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

ecs05norway

Trying to work out a way to build a surface between non-parallel lines. I've got an attachment here to show what I'm working with - basically, I've got four straight lines connecting to each other, none of which is parallel to any of the others. I want a smooth curve, but all I get is a corrugated surface or a sharp angle formed from a line directly bisecting the region. Or a stalled plugin.

Curvy Triangle.jpg

Trying to complete the missing side of this, basically.

Curvy Triangle.skp

fredo6

@ecs05norway said:

Trying to work out a way to build a surface between non-parallel lines. I've got an attachment here to show what I'm working with - basically, I've got four straight lines connecting to each other, none of which is parallel to any of the others. I want a smooth curve, but all I get is a corrugated surface or a sharp angle formed from a line directly bisecting the region. Or a stalled plugin.

[attachment=1:2802zlol]Curvy Triangle.jpg[/attachment:2802zlol]

Trying to complete the missing side of this, basically.

You must use the SAMPLING and INTERPOLATE options to create intermediate lines, so that the surface is smoothed.

[attachment=0:2802zlol]Curviloft Sampling - Interpolate lines.png[/attachment:2802zlol]

Fredo

Curviloft Sampling - Interpolate lines.png

AdriSonet

Hello Fredo, I'd love to know if you can extract the lines in between when you use loft by spline. I'm using two lines and the tool, I'd love to get the line.

Those are the lines I want to get in order to create this kind of design.

Thank you so much!

fredo6

In the button palette, you have a section titled "Geometry". The first two buttons gives options to keep only lines in one or the two directions (use the tooltips for details).

Fredo

Einstein

@adrisonet said:

Hello Fredo, I'd love to know if you can extract the lines in between when you use loft by spline. I'm using two lines and the tool, I'd love to get the line.

Those are the lines I want to get in order to create this kind of design.

Thank you so much!

Hi,
I think what yo want to achieve is something like Loop Selection in 3DSmax. You can use ThomThom's Quad Face Tools, convert your mesh to quads, then select quad loops.

There is also a small plugin by Blindcop "Extrapolate selected edge"
https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=61884
which will let you select continuation of an edge in a mesh. However, it doesn't manage triangulated faces well (or at all?).

rv1974

Fredo, could you please DISABLE Loft by spline tool working with PRE-selected set of edges?
Or at least give some give pop-up warning (this operation will take a loot of time co compute blah blah blah)?
So MANY times I have to shut down skp session (=loosing 15 min of work ) because it's freezing forever trying to guess the appropriate order

fredo6

@rv1974 said:

Fredo, could you please DISABLE Loft by spline tool working with PRE-selected set of edges?
Or at least give some give pop-up warning (this operation will take a loot of time co compute blah blah blah)?
So MANY times I have to shut down skp session (=loosing 15 min of work ) because it's freezing forever trying to guess the appropriate order

Do you have a model example where this happens

Fredo

rv1974

Select all 7 (not one by one), then run loft by spline-
permanent freeze. Very common thing.

dddd.skp1.skp

fredo6

This is just a bug, due to the fact that all contours is exactly spaced at the same distance.

Thanks for signaling

I fixed it in version 1.7d, just published.

Fredo

PS: Actually, the long waiting time you had is not infinite. After a number of seconds, you get back control. So there was no need to force an exit of Sketchup.

fredo6

NEW RELEASE: Curviloft v1.7d - 31 May 18

Curviloft 1.7d is a maintenance release fixing a bug in the automatic ordering of contours for the Spline tool.

See Plugin Page of Curviloft for Download (or use the Sketchup PluginStore plugin for auto-installation.

Main post of this thread

Fredo

rv1974

Unprecedented responsiveness Fredo,many thanks!
I'll test the update later today.
Another imperfection (?, - maybe I just can't find right buttons) I encountered with Loft by spline is that
the inter-medial segments can't keep exact dimensions of initial profiles (lowest and highest ones in attached example 12X81m*, storey height is 3.5m). Another issue is that segments are slightly OFFXY Plane.

Is it possible to develop some special mode that'd keep segments exactly parallel to the input profiles, and if initial profiles are equal it'd keep their dimensions?

P.S. In this particular case of 50+ storey towers PlayitItAgain script helped a lot.

dddd.skp1.skp2.skp

fredo6

This seems to be a problem of geometry which you can simulate manually.

Profile not same length.png

If you wish to keep the junction straight, then the intermediate profiles do not keep the same dimensions.

Also, the intermediate sections are parallel to the initial profiles. Do you have something different?

Fredo

rv1974

With prussian pedantry I took all horizontal segments, run make faces and...
it did it all which proves you are right- they are horizontal. What misleads is "~" sign in measurements, must be some SU glitch.

rv1974

This seems to be a problem of geometry which you can simulate manually.
If you wish to keep the junction straight, then the intermediate profiles do not keep the same dimensions.

If you wish to keep the junction straight
No, what is needed is intermediate segments to preserve initial dimentions of the profile.
In attached file the red body is OK (all horizontal segments keep right sizing),
and the blue one (lofting with 51 intermediate segments) misbehaves.

dddd.skp1.skp21.skp4.skp

fredo6

@rv1974 said:

No, what is needed is intermediate segments to preserve initial dimensions of the profile.

Then, Curviloft is not adapted, and you should use FollowMe Rotate or TIG Grow extensions.

With rotated profile, line joining the begin and end profile corner does not meet the corner of the intermediate profiles.

Curviloft NO straight 2.png

In your red shape, you can see that the short segments joining stores are not aligned and do not form a big straight line.

Curviloft - NO straight.png

Fredo

rv1974

Thanks for mentioning those alternatives- I'll check them. I'm so glued to your tools that completely forgot others
BTW the straight line on a blue tower shows the horizontal segments don't sit perfectly on it. The gap is ridiculously small in real life scale (~0.3cm in the middle floors, but big enough to spoil the model

rv1974

Fredo could you take a look please

messy result with a newest version (loft)

fredo6

@rv1974 said:

Fredo could you take a look please

I need to consider this case of indetical profiles more seriously, which Curviloft did not really do.

So I'll come with something more robust.

Fredo

Architure

Hi there,

When selecting more than 3 edge curves, and choosing for junction by orthogonal bezier curves, the surfaces do not get the reach the right spline method result.

Here is what the ruby console shows

Error: #<ArgumentError: Cannot create unit vector from zero length vector>
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/lib6profile.rbe:119:in axes' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/lib6profile.rbe:119:in compute_by_offset'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/lib6profile.rbe:58:in compute_by_vectors2' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/lib6profile.rbe:86:in compute_by_normals'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftspline.rbe:357:in block in spline_profiling_construct' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftspline.rbe:351:in each'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftspline.rbe:351:in each_with_index' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftspline.rbe:351:in spline_profiling_construct'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftspline.rbe:249:in spline_junction_construct' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:497:in generic_junction_construct'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:1418:in junction_construct' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:407:in block in link_construct_all'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:407:in each' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:407:in link_construct_all'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:396:in link_calculate_all' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftalgo.rbe:530:in option_set_prop'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curvilofttool.rbe:206:in option_set_prop' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftpalette.rbe:773:in call'
c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_curviloft/curviloftpalette.rbe:773:in block in pal_family_spline_method' c:/users/mbe/appdata/roaming/sketchup/sketchup 2018/sketchup/plugins/fredo6_!libfredo6/body_lib6palette.rbe:3963:in call'

Just ask me for the file if needed!

Cheers

Manuel
...

fredo6

@architure said:

Just ask me for the file if needed!

Yes the file would be useful, as this seems to be a special case.

Thanks

Fredo