Possible bug with Boolean spline node

[Nasau]

Hello, I have encountered a problem that I am not sure is a bug or intentional, but I would like to know because I was creating a procedural pool generation system and I ran into this problem when using Boolean for the generation of the water and the flat surface of the bottom of the pool using a surface generator with the array generator method and the area generated with extend clipping area.

When you use the node to combine two splines with a Boolean, they stop following the ‘master’ splines in Z and are placed in Z 0 (in the example, a Boolean is not necessary and a combine would suffice, but to show it, this is the simplest way I could think of, using a simple linear 1S to show where the elements are generated). This can be bypassed by simply manually inserting the Z height of the line as an offset, but it loses the ‘procedural’ concept, which is why I prefer to ask you.

My tests have been with Railclone versions 7.1.3 and 7.0.9 with the same results.

Best regards and thank you for your time.

[Paul Roberts]

Hi!

Thanks for the detailed explanation. What you’re seeing is the correct behaviour. For spline Booleans to work, the curves need to be on the same plane, so RailClone flattens them before performing the operation. To the best of my knowledge, 3ds Max’s own spline Boolean tools work in the same way.

If you don’t actually need a Boolean and are only merging curves, the Combine operator is the better choice as it keeps the original Z positions intact, exactly as you’ve already found. You might also be able to do something with the SplineOffset node that give you the results you need.

If you need help checking the pool setup or want to share a simple file, feel free to post it.

Cheers,
Paul

[Nasau]

Thanks for the quick reply!
One question: is there any way to obtain the Z position of one of the ‘master’ splines and use it as a value to recalculate the position of the Boolean using Z offsets?
I mean, so that I don't have to enter the value manually, it would be recalculated when I move the line to its height, since in my case (procedural pools), its height in Z can vary, and it would be enough for me if they were all generated at the Z height of one of the ‘master’ splines and the entire railclone was generated at the same height in Z as that line instead of being sentenced to Z 0.

Thank you in advance.