Parameterising Windows with RailClone

[Paul Roberts]

Please post any question or comments about the Parameterising Windows tutorial here.

[Rokas]

link, please.

[Paul Roberts]

Sorry, I posted this a little pre-emptively. It's not been released yet...

[Macker]

What a superb tutorial, will definitely be making a lot of use of this.

Where is the script you used?

[Paul Roberts]

Hi, I'm glad you found it useful

You can find useful scripts for RailClone here.

Thanks!

Paul

[Beavertron]

This is an amazing feature and once setup can be used as a template file for future projects. However the setup of this is quite hard-core!! I certainly wouldn't be able to remember it a few weeks down the line. Its good to see the video and comprehensive instructions to go with it thanks for that.

Would be great to see as Railclone develops a more easy way of setting something like this up, more of these functions driven under the hood for example. Maybe to be able to model geometry and set the slice points and railclone takes care of the rest based on fewer parameters required. Just my thoughts, I wish I had the brain to be able to work out this level of setting things up. Really is amazing how clever this is.

Thanks

[Paul Roberts]

Hi!

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad the windows tutorial and RailClone is useful. We're always interested in feedback and keeping RailClone simple enough to use for everyday work is of paramount importance to us. We'll look at how this process can be simplified in the future but an easy solution might be to ship with some ready made styles to which you can add your own geometry.

Many thanks!

Paul

[Florian Albert]

Hello Paul,

thanks a lot for this great Tutorial! I'm a newbie to this forum but I am using RailClone and ForestPack for quite a lot time. Both are very nice pieces of Software and I couldn't imagine daily work without them. THANKS for this too.

So let’s come to the related topic:
I'm wondering how to create a window stile similar to your stile in the tutorial but with two different types of windows. In most cases you have some windows you can’t open (with a fixed glazing) and others you can open. In most cases there is a repetitive order like two fixed windows followed by one that can be opened followed by another two fixed ones and so on… I tried a lot to get this working but without success. The easiest way seemed to be, to add the frame of the opening window to the default segment, but  then the frame get scaled and you get smaller frames in smaller windows and wide frames in very wide windows. As far as I can see this Problem could be easily solved, if it would be possible to link one Array into the input node of another. Am I right or is there already a way to achieve what I am trying to? I hope what I wrote is more or less understandable ;-)

Many greetings,

Florian

[Paul Roberts]

Hi Florian,

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you find RailClone and Forest Pack useful for your work.

Creating patterns of fixed and open windows can be achieved using the techniques shown in that tutorial combined with additional Sequence nodes set to increment on X . These should be wired to the Default, Top, Bottom, and Evenly inputs before the existing Sequence operators (that Increment on Y). In this way you can create patterns of geometry on both the X and the Y axes.



I've attached a file for you to take a look at that is set up with 4 divisions and with sashes on the ends, I hope it helps. You can also see the additional segments needed to create this style.

If you have any further questions about these please let me know. As mentioned above, we'll also look at how this process can be simplified in the future.

Many thanks!

Paul

[Florian Albert]

Hi Paul,

thank you very much! I did the “creating number sequences” tutorial this morning and got an idea how to achieve what I am looking for by adding some sequence nodes – but your response had been much faster ;-) still didn’t got it to work. I have to analyze what you have done in your stile - I’m still a little slow in understanding what’s going on in RailClone…
As far as I can see in this moment it will be a little tricky to export the “XEvenly Distance” the “YFixed Size” and some Sequence values to modify the “rhythm” of fixed- and window glazing. That is what I was intended to do. Have to think about it, looks like it will end up in a mess of if-conditions and carry me much further than I am capable of this moment ;-)

Thanks again, I will be back if I have some more explicit questions,

Florian

[Sbaur]

Hi Paul

First of all thank you for the window tutorial, this is just what i needed.
So I started to make my own windows and everything is working fine except there is one thing which is bugging me.

My intention is to use the RailClone Windows as a starter-set and then i want to edit them with an EditPoly-Modifier.
The problem is that I get random vertices on the upper edge of the glass (the default segment in the 2S Array)

I have attached a screenshot of what i mean.

Is there any way to get rid of those extra vertices? the other parts of the mesh are all clean, so im hoping this "error" can be solved.

Kind regards

Stef

[Paul Roberts]

Hi,

I'm pleased the tutorial is helpful and you're getting good results

Those rogue vertices could be caused when the glass segment is sliced to fit the size of the array. Try changing Style > Operate On from Triangle to Quads and they should disappear.



I hope that helps.

Many thanks!

Paul

[Sbaur]

Oh. My. Gosh.
 

Well this solution was a lot easier than i thought!
Thanks a lot.

Have a great day.

[Paul Roberts]

Great! Glad it fixed the problem. 

[Sbaur]

Hi Paul (or other fellow RailClone-Users)
I have another question as im making more and more windows with RailClone. 

I want to make a sliding window.
This is tricky: the left side is not symmetrical to the right side, because of the sliding part which is behind the fix part of the window. (See attachment)

For the corners it is no problem, i can link them to the appropriate segments, the same for the sides.

The X Evenly is the same like in the tutorial with the selector and the arithmetic-node with the expression:
if(YSplinePosition = 0,3,
if(YSplinePosition = 1,1,2))

Now the tricky parts: Top Side, Bottom Side and Default.
I also used a selector node with an arithmetic-node.
In the expression i can't get the selector to select the correct geometry for the sides.... it always selects just on of the geometry for both sides.

here is what my expression looks like:

if(XSplinePosition = 0,1,2)

With my weak programming skills, i understand this as:

If the spline position on the X-axis is zero, then use the first geometry, otherwise use the second geometry

Where am i going wrong?
I have added my StyleEditor in the attachment.

Kind regards

Stef