Question on DomC's "Extrude along Path with Ref point" Network

[HebHeb]

Hello,

I am using DomC's sweet solution to extrude along a path with a ref point (not with symbols, I created the used path geometry (profile) directly inside my Network)

I somehow don't know what the "Reset Obj" Node does exactly in this context and if it is necessary? @DomC
The Networks works fine without it. (so i think I am fine with deleting "Get Parent & Reset Obj"?)



Another question:
If I try to do "Solid Boolean" node they loose their "ref" movement. The resulting object is a "pointbody" (german: Punktkörper - what is the English term for that? 😄)
Is there any node to transform those into "simple" 3D so that the Solid Boolean works as expected?

Cheers!

[DomC]

Hi

After specific Manipulation there is a need of ResetObject. Some commands included the proper Reset of the Result some not. In my Script you can see, that if you remove the reset of the parent object, the visible geometry is different from what you get if you edit the path extrude and exit it (same effect as resetting). If for your example it is not needed (because you do other actions with the result which may reset the objects itself) you can delete it. Beside that, it would not have a big speed impact because in a script every reset is added together if you reset 10 times it will reset just once anyway.




"Punktkörper" is called "Mesh". 
Not sure I  understand this question. You mean the result of your solid boolean operation is a mesh? Normally this is not the case at all. The Result of using solid boolean node should be a generic solid not a mesh. Even if you use a mesh in a solid operation the result is normally converted to a solid not a mesh.
 

[HebHeb]

Thank you for your explanation! I guess I didn't notice because I have things going on afterwards that seem to reset anyway (didn't test outside my network)

Okay my question on the solid boolean operation was confusing:
After the generated path extrude I think I have to convert the object to mesh or simple 3D to do a solid boolean, if I do a solid boolean with the path extrudes they do that without the movement to the ref point.


I don't find any node to convert to mesh or similar... Is there any other workaround/ possibility?

[HebHeb]

had some time to work on this again...

Whenever I operate on the resulting "VW-Handletype: 86 Plug-in object" (in this case convert to 3d polys > mesh) the movement of the profile is lost (happens with any operation (also bool)

unfortnetly there is no info for 3D Path Plug-in Object (86) on the developer page that might help me to sort it out myself...


@DomCHave you any idea how I cloud avoid this behavior?

Extrude along Path with Ref point (3D Path Plug-in Object - Handle Type 86).vwx

[Pat Stanford]

The profile object is stored in the Profile Group of the extrude.  The path is stored in the Path Group of the extrude.

 

These have "local" coordinates like symbols.  The (0,0) point of the Profile group is what runs along the Path.  So if you need an offset, calculate how far from the local origin you need to be and move the objects in the Profile group.

 

HTH

[HebHeb]

ty Pat for reaching out!


...and thats exactly the problem:
no matter how the profile is moved, after an operation the movement is reset 🙂

if not operated on the result its working, thats exactly what DomC's solution is doing.
 

[Pat Stanford]

I am going to wait and see if @DomC can answer this before I dig too deeply into this. Sorry.

[DomC]

Hello
Sorry kinda occupied at the moment. The vs.ResetObject(x) will do reset at the end of a script i guess. So when it it duplicated it duplicates the unreseted state of the object and converting to mesh deletets the path position which is not reseted.
 

What you can do, is a "hard reset" by using 

vs.SetObjectVariableBoolean(x, 1167, True)

instead of vs.ResetObject(x)



As far as i notice by changing the reset node it would keep the mesh in position. Hope that works for you

[DomC]

Initially the issue is, that putting geometry into the profile group it is centered to the mid point (Even if you move profile before you create path it does not matter, it will be centered independent from its coordinates, thats why we have to move AFTER creation of path extrude). I am not sure anymore, why i used that locus point to get offset of the profile group(if you know the offset of the reference point to the middle of the profile you do now use locus point you can just move the profile by a known value). Reseting path extrude after moving the profile inside, is definitely still necessary in my opinion.

Edited January 22 by DomC

[HebHeb]

Thank u!
I will test it tomorrow and will report my results here 🙂

[HebHeb]

@DomC @Pat Stanford

this works perfect! 😍

in this context: is there any acess to the "fixed direction of the profile"?
i would literally die for a english Version (or at least the possibility to switch from german to english) Sometimes it is really hard to guess the english terms and get proper search results...