[Plugin] Super Drape

seven.sides · 5 Oct 2011, 10:58

Thanks TIG, this will be very usefull.

TIG · 5 Oct 2011, 12:25

Here's v1.1 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=358314#p358314

Face 'pairing' of materials between the groups is now more robust, consistent and very unlikely to fail.
Only topmost faces now usually gets draped onto - if you have overlapping faces in the groups the drape should not now 'punch through' onto lower faces, unless the faces are with ~5mm of each other vertically - still it's best to have single-skin meshes to super-drape...

The splat/error reported by Dave_R is now avoided by recoding... BUT it doesn't fix his mesh itself, which had two quad-faces that appeared coplanar but caused splats because when the mesh was intersecting with other entities they made the result unstable - after erasing those two faces they would no reface with 'find_faces', but adding a diagonal fixes the issue as they two triangles are just on the cusp of the difference between a viable quad and two triangular faces that are not coplanar. I await for Dave to re-break this version

charly2008 · 5 Oct 2011, 13:35

Hi TIG,

I've tried it with no success. I do not know if that's my fault. See Picture below.

Charly

Untitled.skp

TIG · 5 Oct 2011, 13:52

Charly

I can't get any error messages, BUT I don't get a good result either!
BUT if I explode each group in turn and immediately regroup the highlighted entities... and then use SuperDrape with them it works just fine
I suspect that there's some duplicate/tiny faces or similar 'errors' is the group[s] that cause issues - but the explode+regroup fixes them...
I'll see what I can come up with - in the meanwhile use the explode+regroup trick and it seems fine again...

charly2008 · 5 Oct 2011, 14:24

Thanks for the tip. Your plugin has a great potential as always.

MALAISE · 5 Oct 2011, 15:48

Simply, thanks

MALAISE

wolfy · 5 Oct 2011, 16:34

VERY COOL! Thanks TIG this will come in extremely handy.

numbthumb · 5 Oct 2011, 16:49

Where would we be without all this stuff... thanks!

Dave R · 5 Oct 2011, 17:15

Thanks TIG.

So the splats occurred because those two quad faces barely qualified as quads? It sounds like SU let Fredo's skinning tool make quad faces but wouldn't let your tool work. Sounds like a double standard to me.

I'll give it a try as soon as I can and let you know how it goes.

charly2008 · 5 Oct 2011, 17:20

As always with new tools, I need to experiment with.

TIG · 5 Oct 2011, 18:23

Charly

Glad you're enjoying it

One of the issues [but not all] about your original problem was that you applied the material to the draped group and not the faces with in it...
I plan to spot this in the next version and ask what you want to do...
Also your sphere had a convoluted transformation - removed after the explode+regroup... I looking at ways of trapping/sorting this too...

TIG · 6 Oct 2011, 14:37

Here's v1.2 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=358314#p358314

Following Charly's feedback it now spots if you have a material applied to the draped group and that there are some faces inside the group without a material [they will appear to have the group's material, even when they are actually in the default-material] - you can then choose Yes|No to use that group.material for any draped faces that would otherwise have the default-material.
The intersecting is even more robust.
All underlying faces inside the same group should now be unaffected by the draping [i.e. any faces below the draped-on topmost faces].
Draped faces that partially overlap the edges of the draped-on group's faces are now neatly trimmed to them.
Groups with convoluted transformations [rotated in 3d, scaled etc] should no longer cause issues with the draping.

Feedback please...

wyatt · 6 Oct 2011, 15:52

TIG, this version doesn't work for me. It calculates forever.

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method entities' for nil:NilClass> C:/PROGRA~2/Google/GOOGLE~1/Plugins/TIG-Superdrape.rb:152:in drape'
C:/PROGRA~2/Google/GOOGLE~1/Plugins/TIG-Superdrape.rb:114:in `onLButtonDown'

TIG · 6 Oct 2011, 17:16

I suspect you have SketchyPhysics or DrivingDimensions [or something similar] installed that cause a problem with copying groups [the use of the standard-method 'group.copy' was added in this version] - I had forgotten that these 'rogue-tools' still need fixing by their authors...
I am making some other minor tweaks anyway... so I will try and get rid of the 'group.copy' code to avoid the issue at the same time...
Watch this space...

TIG · 6 Oct 2011, 17:32

Here's v1.3 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=358314#p358314
The new group.copy code introduced in v1.2 is now recast to avoid clashes with rogue-scripts that might mess it up.
Multi-level/overlapping faces in the draped-group are now allowed [previously only one level was draped].

The earlier v1.2 changes were...
Following Charly's feedback it now spots if you have a material applied to the draped group and that there are some faces inside the group without a material [they will appear to have the group's material, even when they are actually in the default-material] - you can then choose Yes|No to use that group.material for any draped faces that would otherwise have the default-material.
The intersecting is even more robust.
All underlying faces inside the same group should now be unaffected by the draping [i.e. any faces below the draped-on topmost faces].
Draped faces that partially overlap the edges of the draped-on group's faces are now neatly trimmed to them.
Groups with convoluted transformations [rotated in 3d, scaled etc] should no longer cause issues with the draping.

Feedback please...

wyatt · 6 Oct 2011, 18:43

I do have Sketchy Physics, and 1.3 works now. Thank you.

AcesHigh · 7 Oct 2011, 03:08

Thanks a lot TIG, since it was me who asked for this tool.

You know, there is another use for this tool that I thought just now. Since you now can drape materials onto the mesh, it makes it REALLY EASY to select the faces with the new material! No more pain selecting all the faces that you just draped!

pep75 · 7 Oct 2011, 13:15

!!!

AcesHigh · 7 Oct 2011, 22:49

TIG, interested in adding functionalities for making a Super Ultra Drape???

basically:

1 - when drapeing, you simply projects the line of a surface over a 3d mesh. The ending result COMPLETELY follows the curvature of the mesh, just adding those lines over the mesh.

2 - when stamping, you add a completely flat shape to a mesh. The mesh adapts to the stamp and becomes flat.

What if you want a compromise? Like for example, to project a road over a mesh? Lets say you have a road, and the road is 20cm below the curbs/sidewalk level.

Why not project that 3d road over the mesh, and the mesh ALREADY has the road areas becoming 20cm lower than the curb/sidewalks areas?

What if you want the road to climb a small hill (that exists on the mesh) but you dont want the road to be as steep as the mesh? You already have the road steepness. Normal drape would be useless. It would just project the road lines over the existing (very steep) mesh. Drape would make the road flat. Ideal solution would be to project the road onto the mesh, but KEEP the road Y axis curvature, making the mesh adapt (like when stamping) to the road.

So, TIG, do you think something like that would be possible? Thanks very much!

Bob James · 8 Oct 2011, 01:40

@AcesHigh

Why not just use InstantRoad.rbs?