[Plugin][$] Curviloft 2.0a - 31 Mar 24 (Loft & Skinning)
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@jgb said:
I can't show a picture as my old GPU produces solid black export JPG's with SU-V8 due to SU-V8 needing OpenGL 1.5 and my GPU can only handle OpenGL 1.3, so it has to be words only.
"Print Scrn" ?
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@thomthom said:
@jgb said:
I can't show a picture as my old GPU produces solid black export JPG's with SU-V8 due to SU-V8 needing OpenGL 1.5 and my GPU can only handle OpenGL 1.3, so it has to be words only.
"Print Scrn" ?
Good Idea, good thing I thought of it.
I'll try tomorrow am early. I have a bit of time, and I will attempt to recreate the problem/solution and Print Scrn it.
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@jgb said:
@thomthom said:
@jgb said:
I can't show a picture as my old GPU produces solid black export JPG's with SU-V8 due to SU-V8 needing OpenGL 1.5 and my GPU can only handle OpenGL 1.3, so it has to be words only.
"Print Scrn" ?
Good Idea, good thing I thought of it.
I'll try tomorrow am early. I have a bit of time, and I will attempt to recreate the problem/solution and Print Scrn it.
It is always better to post your model vs jpg, lots of info lost in jpg. You will get better results with model so post in 3d ware house
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@jgb: as suggested, it would be a good idea to post the skp model so that I can have a look. In principle, Curviloft is not sensitive to Sketchup curves as it works on edges. The only benefit of curves is for the selection process.
Also, when you have twisting, you may try to untwist, by clicking on the section. You get a popupu window and then you can change the value of the twist angles.
Finally, which tool do you use: loft by Spline or Loft Along?
Fredo
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As I only have about 1 1/2 hrs to get on my PC in the mornings for the last and next few weeks, I did not have time to fully recreate and document the drawing to post here. Not even time to do a screen print this morning.
Part of the problem was replicating the initial conditions that caused the twist, then the fix. Trying to setup the scenario in process order, sometimes the fix would work, sometimes not, even with copies of the real fix.
So I will get more time on Sat. to get this working. Please bear with me.
Fredo; I have not gone up the learning curve enough to play with twist angles, as well as other niceties in the app. As to the tools used, I created all my curves by hand, not using Splines. As this was a quick and dirty practice model, I just used circles and stretched them to get close to a shape I wanted. In a few, I needed to explode the curve and manually reshape it.
Also, I did not use the built-in selection of curves by number. I found it a bit confusing (No, I did not read your very excellent doc fully, yet), I always try things intuitively, before resorting to reading.
But here is how I did the curve selection, discovered by accident. I simply selected all the control curves and the disconnected path, hit the "Create Loft junctions following a given path" and the curve formed. I am simply amazed Curviloft can discern the correct path.
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@jgb said:
Also, I did not use the built-in selection of curves by number. I found it a bit confusing (No, I did not read your very excellent doc fully, yet), I always try things intuitively, before resorting to reading.
No shame! I did not write a documentation
(This is why the plugin is still in Beta)
The best way is to have a look at the video and explore.Fredo
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OK, finally got time to show you what happened.
If you open the model, you will see 3 sets of curves. The 2 sets on the right are copies of the first set on the left. Make visible the layers, 1 at a time as I explain what I did and what happened.
Layer 1. The main curves of the duct. The intake ellipse transitions up over a wing spar then down to the circular engine intake. It is not to scale.
Layer 2. The duct curve to follow. In 2 parts, forward and aft. The aft curve formed OK when it was separated from the forward part, so I left them as separate pieces.
Layer 2.1 The 4 curves I selected to form the duct. I did not define which was the path, just clicked on "Create loft junction following a given path". Like I said, I am amazed Curviloft could discern the path.
Layer 3. These are the lines I wanted the duct top and bottom to follow. They were never selected for Curviloft and are an approximate shape only. I used them to create the intermediate curve to eliminate the flat underside seen in...
Layer 4. The resultant first workable duct. The transition was way too flat. The duct needs to have a near constant cross section area throughout.
Layer 5. Moving to the middle set, I created a 1/2 D section by making an arc, then exploding it so to adjust the shape by eye. Then I copied the lines, moved them left and flipped them. Next I moved the copy right to meet with the original set. I've done this hundreds of times before.
Layer 6. Selecting the 4 main curves and the new transition curve, produced this twisted duct.
You will see that the lines seem to go from the right side of the ellipse to both the left and right sides of the transition, then back to the right of the over spar curve.
Layer 7. When I welded the transition curve into a true curve....
Layer 8. The duct formed correctly.
Layer 9. The aft duct formed OK.Note a few things. When creating this demo, I had difficulty reproducing the twisted duct. The version you see here and may not be able to recreate, was from the original trials on the left set.
Also, a correct duct may not be reproducible.
I had trouble reproducing it from the copied set of curves.So that's it for now.
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See if this is close to what you want. I left portion for your exercise
I put all your primitive geo back to layer 0, created faces for each of the profiles, intersected the center line ref with each of those and used Freedo's tool loft junctions. It looks like you need some more profiles aft
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=7da88c5f8c6cdc29427d16763a0ff49 -
Thanks guys, and for the PM "solutions" as well.
I will look at them later this week, as I have no time just now.Actually I'm not looking for a solution. I have it in the rightmost copy, and it is good enough for my learning purposes. I will not use that particular duct in any model, as it was not to scale, nor to fit the actual airplane at this time. The "real" one will be shorter and the curves a bit more involved to avoid aircraft structure. It is simply a learning exercise for Curviloft using a shape I had difficulty creating using a mesh and tweaking it.
The essence of my post was that it seems Curviloft tried to follow the original DIRECTION of the flipped copy of a curve in segments causing a twist in the surface, and was for Fredo to analyze. Once I welded the flipped curve segments, my duct formed correctly.
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wow,what a plugin fredo!
I should have joined this forum earlier.
I never knew about it. What a cool collection of plugins is present here!! -
Hi Fredo,
Can you look at this file?
Using 'Skinning of Shapes' but slight errors appear?
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@unknownuser said:
[attachment=2:o25qv8mt]<!-- ia2 -->CurviLoft_Helix.skp<!-- ia2 -->[/attachment:o25qv8mt]
Using 'Skinning of Shapes' but slight errors appear?
you have to switch the properties..
for instance, try the same thing with tig's extrude edges by rails.. use the helix lines as the rails and the little shorties as profiles (well, make them curves first).. you'll see a similar though actually worse error.. then, do it again but choose the helix as profiles and the little lines as rails.. all is better.
to do that in curviloft, click in a black area of the preview skin to bring up this dialog:
[attachment=1:o25qv8mt]<!-- ia1 -->001.jpg<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:o25qv8mt]
then use the top left button to re-orient
[attachment=0:o25qv8mt]<!-- ia0 -->002.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:o25qv8mt]
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Thanks Jeff.
Strangely I did use TIG EebyR it it worked perfectly. Though I used one shawty as both 'Profile' and 'Melding Profile'. Didn't try it with separate profiles.
Anyway thanks for the fix
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hi ,
i have deleted curviloft icons by accident.
could you please tell me how to restore them in sketchup 8 pro
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@tibet said:
hi ,
i have deleted curviloft icons by accident.
could you please tell me how to restore them in sketchup 8 pro
thanks
Go to the first post in this thread and download the files and install them as instructed. The icons will be restored and some other scripts etc will be overwritten - but that doesn't matter...
However, if you don't mean you've actually thrown away the files but you mean you've 'closed the toolbar' or 'deactivated the extension' then simply reactivate the extension through Window > Preferences > Extensions and/or switch on the toolbar through View > Toolbars... -
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Super LOL~!!
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thanks fredo6
one of the best of all su plugins ! well done!
thanks Karl (Charly)
great works by you motivates me...good luck.
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Joel,
Can you post the model or a typical case, because I am not clear on the issue you face
Fredo
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I may be doing something wrong, but there is a very simple curve that Curviloft (CL) seems to have a problem with.
If I have 2 surfaces that I punch a hole in, say a round airplane fuselage that I put a round window or door opening in, CL won't face the rim of the opening.
After I delete the 2 wall bits in the opening, I select the 2 perimeters and call CL to do its magic. In effect, create the rim or ring. All I get are magenta lines.
If I join 1 pair of verticies, still no go. I have to draw 2 joiners (close together), and deselect the lines of the perimeter between the 2 joiners and CL does its magic in a flash.
This happens even to 2 rings in free space, unconnected to anything. I have to break both rings, then rejoin them after CL makes the curve.
Yet yesterday I made a large complex curved door, and CL rimmed it perfectly in 5 seconds, compared to 20 minutes or more to my making the perimeter manually. So I'm NOT complaining.
Fredo, as requested. The model I discovered this is way too big to upload, so I made an example.
I drew 2 rings offset in X, Y & Z axis.
Select 2 rings alone and CL will not form a rim.
Join rings with only 1 line, select all and CL creates a twisted rim.
Join rings with 2 lines and select all, no rim forms.
Deselect 2 bits of ring segment and CL forms proper rim.
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