[REQ] Edge 2 Groove
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Charly, Please see my last post. I knew it was a mistake to post the alpha version because people always think that, no matter what bazaar situation they can create, the plugin should be able to handle it.
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Yes I'm sure much more can be done but, as I stated in the post, the plugin attached was developed and tested on that one example alone.
I just looked at it as a sidewalk, with at flat top and curved sides. I examined each edge to see if it was between coplanar faces, normals parallel, to indicate it was on top and calculated the boundary points of the three faces that I could pushpull to create the top and side grooves. In addition to the normals parallel, I need to require the the normal.z is pointing up or down. This will allow sides to be straight as well.
Adding grooves to a four sided column poses the additional problem of trying to determine "which" way is up".
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@sdmitch said:
Adding grooves to a four sided column poses the additional problem of trying to determine "which" way is up".
This makes sense. Thanks for posting the Alpha version. It is a very promising start. I definitely understand it was adapted to a specific situation. Hopefully it will continue to evolve into a more universal solution!
Thanks again. -
@earthmover said:
single face grooves, grooves to define cabinet drawers, grooves for concrete building facades.
Please provide an example of each.
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@ Charly : for the moment you must don't take solides volumes, only open surfaces as the first example shown
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I certainly will Sam. I have a bunch of billable work to finish up with at them moment, but will get you some test models as soon as I'm done. Unless someone else has time.
C'mon people.....get your grooooove on!
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@sdmitch:
Regarding the column and up/down question, could you relate the action to a centroidal axis about which the grooving happens? Just throwing out ideas. It might work for any linear form. Define the line, series of segments, curve as the axis, precursor to the process?
Vaguely related to Lines2Tubes or Tube Along Path. -
mit, That is a certainly a possibility and using followme instead of pushpull. The problem will always be sorting out which edges should be followed unless the paths are selected one at a time.
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uploading a cabinet example. Grooves are very small. Thanks! P
(I for one have NO billable time today
)
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Hi, sdmitch:
I didn't necessarily mean you would use a followme function. More like the centroidal path being continuous through the core of the linear construction, but used as a reference axis at the interfaces of the units from which a groove offset is determined for each brick, tile, stone, whatever, and then some kind of process that shrinks the offset. Alternatively a Dynamic Component is developed with abilities to skew faces, tegularize, or rebate edges? -
Hey Sam, here are a bunch of different groove scenarios, which all fail with the current plugin, some causing crashes. Thanks again.
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I'm not surprised that the plugin fails and/or splats on these examples. It is going to be very tough if not impossible to come up with a general solution.
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I suspected as much. A general solution would spend more time inspecting than processing I suppose. Grooves on a single (non-extruded) face should be quite simple, but I imagine the code would vary from solving the edges that turn corners. Edges that support co-planar faces and turn corners is a different procedure than those that turn corners and support non-planar. Also edges that form a "C" as opposed to closed loop would be processed different as well. Could there possibly be a prompt to help the script identify the situation before the process runs? It appears there is an overwhelming desire and need for the (universal) script, across many different industries, but I certainly understand the nature of edges in sketchup and the inability to identify them as they have no "normals" like faces do. I'm however, still hopeful for a solution.
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