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    Can we improve ExtrudeEdgebyRails? (add options)

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    • TIGT Offline
      TIG Moderator
      last edited by

      I am 'Mr EEbyRails'. ๐Ÿค“
      I am already aware of your ideas about mesh facet minimizing, from other threads - my initial idea was to keep the mesh as 'smooth' as possible by sub-dividing the opposing rails' edges equally.
      It's still best in terms of a 'smoothed' mesh, BUT I know that making a mesh with 100 times more faces just because the edge-count is a little uneven seems pretty unreasonable...
      Still best to keep the opposing edge-counts related...
      I am looking at ways of offering 'options' - e.g. if opposing edges are equal or simple multiples then 'no options' - if they are not 'equal' then a dialog giving options - telling you the number of edges required to 'smooth it' OR take option to make main mesh even and edges 'from a point' to even up the rest as you have suggested...

      EEbyRails v2 with Initial-Profile, Rail-1, Rail-2 and Melding-Profile*** is going well - the second profile*** you choose [or re-pick the first one to make the mesh as made currently] means the mesh profile is 'melded' along the rails between the two forms - allowing a predetermined start and end profile - a 'lathe' along rails if you will...
      Watch this space... โ˜€

      TIG

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      • Chris FullmerC Offline
        Chris Fullmer
        last edited by

        One thought I've had on this TIG is to redefine their rails with some algebra using a curve of best fit method. There are many out there to choose from. They the user could specify how many segments they want added, regardless of how many are actually there. Of course then the problem becomes that the reails are only approximating the rails they supplied, but it is a nice wat to smooth things out.

        Chris

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

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        • R Offline
          remus
          last edited by

          TIG,i think i read that you get the same number of edges by multiplying the number of segments in each edge to get a common multiple. If this is the case im sure itd be easy enough to improve by finding a smaller common multiple.

          i.e. edge a has 3 segments, edge b has 6 segments, so common factor = 6 rather than 18.

          Apologies if im just imagining that you wrote that ๐Ÿ˜›

          http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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          • TIGT Offline
            TIG Moderator
            last edited by

            It does take the smallest so 6 and 12 uses 6 -you can't go smaller than that for one set of edges as it might form other geometry...
            However, 6 and 13 has nothing except 6x13= 78 !
            we could go 12 and make the odd 1 taper to zero at one end, bit this affects the smoothness of the mesh...

            TIG

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            • R Offline
              remus
              last edited by

              Fair enough.

              http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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              • TIGT Offline
                TIG Moderator
                last edited by

                @chris fullmer said:

                One thought I've had on this TIG is to redefine their rails with some algebra using a curve of best fit method. There are many out there to choose from. They the user could specify how many segments they want added, regardless of how many are actually there. Of course then the problem becomes that the reails are only approximating the rails they supplied, but it is a nice way to smooth things out.

                Chris

                Approximating a curve only works if that 'curve' is something 'arithmetical' BUT a curve can be any collection of 3D edges in a 3D Polyline... ๐Ÿ˜•

                TIG

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                • TIGT Offline
                  TIG Moderator
                  last edited by

                  I now have v2 of EEbyRails working - in this version you pick 2/3/4 curves - the Profile, then Rail-1, then Rail-2 [which could also be Rail-1 again] and then a 'Melding-Profile' [could be the Profile again]...
                  This 'Melding-Profile' lets you dictate the end form/location of the mesh as well as the start derived from the Profile - effectively allowing a 'Coons mesh' from 4 defined paths, with the mesh 'morphing' between them all...
                  I am going away for a few day but then I plan to issue v2 early next week - however, I haven't addressed the segmentation matching of Rails/Profiles yet - any comments before I commit would be welcomed...EEbyRv2.png

                  TIG

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                  • EarthMoverE Offline
                    EarthMover
                    last edited by

                    Great news TIG. Have you tried it on Jeff's "impossible" scenario yet?

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

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                    • pilouP Offline
                      pilou
                      last edited by

                      What about number of segments of each part?
                      Must be equal for more speedy result or not important as taken from existant between neighbour forms?

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

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                      • CarrozzaC Offline
                        Carrozza
                        last edited by

                        Great news TIG !!!

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                        • thomthomT Offline
                          thomthom
                          last edited by

                          I moved this into the developer section. Sorry for any confusion that might cause - but we're trying to keep the Plugin section an index only. ๐Ÿค“

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

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                          • JClementsJ Offline
                            JClements
                            last edited by

                            Looks very promising and seems to me that it would be easier to use and be more predictable.

                            Thanks, TIG for all your hardwork. What will 2010 bring? Hard to imagine.
                            ๐Ÿ˜•
                            John

                            John | Illustrator | Beaverton, Oregon

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                            • juan974J Offline
                              juan974
                              last edited by

                              Edit first post

                              juan974 (Rรฉunion island)
                              website : http://sketchucation.com/click.php?url=http://www.tarn.us

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                              • pilouP Offline
                                pilou
                                last edited by

                                The principal problem is avoid cracks between each existant sides!

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

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                                • TIGT Offline
                                  TIG Moderator
                                  last edited by

                                  @unknownuser said:

                                  The principal problem is avoid cracks between existing sides!

                                  The good news is that EEbyRv2 - yet to be unleashed - ensures that the 2 rails and 2 profiles selected are kept so now there are no 'cracks'; however, the number of facets increases dramatically with unmatched segment counts - especially if the rails AND profiles have unmatched segment counts - especially if there's no common factors.
                                  equal segment-counts for rails + profiles =
                                  5&5 & 5&5 =>> 5x5 = 25 =>> 50 facets [remember that quads are triangulated so we need to x2]
                                  10&10 & 10&10 =>> 10x10 = 100 =>> 200 facets [x2 the mesh edges =>> x4 the mesh facets]
                                  Paired segments with a common factor increase by a bigger amount, but still not too unwieldy - here it's x4 for a mesh that has x2 the edge segments =
                                  10&5 & 10&5 =>> 10x10 = 100 =>> 200 facets [same number of mesh facets from far fewer mesh edges]
                                  BUT a similar segment-count but with no common factor give enormously faceted meshes =
                                  10&9 & 10&9 =>> 90x90 = 8,100 =>> 16,200 facets !!!
                                  However, this subdivision method WILL give a properly 'smooth' mesh.
                                  However, there is an alternative algorithm that I am trying to incorporate, which takes the segment count of the most segmented rail/profile as the maximum and projects back 'triangulated wedges' of mesh to a repeated vertex position on the rail/profile with the fewer segments, these 'wedges' will be positioned as evenly as possible along that rail/profile.
                                  I'll probably introduce an extra warning dialog if the facet-count gets above a certain limit - say ~1,000 - which will tell you that it could take some time to make a 'perfect mesh' because you have [stupidly] made the rails/edges with awkwardly uneven segment-counts: and then offering you the chance to 'Cancel' and fix it manually & retry, or answer 'No' to go for the quicker [but simpler and less perfect] mesh, or 'Yes' to carry on as you are and wait for the very faceted mesh to finish processing... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
                                  I hope to have something published early this coming week...
                                  Merry Christmas! โ˜€

                                  TIG

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                                  • pilouP Offline
                                    pilou
                                    last edited by

                                    It's not an easy thing to convert an box modeling prog to a nurbs one ๐Ÿ˜‰
                                    Happy new year and see you the next one โ˜€

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

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                                    • JClementsJ Offline
                                      JClements
                                      last edited by

                                      TIG,

                                      I am wondering if, through your recent experimentation with different algorithms for your "railing" scripts, that a better means for creating a terrain from contours could be developed (v.s. the sandbox method which often requires so much time consuming and tedious cleanup)?

                                      John

                                      John | Illustrator | Beaverton, Oregon

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                                      • pilouP Offline
                                        pilou
                                        last edited by

                                        @unknownuser said:

                                        over 30ยฐC (86ยฐF) for christmas do you believe that ?

                                        No ๐Ÿ’š ๐Ÿ˜‰ ๐Ÿ˜Ž โ˜€

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

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                                        • juan974J Offline
                                          juan974
                                          last edited by

                                          @unknownuser said:

                                          tig wrote : However, there is an alternative algorithm that I am trying to incorporate, which takes the segment count of the most segmented rail/profile as the maximum and projects back 'triangulated wedges' of mesh to a repeated vertex position on the rail/profile with the fewer segments, these 'wedges' will be positioned as evenly as possible along that rail/profile.

                                          what do you think about :

                                          lot of faces may be created, would you try the method of distribution of wedges whitch decrease the number of created face?
                                          |_no "continue whit classic algorithm"
                                          |_yes "open another dialog box"
                                          _|_how would you like to distribute the wegdes
                                          __|_from start "all from start to middle of rail"
                                          __|_from end "all from middle to end"
                                          _| homogeneous "..."
                                          _|_ok
                                          _|_cancel

                                          do you think is a good way?

                                          EDIT : is not a good way, i was thinking about low difference between segments's rails, but dont works for big difference ...

                                          merry christmas to all, joyeux noel zot toute
                                          over 30ยฐC (86ยฐF) for christmas do you believe that ?

                                          juan974 (Rรฉunion island)
                                          website : http://sketchucation.com/click.php?url=http://www.tarn.us

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                                          • D Offline
                                            driven
                                            last edited by

                                            hi Tig,

                                            just a thought, I and it seems quite a few people use fredo's polyline segmentor before using eebyrails, loft, blend, etc..

                                            so, would it be possible to simply call up that tool from within EER2 if a potential problem is found?

                                            john

                                            learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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