Itoo Software Forum

RailClone => Tutorials => Topic started by: iToo on March 13, 2014, 12:41:25 PM

Title: Creating randomised books
Post by: iToo on March 13, 2014, 12:41:25 PM
Post here your questions and comments about the Creating randomised books (http://www.itoosoft.com/railclone/tutorials/tutorial_bookshelf_books.php) tutorial.
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Karax on October 29, 2014, 05:06:38 PM
Hey! Thanks for a great tutorial!

Is there a way to save this style in the User library? When I save and load it in a new scene, it doesn't work properly, because the short splines for the pile and leaning books are missing. The only way to make it work is to create new splines and assign them to the nested RailClone objects. Would be nice if this wasn't necessary.
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on October 29, 2014, 07:17:19 PM
Hi,

Thanks for the question.  We encountered the same issue so since this tutorial was released we have introduced a new feature that allows you to create 1d arrays without the need for a splines. This should allow you to use styles with nested 1d arrays as a preset.

To use this feature, instead of using small splines for the leaning and piles of books, specify a length using the X Size parameter found in the L1S Generator's properties:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/d2541338f24941228b3339a916e78877.jpg)

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

Cheers,

Paul

Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Karax on October 29, 2014, 08:31:39 PM
Thanks a lot, it works perfectly!
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Karax on October 30, 2014, 09:51:12 AM
There is one small issue left - if I want to control the viewport display (mesh/box/adaptive) of the nested RailClone objects in the new scene, I need to extract these segments in the scene.

Not a big problem, but is there some way to control the display from the "master" RailClone?
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on October 30, 2014, 10:14:27 AM
Hi, I'm afraid this is a limitation when using a nested RC object that includes randomisation, because each inner object must be rebuilt for every iteration. In the past when a style like this has become particularly heavy, once set up I have set it to Display as Box manually from the object properties.

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/9f9d39fd9f7e452fb4b555cadce54656.jpg)

Cheers,

Paul
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Rokas on November 03, 2014, 12:12:47 PM
To use this feature, instead of using small splines for the leaning and piles of books, specify a length using the X Size parameter found in the L1S Generator's properties:
(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/d2541338f24941228b3339a916e78877.jpg)

It doesn't work for me on vertical pile of books...
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on November 03, 2014, 07:02:29 PM
Hi Rokas,

When using the X Size, you may want to set the Stacked RailClone object to Free Object, this will mean that the books are generated on the pivot point. They were being created before but they're lost in the scene somewhere.

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/b6f41f882b414c85953cefd5d7f466f5.jpg)

Because there's no spline the books are being created horizontally:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/43411a63cc33490db8679d312b54bac9.jpg)

So to fix this, open the RailClone object into which they are nested, go to their segment's properties and rotate them by 90 degrees:

(http://lonelymonk.com/forum_images/80b43f8e76514f87bcfb0465b84385a7.jpg)

The style should now behave as expected and can be used as a preset :)

Hope that helps.

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: TK3264 on July 21, 2015, 01:07:18 PM
Hello,

I'm currently following the randomised books tutorial and one feature is not behaving as expected. Even when I open the books_end_vray file the feature is not working. Unless I'm missing something (I am new to this) this makes me think that with the new RC versions something changed?

The problem appears when you rotate the books. A gap appears between the books, as if their projection doesn't allow them to keep together.

How could I get arround this?

Thank you in advance!

Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on July 21, 2015, 01:15:00 PM
Hi!

Since recording that tutorial there has been a small change to the way in which RailClone handles fixed rotations. You can find an explanation of this and a couple of solutions in our Knowledge Base here  (http://docs.itoosoft.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=18153563).

I hope that helps but please let me know if there's anything further I can do.

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: AndrasP on April 15, 2016, 05:34:32 PM
any chance that you can update that tutorial to mach the new behaviour?

in the knowledge base, you mentioned 2 solutions, but the first one isn`t working, that leaves us the second one with the expressions, but as a beginner, tbh I have no idea how to change the rotation angle or rotate the books to the opposite direction and it feels overcomplicated anyway.

I only work on interiors and I mainly bought railclone for books, bookcases and railings and this is slightly disappointing because you "forgot" to mention at the tutorials that the software has changed since then.
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on April 15, 2016, 09:20:12 PM
Hi,

My apologies, as I've already mentioned the video was recorded before the change in behaviour. I'll update the text though to reflect the new changes.

I've just checked with RailClone 2.6 and both techniques in the Knowledge Base work fine. I've attached the revised file for you to take a look at. This was achieved by editing the transform operator show in the screen grab below.

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

If this doesn't help please feel free to upload your version and I'll see what's going on.

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

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: AndrasP on April 18, 2016, 10:34:40 AM
thanks for the quick answer :)
it works in your file so I guess I my setup was wrong.
it seems that if you increase the angle of rotation, the overlapping area is increasing too. apart from that, all the books are rotated in the same way. I guess for both problems, the solution is to use expressions with the `arithmetic` operator. it`s not a big deal though, this version is fine in most cases, so thank you very much!

---
it seems I forgot to change the mode to adaptive on the rules panel of the L1S generator. :)
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Louis on March 11, 2021, 07:01:32 AM
Hello,

I'm here for a learning purpose.

I'm trying to create a procedural for a bookshelf and so far I managed to know how to do procedural but there is one that I'm struggling with. How can I not make books crash through against the upright width of the bookshelf? Please see the image in the attachment so you know what I mean. I have attached the file so you can get a closer look.

Really need help with this one. Thank you so much!
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Paul Roberts on March 11, 2021, 05:12:54 PM
Hi Louis,

I've answered on email but I'll post here too so that others can benefit.

Please find attached the modified version of your scene. I've made a few small changes to make it work

- To stop the books intersecting the start and end, I added Generator padding.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZWZ5QyW.png)
- I see you are using Adaptive deform mode. This only works well when all the Default segments are the same size on the X axis. Instead I've set the mode to Tile and used a Macro called Scale Final X Segment. This will attempt to scale the final book to fit the remaining space.

I hope that helps

Paul
Title: Re: Creating randomised books
Post by: Louis on March 11, 2021, 08:42:10 PM
Hi Paul,

Yes this is exactly what I've been looking for!

Please do I appreciate that you posted it here instead of email. I'm sure there are people like me looking for this kind of solution and here you are!

Thank you so much!

I have 3 problems here

1) I see that the padding that can be played around at "Books" Array, Segment (default 30, null connected to X Evenly) and you added a generator of "Scale final X seg." My question is how do I know the exact way to achieve control better by adjusting "Left" and "Right" to avoid crashing through against the upright wall. Because playing around for each padding confuses me while looking different upright width at different locations and is hard to control or I lack my knowledge of how it works?

2) When adjusting the padding to get perfect avoiding from crashing through or stop the books intersecting, I noticed that the book ended up a small book (I mean less pages even about 1-5 pages or sometimes doesn't even look like a book instead of a lot of pages). Is there a way I can tell books to not go maybe less than 100 pages or at least make it look like it's a book?

3) Lastly you mentioned that you set the mode to Tile from Adaptive. I set it to Adaptive because I thought it helped to avoid slice and unnecessary added books after the end of the bookshelf. If I want to set a Tile like you did, all I need is to go to each segment of books and uncheck "Slice" from the "Deform" tab to get rid of the slice?