[Plugin][$] Curviloft 2.0a - 31 Mar 24 (Loft & Skinning)

sketchartist023 · 2 Jan 2018, 20:41

This plugin is ESSENTIAL for me THank you much. I will donate as long as I can get my idea to work . May I have assistance? I will post up anything you need to know.

Basic Concept: Taking a letter on a plane (non-3D) and forming it around an arc into a poly(preferably a simple rectangle).

I have yet to do this successfully without overlapping and issues with turning it into a solid for 3d printing using this plugin plus a paid version of SUSolid

pbacot · 2 Jan 2018, 21:23

@sketchartist023 said:

This plugin is ESSENTIAL for me THank you much. I will donate as long as I can get my idea to work . May I have assistance? I will post up anything you need to know.

Basic Concept: Taking a letter on a plane (non-3D) and forming it around an arc into a poly(preferably a simple rectangle).

I have yet to do this successfully without overlapping and issues with turning it into a solid for 3d printing using this plugin plus a paid version of SUSolid

Maybe you can start a post with your specific task. An image of the result you want and a model of what you are starting with --and the result you have so far. Also Curviloft has a lot of features: What process are you using and what seems to be failing?

It could also be that another approach is suggested, not involving Curviloft.

Einstein · 7 Jan 2018, 20:22

I have another problem with this plugin.

I'm trying to perform Loft by Spline based on 3 curves. I went Contour Selection and I dictated contour order: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Proceeded to loft. And it didn't apply my choice. Did I do something wrong?

Einstein · 7 Jan 2018, 20:42

"Generate the juntions as SU curves" in Skinning (the icon of blue horizontal line and 3 vertical lines) - what does it do?

Einstein · 7 Jan 2018, 20:42

Hi! I'm having some problems with Skin Contours:

I am trying to interpolate a face with Skin Contours but the tool didn’t detect the edges perfectly. Changing Vertex Matching or Simplify didn’t help. Usually when I click on created surface, there appears additional floating window showing the connections and I can add some forced pairs. But sometimes, like in this case, I cannot change the geometry.

(the upper screen)

Another issue with adding forced pairs is that sometimes when I succeed with adding but I don’t like the result, I want to “Redo last change” and that change doesn’t redo.

(the lower screen)

So the problem is actually double, within Skin Contours. In the first case I’d like to do exactly what I’m doing in the second one. Is it possible to fix this?

fredo6 · 7 Jan 2018, 21:16

@einstein said:

I have another problem with this plugin.

I'm trying to perform Loft by Spline based on 3 curves. I went Contour Selection and I dictated contour order: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Proceeded to loft. And it didn't apply my choice. Did I do something wrong?

Could you post your model so that I have a look.

Thanks

Fredo

Einstein · 7 Jan 2018, 23:40

Is it possible to generate real quads with this tool?

I mean, not to smooth newly-created edges "perpendicular" and "parallel" to given path and only smooth/ soften diagonals?

Einstein · 8 Jan 2018, 00:26

@fredo6 said:

@einstein said:

I have another problem with this plugin.

I'm trying to perform Loft by Spline based on 3 curves. I went Contour Selection and I dictated contour order: 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Proceeded to loft. And it didn't apply my choice. Did I do something wrong?

Could you post your model so that I have a look.

Thanks

Fredo

I already worked out that I should have first picked the tool, only then choose contours. Now it works fine Thank you.

fredo6 · 8 Jan 2018, 09:12

@einstein said:

Is it possible to generate real quads with this tool?

I mean, not to smooth newly-created edges "perpendicular" and "parallel" to given path and only smooth/ soften diagonals?

I think this is the option "generate Pseudoquads" in the Geometry section of the palette.

Fredo

Einstein · 8 Jan 2018, 11:02

@fredo6 said:

@einstein said:

Is it possible to generate real quads with this tool?

I mean, not to smooth newly-created edges "perpendicular" and "parallel" to given path and only smooth/ soften diagonals?

I think this is the option "generate Pseudoquads" in the Geometry section of the palette.

Fredo

Almost, because it softens every edge

Referring to a problem I had earlier:
I discovered that Skin Contours doesn't allow to add forced pairs when input contours embrace a flat surface. I quite often use Curviloft for interpolating flat areas and making organic mesh out of them, like in the screenshot. Normally we can manually match vertices only when output mesh is not planar.
So I'd politely make an improvement idea - to enable manual vertex matching for planar input-output.

rv1974 · 17 Jan 2018, 12:32

Is there a way to set a new default value
1 for #Seg for example?

fredo6 · 17 Jan 2018, 13:15

@rv1974 said:

Is there a way to set a new default value
1 for #Seg for example?

Not really from what I remember.

What can be done however is that Curviloft keeps the latest values of the parameters across sessions. I do this in other plugins.

Fredo

rv1974 · 17 Jan 2018, 18:17

No, it always returns to 5

Einstein · 30 Jan 2018, 13:40

Fredo, if you plan to make another update to Curviloft, could you please increase max. values of these parameters: Simplify from 0.15 to 0.8 or something (0.15 is very little, in some cases I'd need much more), Sampling and Interpolation from 40 to 100? With previous releases I would have done it by myself by simply editing CurviloftPalette.rb in Notepad but now these codes are encrypted.

And secondly, there's this bug that when I use the tool, close it and open again, it doesn't bring that menu bar on viewport's top to adjust options but goes straight to generating junction. And I can't come back and set connection options. Have to open a new model and copy my geometry to it. I think it was already discussed somewhere so I'm just bringing it "in the board".

L0_Inhabit · 20 Feb 2018, 21:45

Hi, I just installed LibFredo and the latest Curviloft plugin. It works fine when I have 3 or fewer profiles, but I'm trying to connect at least 5. How can I accomplish this? All the profiles are simply copies of the same thing, but it won't work when I try to connect more than 3. I am using an imac on High Sierra 10.13.3, Sketchup Pro 2018, and Curviloft 1.6a. The profiles were first drawn in AutoCAD as polylines and the dwg was imported into Sketchup. They are closed line shapes with no surface in between. I have a screen recording, but it's too large to upload. Is there another way I can send? All advice, tips, observations are welcome!!

-Lola

fredo6 · 21 Feb 2018, 08:52

@l0_inhabit said:

Hi, I just installed LibFredo and the latest Curviloft plugin. It works fine when I have 3 or fewer profiles, but I'm trying to connect at least 5. How can I accomplish this? All the profiles are simply copies of the same thing, but it won't work when I try to connect more than 3. I am using an imac on High Sierra 10.13.3, Sketchup Pro 2018, and Curviloft 1.6a. The profiles were first drawn in AutoCAD as polylines and the dwg was imported into Sketchup. They are closed line shapes with no surface in between. I have a screen recording, but it's too large to upload. Is there another way I can send? All advice, tips, observations are welcome!!

-Lola

I think it's best to post the model (or an extract of the model with the 5 profiles).

Fredo

fredo6 · 21 Feb 2018, 09:08

@einstein said:

Fredo, if you plan to make another update to Curviloft, could you please increase max. values of these parameters: Simplify from 0.15 to 0.8 or something (0.15 is very little, in some cases I'd need much more), Sampling and Interpolation from 40 to 100? With previous releases I would have done it by myself by simply editing CurviloftPalette.rb in Notepad but now these codes are encrypted.

will go in next version

@einstein said:

And secondly, there's this bug that when I use the tool, close it and open again, it doesn't bring that menu bar on viewport's top to adjust options but goes straight to generating junction. And I can't come back and set connection options. Have to open a new model and copy my geometry to it. I think it was already discussed somewhere so I'm just bringing it "in the board".

Not sure I understand. Curviloft never goes directly to generate Sketchup geometry. It ony goes to Preview mode when you have an initial selection.
Could you clarify and illustrate your case.

Thanks

Fredo

L0_Inhabit · 21 Feb 2018, 15:47

@fredo6 said:

@l0_inhabit said:

Hi, I just installed LibFredo and the latest Curviloft plugin. It works fine when I have 3 or fewer profiles, but I'm trying to connect at least 5. How can I accomplish this? All the profiles are simply copies of the same thing, but it won't work when I try to connect more than 3. I am using an imac on High Sierra 10.13.3, Sketchup Pro 2018, and Curviloft 1.6a. The profiles were first drawn in AutoCAD as polylines and the dwg was imported into Sketchup. They are closed line shapes with no surface in between. I have a screen recording, but it's too large to upload. Is there another way I can send? All advice, tips, observations are welcome!!

-Lola

I think it's best to post the model (or an extract of the model with the 5 profiles).

Fredo

Sorry, fairly new to this, but thanks for the quick reply. All I have are screenshots, couldn't get the screen recording small enough to upload. The 5 profiles change color after I hit the green checkmark, but never actually form a plane..See attached images! I just started a new post under the same name with my sketchup model attached. Also attaching here..Let me know if that helps!

Model~.skp

fredo6 · 21 Feb 2018, 18:16

@LO_Inhabit

Very simple. Your model is at a very small scale, with a lot of tiny edges in the profiles (<0.1mm). Sketchup does not like this, and Curviloft neither.

Just scale the whole model by x50, and Curviloft will make the tube without problem.

Fredo

L0_Inhabit · 21 Feb 2018, 18:20

Aha! I knew it had to be simple!! Thank you so much, Fredo!