sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    Loft questions

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Developers' Forum
    26 Posts 9 Posters 4.0k Views 9 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D Offline
      Daniel S
      last edited by

      I donΒ΄t understand well the question.
      Here i attach an example. Can you make the lines and put the .skp file here? So I can make the loft and show you the result.

      Daniel S


      Loft.skp

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • R Offline
        remus
        last edited by

        As pilou says, generally the curves can have any alignment relative to each other.

        http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • pilouP Offline
          pilou
          last edited by

          Curves can be anything! πŸ˜‰


          curve.jpg

          Frenchy Pilou
          Is beautiful that please without concept!
          My Little site :)

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Chris FullmerC Offline
            Chris Fullmer
            last edited by

            Ahh, that totally answers my question. Yes, those splines are not planar. Interesting.

            Can you do a loft with only 2 spline instead of three? Maybe if you could just loft everything in the attached model? That would be helpful! Thanks,

            Chris


            Loft tests1.skp

            Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
            All my Plugins I've written

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Chris FullmerC Offline
              Chris Fullmer
              last edited by

              ok, I see frenchy's post using just 2 splines. i'd still like to see what type of surface is created by lofting the simple curves in the model.

              What I am trying to figure out is how to decide where to place the bezier curve "handles" that help guide the flow from one spline to the next. On just 2 splines I haven't been able to think of an acceptable solution, because the handles often just end up exactly between the start point and end point, and then there is no real bezier curving going on. Its just a straight line connection.

              So i'ld like to see how other software are handling only 2 splines. Non planar is now a whole new monster to deal with πŸ˜„

              Chris

              Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
              All my Plugins I've written

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • soloS Offline
                solo
                last edited by

                That would be an awesome SU addition, you think it may be possible?

                http://www.solos-art.com

                If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D Offline
                  Daniel S
                  last edited by

                  @chris fullmer said:

                  Ahh, that totally answers my question. Yes, those splines are not planar. Interesting.

                  Can you do a loft with only 2 spline instead of three? Maybe if you could just loft everything in the attached model? That would be helpful! Thanks,

                  Chris

                  Here i attach the results.
                  If you need more send me the .skp.

                  Daniel S


                  Loft tests1 results.zip

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • pilouP Offline
                    pilou
                    last edited by

                    Number can be any πŸ˜‰

                    Ps Where is the plug for test your curves?


                    any.jpg

                    Frenchy Pilou
                    Is beautiful that please without concept!
                    My Little site :)

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • R Offline
                      remus
                      last edited by

                      Heres a few pics of how MoI treats the provided examples.


                      cf_loft.zip

                      http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Chris FullmerC Offline
                        Chris Fullmer
                        last edited by

                        @Solo, yes Its totally possible. I have a working protoype, but its incredibly stupid at this point. I've got a lot of coding to add to it to make it smart enough to work regularly. The biggest tasks ahead are re-ordering the points in the splines so that they are in order from start to end, then figuring out how place the handles.

                        Other than that, the actual surface maker is working very well. Its just hard to feed it use-able points.

                        Chris

                        Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                        All my Plugins I've written

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • soloS Offline
                          solo
                          last edited by

                          um...all sounds Greek to me, a "yes it's possible 'cos I'm a great ruby geek" would have been sufficient.

                          Very cool, this will add to my bunch'o fantabulous tools y'all code-jockeys have been so kind to make for us. πŸ‘

                          http://www.solos-art.com

                          If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • pilouP Offline
                            pilou
                            last edited by

                            here an example of 2 no planar curves
                            (it's nurbs curves but I believe that is the same for beziers curves πŸ˜‰
                            Generally "start/end" of the closed curve it the point were the curve is closed πŸ˜‰
                            here at 15 h 15 O'Clock πŸ˜„


                            nurbs.jpg

                            Frenchy Pilou
                            Is beautiful that please without concept!
                            My Little site :)

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Chris FullmerC Offline
                              Chris Fullmer
                              last edited by

                              Goodness, and I thought the forums were a little slow today....I guess you just gotta ask the right question!

                              well, I've got an idea of how to proceed now. Thanks very much for the models and image everyone. I see now that some of what is going on is not as hard as I had thought. Of course, some of it is significantly harder....so I guess it all balances out.

                              Still working...

                              Chris

                              Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                              All my Plugins I've written

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Chris FullmerC Offline
                                Chris Fullmer
                                last edited by

                                ok, I've got it working well as long as each spline has the same amount of segments. And it doesn't really smooth out the mesh over 3 splines. I'll see if I can get one or both of those figured out tonight and maybe post a test version of the script in the next 24 hours. Thanks for everyone's help!

                                Chris

                                Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                                All my Plugins I've written

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • EarthMoverE Offline
                                  EarthMover
                                  last edited by

                                  Chris,

                                  It might be worth also looking at how 3ds Max handles lofting. Although it only uses 2D splines, there are some parameter adjustments in the modifier panel that would be interesting to explore and possibly adapt into sketchup functionality, particularly the "fit" option. These two loft tutorials show pretty well how it works and they give a glimpse into the loft modifier rollout panel. Let me know if you want me to take some screen shots of all the Max lofting parameters.

                                  http://www.hallofheads.com/tutorials/tut7.htm
                                  http://tutorialscentral.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33

                                  I don't know that you could ever push sketchup to do the kind of lofting that a nurbs modeler like Moi can do, but then again, you ruby geniuses always seem to amaze me.

                                  3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
                                  Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
                                  Content Creator at Skapeup

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Chris FullmerC Offline
                                    Chris Fullmer
                                    last edited by

                                    Thanks for the links Adam. I've tried to use the loft tool in 3dsmax and I've done basic lofting with it. But that what you showed is very advanced. Probably out of the scope of what I think I'll ever be able to implement. But perhaps simplified versions of that could sneak into scripts. But I suppose I would have to understand how that stuff works in order to implement it.....

                                    Chris

                                    Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                                    All my Plugins I've written

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • pilouP Offline
                                      pilou
                                      last edited by

                                      What is the difference between your future Loft Plug and the Sandbox "From Scratch"?

                                      Frenchy Pilou
                                      Is beautiful that please without concept!
                                      My Little site :)

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • Chris FullmerC Offline
                                        Chris Fullmer
                                        last edited by

                                        From scratch essentially just draws straight lines between the curves (contours).

                                        Curve stitcher is also similar to this loft script.

                                        My loft will (theoretically) draw bezier curves between the curves. But with just 2 curves, there is realy no way to set up a bezier curve. But with 3 or more it should/will work great.

                                        And on top of that, my script will adjust for curves with varying segment counts, hopefully work with closed and open curves, and it lets you control how many segments are created between each segment.

                                        Here's a video. I was planning on releaseing something tonight, but I've gotta go to bed instead. I'll try to release this tomorrow. (it might take a long time to load, so just keep waiting for a bit....sorry)

                                        This video is not for the faint of heart - 22mb and 3+ minutes of no sound. It sort of shows how "from contours", curve stitcher, and loft compare. But again, my loft tool has a few more key features to add.
                                        [flash=793,643:27hg2omq]http://www.chrisfullmer.com/forums/loft_test.swf[/flash:27hg2omq]

                                        Chris

                                        Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                                        All my Plugins I've written

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • thomthomT Offline
                                          thomthom
                                          last edited by

                                          Sweet! The curtain shape looks really nice.
                                          No sleep for you!! Get some caffeine and get back to work! ...pleeeeease... πŸ˜‰

                                          Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • pilouP Offline
                                            pilou
                                            last edited by

                                            Cool pedagogic demo! β˜€
                                            So your future plug is also a sort of subdivision tool πŸ˜‰

                                            Frenchy Pilou
                                            Is beautiful that please without concept!
                                            My Little site :)

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • 1
                                            • 2
                                            • 1 / 2
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Buy SketchPlus
                                            Buy SUbD
                                            Buy WrapR
                                            Buy eBook
                                            Buy Modelur
                                            Buy Vertex Tools
                                            Buy SketchCuisine
                                            Buy FormFonts

                                            Advertisement