1001bit Extrude Problems...

TIG

@tim danaher said:

Which is exactly what I'd done in the linked post... it's just that the rounding produced isn't too good: there are kinks at the corners that I'd like to get rid of.

There were no kinks in my plain FollowMe version ? Can you post a screen-shot ?

Tim Danaher

Sure, TIG... here you go:

I should probably attach the .skp too:

iPod-touch-SUC.skp

gohch

hi Tim,
sorry for the VERY LATE reply to your question,
The extrude tool in 1001bit is meant for a different purpose actually, it's meant for extruding a profile through some curve slope, while maintaining 'upright' cross sectional profile.
for example, ramps, handrails for spiral staircases etc.
In order to do that, the sectional profile constantly twist itself to maintain as 'upright' as possible.
This can be seen in the extrusion along a sloping curve(extruded entity on the right) below. The profile struggles to maintain upright always.

This, however has some limitation: i.e. it cannot handle vertical edges, because vertical edges has no 'upright' cross section.
hence the tool failed.

In the event of a curved path that goes backwards on a vertical plane, the script will have to perform an immediate 180 degree abrupt twist to keep 'upright', in a single short segment, which will distort the entire profile. Hence it causes an error and stops there.

The solution to this scenario depends a lot on what you want to achieve;

to continue the profile -- that will lead to the original upwards direction becoming downwards after this turn.
to start twisting much earlier before this backward curve, so that you have a smooth twisting transformation along this curve -- this will create a long stretch where a lot of segments are not maintained 'upright'

Both the above doesn't agree with the original logic of this tool -- to maintain 'upright' in every segment.
i haven't come across to what is the best way to handle vertical edges yet
I'm afraid the extrude along path tool is not really suitable for this purpose

arail1

1001 Tools Extrude Selected Profile Along Selected Path is a very different tool than Follow Me.
Follow Me extrudes a profile without reference to the world axis.
In some cases that doesn't work - a good example is handrails.
Handrails always have to be level to the ground (or level along the XY axis) no matter their pitch or direction.
That's what 1001 Tools Extrude does.

Notice the orientation of the top rectangle in these examples.
I would take your chair frame and tilt it 30 degrees, extrude and then rotate it back into position.

Gaieus

@arail1 said:

Handrails always have to be level to the ground (or level along the XY axis) no matter their pitch or direction.

That's what FollowMe and Keep would also do:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=16465

xrok1

@arail1 said:

1001 Tools Extrude
I would take your chair frame and tilt it 30 degrees, extrude and then rotate it back into position.
\

that works perfectly! i wonder if Goh might think of modifying his script so that if it hit a vertical it will rotate the profile automatically, continue on, then put it back in its original orientation when its done? or use whatever method FAK and extrude tools use.

arail1

@gaieus said:

@arail1 said:

Handrails always have to be level to the ground (or level along the XY axis) no matter their pitch or direction.

That's what FollowMe and Keep would also do:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=16465

You're absolutely right. I wasn't aware of that ruby - I need to be more up to date with SketchUp. I'm spending too much time over there in modoland. Thanks

Tim Danaher

@arail1 said:

Notice the orientation of the top rectangle in these examples.
I would take your chair frame and tilt it 30 degrees, extrude and then rotate it back into position.

Hah! Lateral thinking at its best! I love it!

pilou

Never think vertically That was evident!
So that's working in 1001
Super trick!

gohch

@arail1 said:

I would take your chair frame and tilt it 30 degrees, extrude and then rotate it back into position.

That's a really brilliant approach.
I've never thought of solving it this way!

Actually i couldn't figure out what is the best way to handle vertical that turns backwards because the upper rail will surely turn upside down....

pilou

But that works only if any "little segments" of curves are no vertical!
And this is not evident if you have some curves corners!