@cjryan said:

Jeff, right or wrong, it seems to make an easy installation (10 minutes in the video! wink), a nice crisp junction at the seams, and it all just "hangs" on the ceiling joists.

you're joking, right?

(watch what they're installing in the video along with the framing which is already in place.. their video says this--> "if your framing is already built to our necessary spec & you want to put one of our small prefab domes or archway in it, you can do it in under 30 minutes"

@unknownuser said:

From looking at that perspective of the park you posted, I wonder if the purloins, for lack of a better word, have a beveled radius to match the curvature of the bowls?

yeah, not sure what you mean by purloins.. the things with the arrow? if so, they're oriented perpendicular to the radius.. they go in at different angles instead of all flat with bevels cut to the radius.. but the radius is cut in each one of those boards-- if that's what you're asking.

@unknownuser said:

I had been toying with using planes set at twelve inch heights to make the inter-sections of the asymmetrical ribs, but haven't had as much luck as I would have liked yet.

idk, i already told you the way to make it a lot easier (2D king instead of 3D king).. and even if you don't want to put a rafter along the intersection, at least the intersection will be two dimensional.. i'm telling you right now for sure-> you're not going to make that 3D king in sketchup accurately.
take it or leave it.

@box said:

And we are talking about America where people need to be told that coffee is hot and may cause severe burns if used for tea bagging.

it's not necessarily that we need to be told it's hot.. it's that we'll sue you if you don't tell us..

i mean, we're lame but it's a different kind of lame than "i didn't know coffee was hot" lame.

@gareth said:

Frederik, I think you should get Jeff Hammond to do the negotiating for you.

By now, you'd have got it for free and probably a free coffee to go with it...!!

it's called "charm".. not "negotiating"

@unknownuser said:

another quick thought... draw one vault and cross it with an X from corner to corner.. then use that to determine the profile of the crossing vault.. like-> one vault will be a radius and the other one is not quite a radius.. but the hip will be straight when looking from top view.

here's what i meant by that:

drawn in a nurbs app then exported to sketchup so hidden geo/mesh isn't going to line up for proper sketchup intersections.. take the time in sketchup to draw it with matching hidden geomety.. pita but worth it later.

@cjryan said:

but think I could refine it a bit and not have to have a king rafter. The guys in the above link didn't seem to need one.

i don't want to say they're doing it wrong but it does appear there's a lot of extra stuff in there which could be solved by one well designed king..
each one of these things (orange arrows) is plotting an X,Y,Z location up in the air.. one good solid king could eliminate all that tinkering type work.

edit--
build it like this but upside down

@box said:

Jeff, I really don't think I can click on a download link to something on the internet named My Groin.

i forgot the space.. it's called myg roin.
[ok.. my internet jokes have gone from bad to worse]

another quick thought... draw one vault and cross it with an X from corner to corner.. then use that to determine the profile of the crossing vault.. like-> one vault will be a radius and the other one is not quite a radius.. but the hip will be straight when looking from top view.

work on the king rafter first.. your other one should have one too (imo)

these kind of hips (or valleys) are really hard to build though as there's nothing straight or flat about the king.. it bends all 3 ways..

for starters..

myGroin.skp

good luck

that's what she said!

(or did I use the joke wrong? )

soften/smooth it (right click ->soften) then the top surface is selectable.

copy it first if you need the hard lines again later. move it on top the smooth one and the lines will reappear.

nice Philip

it's not random.

Q - what if it's a triangle? or a circle? or pretty much any shape that isn't a rectangle?
then where does the axis go? if it's just on some edge, that sounds random to me.

congratulations

@box said:

Quite a few ways to do this, but if you are all talking plugins, Shape Bender is another.

scf is where plugin recommendations are acceptable and even encouraged.. Trimble forums is where the purist approach is tops.
idk, personally i usually just do whichever way I think is fastest or easiest

@krisidious said:

excuse me while I clean this mess up....

ha gross

advice from the bar:
search for a plugin called CurviShear by fredo. part of fredoTools.

the Europeans should be getting up soon tho.. probably better help from them

@andybot said:

Also, since this is a hardware thread, I'd be glad to see what advice people have on CPU coolers. So many choices!

@dkendig said:

personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.

::ducks to avoid the flame war::

he has $7g though.
you're supposed to spend his money, not save it

@skgator99 said:

Definitely not going to be a MAC, we only use PC's. I can use a full or Mid tower if necessary.

wasn't suggesting that.
the processors are the same though

get the xeons

my mac pro with xeons? i'll let that thing render for 7 days straight and i don't even sweat it..
my iMac or MBP with i7? it gets scary after 30 minutes or so.. fans ablaze etc.

obviously there are other factors here (fans etc) but still, i just have way more confidence letting xeons run a max capacity for long periods of time.

i guess it could all be in my head though and not real

@gilles said:

Next step is multi- attractors

heh.. yeah.. i thought about it but it would be really weird to do in DC..
that kind of math is probably possible in DC but once things start getting complex, it's either hard to keep track of or you end up with really long/weird formulas that are equally hard to keep track of

i guess first you'd have to apply a 'strength' to a single magnet (so far, these aren't really magnets.. the objects just all point at the 'magnet' but the attractor isn't actually pulling on them)

then make two of those magnets and let the strengths fight each other