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Author Topic: Products on a shelf  (Read 2026 times)

BC4316

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Products on a shelf
« on: April 12, 2017, 10:10:09 PM »
I'm looking to make placing products on a shelf fast with RC.

I am wanting to have a setup like this, but export a parameter to have X amount of the products deep also. Is there a way to do this?
Id also like to figure out how to make the products have a parameter to change out bottles for boxes, etc..

thanks!

Rokas

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2017, 07:34:37 AM »
Yes, RC is perfect for that, I would recommend to dive deep in tutorials section, as You are asking basic questions without providing task specifics.
Rokas

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2017, 02:35:17 PM »
not providing specifics? I'm not sure how much more specific I can get..

"..export a parameter to have X amount of the products deep"

I've even provided a screenshot and more information beyond that.

My company pays for multiple seats of FP and RC and as paying customers, we are paying for the privilege of using this forum to ask for help when needed. Had I not already looked for the answer to my question in tutorials and here on the forum, I would not have taken the time to write it up and post. As a paying customer who is asking for help, your answer is not only of no use, it is also not acceptable.

Do you represent iToo Software?

Rokas

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2017, 03:44:59 PM »
Sorry if You were insulted by my suggestion.

Ok I will try to answer Your question:
You should do the depth of your products first(see first pic attached: purple row of cereal box in front ), and then create second Nested RailClone for the row.
I added more products to randomise as I understand you need that too.

Are You sure you want number or products occupied for the depth?
If Your want number of products (see 2nd pic.) You should export x atribute and wire that to arithmetic node where You multiply that(plus add padding value) by Number of products You want to see. (As for some reason sequence wont let me export parameter needed v2.7.4 )
If you want same space filled with products(see first pic. ) - Just adjust X parameter of your first RC.


screenshots to illustrate:




My company pays for multiple seats of FP and RC and as paying customers, we are paying for the privilege of using this forum to ask for help when needed. Had I not already looked for the answer to my question in tutorials and here on the forum, I would not have taken the time to write it up and post. As a paying customer who is asking for help, your answer is not only of no use, it is also not acceptable.

Do you represent iToo Software?

Sure You have privilege of using forum and asking questions, I would like to help users just like You to solve their problems, as I myself learn this software better and learn new ways of doing things. All I asked was specific questions, not too general.
And no, I do not represent iToo Software, I help users on my spare time.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2017, 03:57:42 PM by Rokas »
Rokas

Rokas

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2017, 06:29:33 PM »
I reread your question and redid the scene with simplified assets so I can share it.

Rokas

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #5 on: April 13, 2017, 08:48:09 PM »
That answers both questions exactly.

I should be able to continue with this RailCLone object when I pick it back up tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to mock the scene up

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2017, 05:49:48 PM »
Hi Rokas,

Thanks again for this sample scene. I've finally had time to look at this RC tool again this week and your sample scene is really useful. It does go a bit above my head with some techniques that you used to create it.

If you know of any tutorials or could provide info that explain how you've exported a parameter from a child RC object and are referencing it in the master RC object. I'm not sure if that's worded correctly for Railclone, but hopefully you understand what I'm asking.

Also, looking at the referenced RC object, its created without the use of a spline, how does that work?

Thanks again for the help

Rokas

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2017, 07:35:03 PM »
Hi, glad I could help.

Linking parameters is explained in this thread:
https://forum.itoosoft.com/index.php?topic=4098

Not using spline is common practice. Thats why we have X size and Y size parametrs in generators.
Rokas

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2017, 08:27:19 PM »
That's great thanks a lot. I have used the wire parameters with RC but for a different use. That's a really awesome work around for linking them like this.
Never knew about the generation without a spline, I'll have to play with that when making new ones.

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #9 on: May 02, 2017, 08:29:57 PM »
I'm slowly making progress on this when I have some downtime. I'm liking where its going but I've run into another function that I'd like to add, but not quite sure how to.

As you can see from the screen shot, I have 9 different proxy objects that will be replaced with actual models. I'd like to add a setting in it that allows the user to define how many objects there are, up to 9, then it will repeat. I've tried changing the evenly setting from Distance to Count, but I like being able to control the distance between the objects with the distance setting.

I've also included a screenshot of the current state of the RC object's nodes.

Any help with that count option would be greatly appreciated.

Paul Roberts

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #10 on: May 03, 2017, 12:15:16 PM »
Hi,

Please see the attached file for a possible solution to making the segments 1-9 repeat.

This was achieved by controlling the index parameter of a Selector operator with an expression. It uses a modulo command which always returns the remainder of a division. So by taking the segment counter and then dividing it by the number of products to repeat I can get a repeating pattern. To see how it works, here's the Segment counter with modulo 3:

Code: [Select]
Segment Count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ....
Mod 3         1 2 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1  ....

You'll notice that when the number divides perfectly the mod command returns 0 because there is no remainder. To get around this I add one to the result. which give you...

Code: [Select]
Segment Count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ....
Mod 3         2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2  ....

All good so far! The problem now is that the sequence starts on 2. The easy fix here is to subtract one from the segment count so that it starts at 0 (+1 remember). Essentially I'mm offsetting the counter by 1 to counteract the addition in the previous step.

The equation for this looks like this.

mod(SegmentXCounter-1,Input1)+1

Input1 in this equation represents the number of products you want to repeat, so if Input 1 is 3 you'll return


Code: [Select]
Segment Count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ....
Mod 3         1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1  ....


I've also added the option to repeat products within that cycle so you could have for example products repeat in a pattern 111222333444111222333444... To repeat numbers you take the output of this equation and divide it by the number of times you want to repeat and then multiply Input 1 by the same number. Finally, use a ceiling command to round the result up to the nearest whole value. The resultant equation looks like this

ceil((mod(SegmentXCounter-1,Input1)+1)/Input2)

Where Input1 is the number of products multiplied by the number of times you'd like them to repeat, and Input2 is simply the number of times you'd like them to repeat.



I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.

Many Thanks,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

Paul Roberts

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #11 on: May 03, 2017, 12:41:34 PM »
Another thought ...

A different approach, but one that would give you a lot of control, would be to place objects using the material ID applied to spline sections. It is easily achieved by changing the Selector operator's mode to Spine Material ID.


Cheers,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

BC4316

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Re: Products on a shelf
« Reply #12 on: May 03, 2017, 03:26:20 PM »
Thanks Paul!

Ill take a look at the file and follow you steps to work out how you set it up. Thanks for taking the time to make that sample setup