A way to make a variable Extrude - ¿ Use a PIO ?

[Tom W.]

That is very very nice Michael! Be interested to know what @line-weight thinks.

 

Not expecting you to do this but I am interested: 1) what would be involved to make it so you could draw the path on a Working Plane rather than the Layer Plane? + 2) what would be involved to have it so the Object Preferences could be saved as sets, so you didn't have to type in all the info each time?

 

My learn-how-to-script efforts are getting nowhere but one day... 🙂

[michaelk]

@Tom W. Glad  you like it 🙂 

 

1.  That's probably very possible.  I was originally trying to make it work not on any plane at all.  But my limited grasp of path based plug-ins made it insta crash VW. Now that this is stable, if I go back to work on it I'll make work on any plane.  If there's a lot of interest I'll go back to it.  Right now it's pretty sloppy code.  200 lines that should really be 50 lines. 

 

2.  Definitely.  I would make it capable of using styles so you can save sets.  If I go back to it that's a definite.  Until then you can use the Eye Dropper tool.

 

 

Let us know when you're ready.  The basics are not anything close to as hard as you think it will be.  The minutiae are unimaginable.

 

[Tom W.]

18 minutes ago, michaelk said:

@Tom W. Glad  you like it 🙂 

 

1.  That's probably very possible.  I was originally trying to make it work not on any plane at all.  But my limited grasp of path based plug-ins made it insta crash VW. Now that this is stable, if I go back to work on it I'll make work on any plane.  If there's a lot of interest I'll go back to it.  Right now it's pretty sloppy code.  200 lines that should really be 50 lines. 

 

2.  Definitely.  I would make it capable of using styles so you can save sets.  If I go back to it that's a definite.  Until then you can use the Eye Dropper tool.

 

Very cool thank you!

 

8 minutes ago, michaelk said:

Let us know when you're ready.

 

That's very kind thanks. I don't doubt the help is there, what's lacking is me pulling my finger out 🙂 I have my 1982 'Pascal for Beginners' book at Pat's suggestion so I've made a start 😁

[michaelk]

There's a book?!?!?!?!?!?

 

 

[Tom W.]

Lots of them!

[line-weight]

Thank you very much @michaelk for this - have just been having a go with your tool.

 

It seems excellent to me, and potentially very useful, more useful than many tools provided as part of official Vectorworks.

 

There's one feature of it, that even setting aside the ability to use symbols and differently-textured sub-objects, is very useful.

 

That is that when I go to edit the path, what I am given to edit is a polyline, not a NURBs curve. It means that, for example, if my path is really just a rectangle, and I just want to adjust the height/width of it, this is relatively easy to do on a polyline, whereas with a NURBs curve it's rather tedious.

 

Questions / comments:

 

1. Is it true that although I can get the components of resultant object to be coloured or textured by class, I can't get them coloured by attributes of the symbol object itself? That is, instead of setting the symbol object to be coloured or textured by class, I set a "fill" colour directly in the 2d object's attributes. With, say, a regular extrude this results in a 3d object rendered with that fill colour (until I give it a texture, at which point the fill colour gets over-ridden). This behaviour is not really a big deal, just something I notice.

 

2. Regarding the path object: as mentioned above, it seems to let me edit the path object as a polyline instead of NURBs curve. I guess this is because internally to the tool, it takes the shape I draw, and converts it to a NURBs curve, but somehow has a memory of what I originally drew, so it can show me that to edit, and it'll then take this and re-convert it to NURBs behind the scene? Could this go one step better, and actually present me with the shape I originally drew? So if I drew a rectangle, then when I went to edit the path, I would be presented with a rectangle rather than a polyline?

 

3. In theory could the path object also be pulled from a symbol? If it could, then this would be a very useful tool indeed.

 

4. In theory could it give the option that some of the components aren't EAPs but 3d objects repeated along a path at intervals (sort of in the manner of the "Chain Extrude" command, which as noted recently elsewhere, doesn't actually work properly)? If it could do this then it would be even more useful again.

 

5. It strikes me that even in its current form (and of course, if we started using it intensively various bugs would probably appear that would need to be ironed out) this is something really useful that addresses some shortcomings in standard VW tools that users have been complaining about for years. But it takes someone like you, doing this presumably in spare time and not for any commercial gain, to provide it. This really reflects quite badly on VW decisions about allocating resources to development of basic tools. They could have had someone spend a relatively small amount of time enhancing the EAP tool, and or the chain extrude tool, to provide these capabilites, and they could have done it years ago, and we'd all have saved hours of work as a result.

 

6. If you develop this further, VW should pay you a decent amount and add it to the toolset included with VW as standard. I don't suppose this is likely to happen in which case I'd just be left with a little nervousness about relying on it too heavily, in case it somehow gets broken by a VW update and there is no-one offically maintaining it, meaning that I suddenly find that all these parametrically editable objects in important drawings don't work any more.

 

Thanks again for doing this though.

[michaelk]

Your post might be longer than the script that created the plug in 🙂 

 

Yes, path is not turned into a NURBS curve.  I thought of that as a limitation and I was trying to overcome it!  I enjoy having a nubs curve as the path of an EAP.

 

You can edit the path shape in the path editor.  But I prefer to use the reshape tool.  It's faster because it doesn't involve the Edit view.

 

1.  The plug in is actually creating up to 10 individual EAPs.  Or I should say EAP-like objects.  The resultant EAP-like object will use the default fill at the time it is created.  Unless you assign that part of it to a class with Use at Creation checked. 

 

2.  No.  The path has to be a polyline object.  I like having the Close option in the OIP so I don't have to find the beginning of the polyline.

 

3.  Maybe.  And for extruded assemblies I can see why that would be good.  But that would be a different kind of tool altogether.

 

4.  That would be an entirely different plug in 🙂

 

5.  You will definitely find bugs!  You're right.  I create things like this for fun and to use in my own work.  To quote @Sam Jones, it's what we do instead of Sudoko.  I've also wished for a tool like this in the past, so I'll probably work on it to make it more usable.   If anyone want's to suggest a name and icon for the plug-in…

 

6.  I have to disagree with you here.  Even if I wasn't a moderator here, I would say this plug-in isn't ready for prime time and under my development never will be.  YOU can use it because you have a lot of VW skill and experience.  I don't have to imagine what a new user to VW will do with the tool.  It requires the user to understand polylines, different kinds of vertices, symbols, the difference between 2D and 3D elements in symbols, etc.  I've had a couple of my tools/scripts "Sherlocked" by VW and it's clear how much better the tools and UI are in the VW created versions. 

 

I don't think you have to worry about this tool being killed in a future version.  This tool uses very basic functions that I expect will not be deprecated for many versions to come.  I've said it before but I'll repeat it here:  It's pretty amazing that VW maintains 2 scripting languages with functions that anyone who has taken a few high school programming classes can use to do almost anything.  

 

 

 

[line-weight]

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

Yes, path is not turned into a NURBS curve.  I thought of that as a limitation and I was trying to overcome it!  I enjoy having a nubs curve as the path of an EAP.

 

You can edit the path shape in the path editor.  But I prefer to use the reshape tool.  It's faster because it doesn't involve the Edit view.

 

I guess it depends what shape your path is, what way to edit it is more convenient. Certainly for a rectangle (and I can think of a few use cases where there would be rectangular paths) reshaping a rectangular polyline is easier than reshaping a rectangular NURBs curve.

 

 

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

1.  The plug in is actually creating up to 10 individual EAPs.  Or I should say EAP-like objects.  The resultant EAP-like object will use the default fill at the time it is created.  Unless you assign that part of it to a class with Use at Creation checked. 

Ok, and the fill of the symbol at its original creation, persists even if the fill of the symbol object is subsequently changed.

 

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

2.  No.  The path has to be a polyline object.  I like having the Close option in the OIP so I don't have to find the beginning of the polyline.

Ok - fair enough. That said - a "rectangular path" version of this tool that simply let me specify height & width of that rectangle in the OIP...that could be quite handy.

 

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

3.  Maybe.  And for extruded assemblies I can see why that would be good.  But that would be a different kind of tool altogether.

Maybe in the future then...

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

4.  That would be an entirely different plug in 🙂

As above!

 

5 hours ago, michaelk said:

5.  You will definitely find bugs!  You're right.  I create things like this for fun and to use in my own work.  To quote @Sam Jones, it's what we do instead of Sudoko.  I've also wished for a tool like this in the past, so I'll probably work on it to make it more usable.   If anyone want's to suggest a name and icon for the plug-in…

The time that you (and others) put into making these kinds of tools/scripts/commands is much appreciated, even if it's for fun.

 

6 hours ago, michaelk said:

6.  I have to disagree with you here.  Even if I wasn't a moderator here, I would say this plug-in isn't ready for prime time and under my development never will be.  YOU can use it because you have a lot of VW skill and experience.  I don't have to imagine what a new user to VW will do with the tool.  It requires the user to understand polylines, different kinds of vertices, symbols, the difference between 2D and 3D elements in symbols, etc.  I've had a couple of my tools/scripts "Sherlocked" by VW and it's clear how much better the tools and UI are in the VW created versions. 

 

Lots of official VW tools aren't released ready for prime time. And some are never fixed.

 

Also, I'm not sure that more skill/experience is needed to use this tool, than many official VW tools, lots of which operate in really quite obscure ways that are baffling to new users. The way this tool works seems pretty logical to me, and the OIP is mostly self explanatory.

[michaelk]

You've talked me into liking the path not converting to a NURBS!  It means that this tool only works on a plane.

 

I have to think about if it's possible to use the pen weight and color and fill color of the profile symbol as the attributes.  That seems like a really useful feature.  It might mean a checkbox on every profile in the OIP.

 

If it was a specified rectangular path where would the origin be?  center? corner?

 

What should this plug-in be called?

 

[line-weight]

42 minutes ago, michaelk said:

 

If it was a specified rectangular path where would the origin be?  center? corner?

 

Hm... probably this would only become apparent after starting to use the tool for actual things. My feeling is that centre might be better, unless I could choose which corner (top left, bottom right, etc). Not really sure though.

[michaelk]

I can't believe this works.

 

Rectangular EAP with symbols for profiles.

 

I really need to clean this up now to see if it can run faster.  It's a little laggy on those complicated extrudes.

 

And I really need a name for this!

 

 

 

Rect EAP Test 1.vwx Rect EAP BETA 1.vso

[Tom W.]

Love the tool mode icons!!

 

It would be really great to be able to draw the Rectangle on a vertical plane i.e. snap to an opening in a Wall if creating a window.

 

Would it be really complex to have it invoke the Resource Selector when choosing the symbols, rather than typing/pasting the names in? I suspect yes because it's the same in the Baseboard plug-in but thought I'd ask...

 

58 minutes ago, michaelk said:

And I really need a name for this!

 

'EAP Deluxe Edition' 🙂

 

Fantastic work thank you 👍 

[line-weight]

Amazing!

 

I'm thinking I could test-run this tool on a real project, to draw a door/window/glazing assembly, as shown in the image below.

 

What's in the image is the closest I have been able to get, to what I want, using VW's window-in-wall tool. It can nearly do what I want, except that it can't combine a glazed corner with a non-rectangular panel (the pink lines show where I actually want the top profile of that panel to be. I think I looked at using the windoor tool for this but found there was some limitation in what it can do, that would be a problem. I forget now, what that limitation is, exactly. I think I also investigated & rejected the curtain wall tool.

 

The other shortcoming of what the window tool can do is that the detail of the frames themselves is somewhat hacked and only an approximation of the actual profiles. So no good for any large scale drawings.

 

If I think about how I might use these super-EAP tools to build this, then I could use the rectangle version to make all the rectangular sections. Then I'd use the other version to make the non rectangular sections.

 

This makes me realise that actually to make that bit where it's a glass-to-glass corner, the super-EAP would really need to be able to follow a path that's not confined to one plane. In which case I'd retract/contradict my earlier stated preference for a basic polyline path over a NURBs one.

 

If the tool could offer a choice between a rectangular, parametrically defined path, and a drawn path defined by NURBs, then that I think would cover a very wide range of uses.

 

For something like this, if I were able to use the super-EAP, then it would allow me to build a first version with very simplified profiles, which could be relatively quick to build, and show the basic geometry & sizing of the framing. It would be relatively easy to tweak things like, say, the position of vertical or horizontal framing members. I don't think it would be more convoluted than what I have to do in the VW window tool.

 

What's particularly attractive is that later in the design process, when I wanted to make the fame profiles more true to the actual ones, and/or more detailed, then I just have to edit the relevant symbols, and they will update through the entire assembly. The same would be true if I wanted to visualise it in another manufacturer's frame system. (Of course there are various things that could make it not quite as simple as that - but it's unlikely that they would be more painful to deal with than is currently the case trying to use the VW window tool.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by line-weight

[Benson Shaw]

@lineweight nice window detail! Correct me if I’m wrong, But, that return panel join, sloping down from the corner will never make a “matched“ joint as a two piece miter or butt joint using the same profile to change planes AND turn. Some transition segment or reshaping (shave the top? Squish parts? Lotsa caulk?) or coping is required. Try it with a couple extrudes in Vectorworks, or by sawing a couple pieces of wood molding. The wall tool cannot resolve it because the real world geometry does not conform in a two piece joint. One could make it with 3 pieces - the mitered turn (short segment of wall) then miter the slope into the short bit  similar to bannister joinery. 
 

-B
 

 

[line-weight]

10 hours ago, Benson Shaw said:

@lineweight nice window detail! Correct me if I’m wrong, But, that return panel join, sloping down from the corner will never make a “matched“ joint as a two piece miter or butt joint using the same profile to change planes AND turn. Some transition segment or reshaping (shave the top? Squish parts? Lotsa caulk?) or coping is required. Try it with a couple extrudes in Vectorworks, or by sawing a couple pieces of wood molding. The wall tool cannot resolve it because the real world geometry does not conform in a two piece joint. One could make it with 3 pieces - the mitered turn (short segment of wall) then miter the slope into the short bit  similar to bannister joinery. 
 

-B
 

 

Yes, I think you are right; there would need to be some kind of transition section there - a short length of horizontal before the slope downwards. So far, the glazing suppliers that I've asked to price this haven't highlighted this as an issue but I expect they will at some point.

 

I don't think the VW door/window object can model this though; I have tried various combinations of "corner window" and "span wall" but can't persuade VW to give me a section of wall that will have a glass-glass corner junction at one end *and* a frame-less connection with another in-line section of wall at the other end. That's even without the added complication of one section needing to have a sloped top.

 

Once you start trying to do this kind of thing with the wall/window tools, even if in theory something is possible, the process of trying to get the right thing to happen is rather difficult and I don't feel fully in command of what's happening because the edit modes of these elements don't really give you clear and unambiguous handles to reshape things with.

 

 

 

@michaelk's tool, I think would allow me to model this, especially if it were able to have a "path" that was not all on one plane.

 

Without the ability to have a multi-plane path, I'd have to do something like model the two bits that meet at the corner and then do some kind of solid subtraction to create the mitres, which would limit the extent to which the element was editable.

Edited August 25, 2023 by line-weight

[BillW]

If anyone's interested, I have been sitting on some Extrude Path Tools/environment for quite some time (started 2007) and am in a final testing phase.

3D modelling work took precedence hence the long wait.

Main tools shown below (for VW2020 upwards)

 

For further information:
visit  http://www.whwsolution.co.uk/vectorworks-extrude-path-tools/

Download
======================================================
"Extrude tools documentation" for usage and installation details.
"Extrude Tools install 230824.zip" and install via Tools>Plug-ins>Plug-in Manager...>Third-party Plug-ins>Install...
"Extrude Tools content 230428.zip" for examples.

 

There is even a Marionette interface in file "Marionette EP Tools <version>" - although not updated/tested in a while.

 

Some interesting options are:
Draw any 2D/3D object (apart from subdiv) and convert to extrude path pio's via "Edit of Build Extrude PIOs"

Convert 2D shapes,2D/3D loci, 3D objects or existing symbols/PIOs to new symbol definition via "Convert to Symbols".

Convert 2D/3D objects and split by segment or to a locus(symbol) at various locations via "Convert from Faces"

Both can be used for conversion via "Edit of Build Extrude PIOs"

 

By turning off "Show Path" (a VW restriction not allowing other non 3D objects in PIO) for EAP's you can do boolean operations on the generated 3D geometry.

Similarly for example draw a rectangle and extrude.

 

Note: Shape symbols must contain screen based 2D shapes only and be located in "Shape Symbols" folder or below. Also, reduce geometry size via "Sharp Corners" option for shape plugins.

 

Example on website is a Subdiv, converted to a 3D poly set, bottom sliced off, converted to Linear Path PIO's via convert to lines and connector symbols placed via conversion to loci. Coverted 3D poly set has glass material applied. Note: subdivs can produce non planar 3D polys which can be fixed via "Set 3D Polys Planar"

 

Any problems drop me a line - regards BillW

[line-weight]

1 hour ago, BillW said:

If anyone's interested, I have been sitting on some Extrude Path Tools/environment for quite some time (started 2007) and am in a final testing phase.

3D modelling work took precedence hence the long wait.

Main tools shown below (for VW2020 upwards)

 

For further information:
visit  http://www.whwsolution.co.uk/vectorworks-extrude-path-tools/

Download
======================================================
"Extrude tools documentation" for usage and installation details.
"Extrude Tools install 230824.zip" and install via Tools>Plug-ins>Plug-in Manager...>Third-party Plug-ins>Install...
"Extrude Tools content 230428.zip" for examples.

 

There is even a Marionette interface in file "Marionette EP Tools <version>" - although not updated/tested in a while.

 

Some interesting options are:
Draw any 2D/3D object (apart from subdiv) and convert to extrude path pio's via "Edit of Build Extrude PIOs"

Convert 2D shapes,2D/3D loci, 3D objects or existing symbols/PIOs to new symbol definition via "Convert to Symbols".

Convert 2D/3D objects and split by segment or to a locus(symbol) at various locations via "Convert from Faces"

Both can be used for conversion via "Edit of Build Extrude PIOs"

 

By turning off "Show Path" (a VW restriction not allowing other non 3D objects in PIO) for EAP's you can do boolean operations on the generated 3D geometry.

Similarly for example draw a rectangle and extrude.

 

Note: Shape symbols must contain screen based 2D shapes only and be located in "Shape Symbols" folder or below. Also, reduce geometry size via "Sharp Corners" option for shape plugins.

 

Example on website is a Subdiv, converted to a 3D poly set, bottom sliced off, converted to Linear Path PIO's via convert to lines and connector symbols placed via conversion to loci. Coverted 3D poly set has glass material applied. Note: subdivs can produce non planar 3D polys which can be fixed via "Set 3D Polys Planar"

 

Any problems drop me a line - regards BillW

 

This all looks rather interesting and I'll take a proper look at it when I next get some time.

 

Is the plan to offer these as paid-for tools eventually?

[BillW]

@line-weight >>Is the plan to offer these as paid-for tools eventually?

 

Yes. Ultimately I'd like to have some reward for all the effort put in.

Not sure how to set things up yet. Also depends if there is a demand.

 

Thanks for the interest.

[line-weight]

@michaelk I have finally got around to a test run of this, to see if it's useful in modelling a custom window.

 

First up, this is the truly splendid thing about it, which is not possible with a regular EAP. I've made a multi-panel window, each panel made from one of your objects, and if I want to change the frame profile, I can do it just like this:

 

Now onto what I think is the most obvious limitation (for this use case) which is that the path can only consist of one polygon. That means that relating the geometry of each panel to the others needs a bit of thinking through, because if I want to edit one panel, I generally need to edit the adjacent ones to match. The "show other objects" function unfortunately doesn't let me see the other objects while editing the path so I have no visual reference or snap opportunities:

 

So my initial solution is to have those pink dashed polygons which serve as reference geometry. I make my desired edits to that geometry and then copy them (using paste-in-place) into the individual objects:

 

And you'll notice I've put everything inside a symbol, to try and keep the internal co-ordinate references of the EAP-objects' paths under control in terms of being relative to one another. Then paste-in-place works (as long as I don't move any of the EAP-objects themselves relative to one another).

 

Just grouping them doesn't work, because I have to rotate everything from lying on the ground (because that's where "EAP beta 2 plane" seems to live, and if I rotate the object, the path stays there but my 2d guide geometry gets rotated and they no longer match for the purposes of paste-in-place).

 

I think I am going to persevere with this method for a bit, and see how it works in practice.

 

What would be amazing would be if the "path" (as well as the "profile") could contain multiple polygons, because then of course I wouldn't need this reference geometry and all these intermediate steps to transfer it to the object paths.

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by line-weight

[line-weight]

On 8/28/2023 at 3:19 PM, BillW said:

@line-weight >>Is the plan to offer these as paid-for tools eventually?

 

Yes. Ultimately I'd like to have some reward for all the effort put in.

Not sure how to set things up yet. Also depends if there is a demand.

 

Thanks for the interest.

@BillW I'm interested to try your tools but have not been successful *edit - see below* in installing them to VW2023 - I have got these error messages:

 

 

 

*edit

 

Even though I got those error messages, when I restarted VW, in fact they had been installed successfully.

 

So I have been able to have a look at them. They do all look potentially useful.

 

As far as I can see, they all have the same limitation as I describe in @michaelk's script ... which is that they can only have one object in the "path". I assume this is a fundamental limitation of vectorwork EAP type objects (although a regular "extrude" is quite happy containing multiple polygons and lines).

Edited October 27, 2023 by line-weight

[BillW]

@line-weight  Thanks for testing. I'll start with the last message. In the zip file there is a file install.py

 

Somehow spaces crept in between "pathconvert" and leading bracket (as well as other instances). I don't have mac and windows seems to accept this. I'll send a revised install file which you can replace in the zip file but I can't seem to add a python file to the message. If you want, DM me with perhaps an email address.

 

In the interim you can manually install by unzipping the zip file and copying the plugins shown below to your (mac equivalent) Vectorworks user directory

 

 

Copy "Architect EP Tools.vww" to the Vectorworks user "Workspace" directory. Marionette isn't that important right now.

 

On your first message, I can have multiple shapes in a symbol definition similar to your example and edit live with the "Reshape Tool". Any symbols (containing 2D shapes) in a symbol folder "Shape Symbols" (or in any contained Symbol folders) can be referenced in the Tools OI panel. Easiest way to create "Shape Symbols" folder is to add an EP tool with Symbol type selected.

 

However, I have noticed a bug with symbols which needs more work.

 

[BillW]

As an aside, I'm currently working on a tool "Extrude Cut Planar" which takes an edge path and creates spaced linear extrusions cut to the path and aligned with a user specified follow angle.

 

[line-weight]

2 minutes ago, BillW said:

@line-weight  Thanks for testing. I'll start with the last message. In the zip file there is a file install.py

 

Somehow spaces crept in between "pathconvert" and leading bracket (as well as other instances). I don't have mac and windows seems to accept this. I'll send a revised install file which you can replace in the zip file but I can't seem to add a python file to the message. If you want, DM me with perhaps an email address.

 

In the interim you can manually install by unzipping the zip file and copying the plugins shown below to your (mac equivalent) Vectorworks user directory

 

 

 

Copy "Architect EP Tools.vww" to the Vectorworks user "Workspace" directory. Marionette isn't that important right now.

 

You might have missed my edit - it seemed that it all installed correctly despite the error message.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, BillW said:

On your first message, I can have multiple shapes in a symbol definition similar to your example and edit live with the "Reshape Tool". Any symbols (containing 2D shapes) in a symbol folder "Shape Symbols" (or in any contained Symbol folders) can be referenced in the Tools OI panel. Easiest way to create "Shape Symbols" folder is to add an EP tool with Symbol type selected.

 

However, I have noticed a bug with symbols which needs more work.

 

Not sure if I'm failing to understand what you mean, or if you've misunderstood what I mean about using multiple objects.

 

In this case, I mean that it would be very useful for the tool to let me use multiple objects within its "path" (as well as multiple objects in its profile; I think under your terminology "shapes" are much the same as "profile" in the standard EAP tool).

 

Although it's useful to have the "show path" option in the OIP, I can't edit those paths directly in situ (or I don't think I can). In my example below, I can't edit the path of the larger extrude with the smaller one visible for reference, or vice versa.

 

 

 

 

 

[BillW]

Just select "Reshape Tool" with the "Extrude Path Planar" object selected and directly edit - see below. You dont even need to set "Show Path".

Incidently, you can draw an EP Planar object on a face by invoking WP auto face setting via "\" (backslash) where the current face below the cursor will be displayed in blue.

 

 

 

Indeed "Shapes" are profiles and "Shape Symbols" can have many 2D shapes in a symbol definition all arranged in relation to the symbol origin (except I have a bug to fix)

 

Currently, only one path is allowed in each path tool (which is a VW restriction for a 2D path object). However you can generate multiple EP planar objects from many selected 2D objects with "Edit or Build Extrude Objects" menu command - see below

 

[line-weight]

52 minutes ago, BillW said:

Just select "Reshape Tool" with the "Extrude Path Planar" object selected and directly edit - see below. You dont even need to set "Show Path".

 

 

Ah - sorry - I totally missed that. Am in the habit of double-clicking on things to access the reshape tool but of course with these tools that takes you "inside" the object to the path instead. This is great, is very much what I want to be able to do with extrudes - easily reshape them hooking onto other geometry. Thanks.

 

 

52 minutes ago, BillW said:

Indeed "Shapes" are profiles and "Shape Symbols" can have many 2D shapes in a symbol definition all arranged in relation to the symbol origin (except I have a bug to fix)

 

I can see that I can make a "shape symbol" that contains multiple 2D shapes, and these are all extruded alongside each other in the correct orientation. And I can give each of these 2d shapes a different class, and those classes will be respected in the resultant extrude as far as visibility is concerned. However, I generally texture "by class" and the textures don't seem to be pulled through to the resultant extrude - in other words I can't get the various different bits of the extrude to render in different textures. Am I missing something again or is that not something it's able to do (NB this is one of the things @michaelk's script solves above).