Extrude Along Path

[Bruce Kieffer]

Please make Extrude Along Path better. Being able to define where the profile meets the path would help a lot. And then when doing an ungroup of the shape it sure would be nice if the path and profile reappeared as their original objects. I use Extrude Along Path, but I have to say it is almost useless to me in it's current state.

[Pat Stanford]

Bruce,

It would be nice to define the spot to run along the path before the creation, but do you know that you can do it after the creation?

Edit the Profile object and move it so that the point you want to run along the path is at the 0,0 point of the window. When you exit the profile, the extrude will regenerate at the correct point.

To get the original parts back you can edit the Path and copy it. Exit the path and Paste in Place. Do the same with the the Profile.

No other object gives you back the 2D when you ungroup it. That might be a good additional tool, but I don't think that taking away the existing Ungroup behavior is a good idea.

Pat

[Bruce Kieffer]

Bruce,

To get the original parts back you can edit the Path and copy it. Exit the path and Paste in Place. Do the same with the the Profile.

Pat,

I tried this and my path has become a NURBS curve, I want the original 2D polygon back. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for the move path suggestion. I knew that, but had forgotten it! I do think it would be easier and more intuitive to have a third step in the creation process to define where the path meets the profile.

[Pat Stanford]

No, you are not doing anything wrong. Path Extrudes are based on a NURBS path.

A couple more step will get you the 2D Poly back.

Copy and Paste the NURBS Curve from the path group.

Convert to 2D Polygons. Wireframe will be fine for the option.

Ungroup

Compose

You should now have your original 2D poly back, but it may not be in exactly the same place as when you started. You might find it easier to have an invisible class and make a copy of the path before you do the extrude and put that in the construction class. Then you just make that the active class and select/change class on the object you need.

Pat

[AndiACD]

Whenever i try to edit the profile i've had it move to all sorts of places on the drawing, including rotating through 90? and i could never work out why.

Still with VW 11.5.1.

[islandmon]

Many problems are avoided by working within a Group or Symbol and only creating the ExtrudeAlongPath at the drawing origin.

[Pat Stanford]

You might like VW2008 better. When you edit either the profile or the path it is in its own space similar to editing a symbol with a local zero.

[Bruce Kieffer]

ExtrudeAlongPath is obviously a function that could be improved upon greatly. My opinion is that it's not easy to use, and the results are somewhat unpredictable. For now, my solution to being able to easily edit the path is to copy and paste my original 2D path and profile, and save them so I can use them to remake my extrusion.

[AndiACD]

Bruce, i'm with you on "need to improve" stance.

i've often tried to use ExtrudeAlongPath to create models of halves of gear cases or elements of similar items that must be precise and whilst sometimes the object may come close to the intended design, despite the path and the profile being "Exactly" what i need and simple logic tells me that the result should be just what i want the extruded object is far from satisfactory.

BTW Pat, i have used VW2008 for a while and still didn't get the results i was looking for.

Nemetschek: Must try harder.

Bruce, does VW2008 actually make full use of the Mac's intel multi processor capabilities?

Edited April 21, 2008 by AndiACD

[Bruce Kieffer]

Bruce, does VW2008 actually make full use of the Mac's intel multi processor capabilities?

I don't know about that. Right on with your comments. What good is ExtrudeAlongPath if you can't predict the results, and the results are not precise.

[willofmaine]

It would be nice if the profile shapes saved as symbols could be extruded along paths. Then, for example, if you have several extrudes, say of a roof edge gutter, you could update the profile symbol and instantaneously change all of your gutters, rather than having to edit each extrude-along-path instance to replace the old profile with the new one.