's ok? If you'd prefer not to post them here please send them to support@itoosoft.com.

Many thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

Jm/3di

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Re: New user / Newbie question
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2015, 01:26:10 PM »
Hi Paul,

Thanks for answering. You're right, there are custom shapes threads, but I thought I should begin with simple thread and then I would have add complexity.
Here is the max file with all needed geometry (for some reason I cannot attach it to this message) :

[deleted]clic[/url]

Thanks,

Julien
« Last Edit: October 09, 2015, 01:02:26 PM by Jm/3di »

Paul Roberts

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Re: New user / Newbie question
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2015, 02:52:40 PM »
Hi Julien,

That's a very nice staircase! In this case I think the best way to get the stair treads the correct shape is to model them manually, generally they are very specific and precise shapes. However you may have some success as you suggest with using RailClone to create a base mesh. There are a few things that can be done to make the deformation smoother.

  • Because the stairs are wide, the slightest wobble in the base spline is magnified. Where possible use fewer vertices to get a smoother curve.
  • Reduce the polycount of the tread segment. If there are a lot of edge loops perpendicular with the spline there's a greater chance that they'll overlap. If you're using this as a modelling base more detail can be added later.
  • Use Default > Count mode to control the number of steps. If you want different numbers of steps on different splines you can set a material ID on the base spline and use this to drive the Count value.
  • Turn the Curve steps up - a lot. In my example I have it set to 800!



I've attached a simplified sample file. I hope that helps but please let me know if you have further questions.

Many thanks!

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

Jm/3di

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Re: New user / Newbie question
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2015, 03:20:50 PM »
Thanks Paul, nice example.
If I understand correctly, I must simplify my ellipse-ish spline and my tread mesh. And turn up the curve steps ^_^

What is tricky here is to keep a correspondance between the spline for the handrail (with stair limon) and the treads.
The hand-modelled treads are hard to smooth on the bottom faces, that's why I wanted to try it with RC.

I'll keep trying and keep you posted.

Thanks again,

Julien

PS : how did you embed the tread mesh object ?

Paul Roberts

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Re: New user / Newbie question
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2015, 04:59:34 PM »
Hi,

I see, let me know how you get on, it's an interesting case. Geometry is copied to the RailClone object and an instance is stored internally. If you delete the original, then the copy remains inside railclone and shows as embedded. You can get them back into the scene by clicking the Extract button in the style editor. You'll find more about this here.

Cheers,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software