3D Rain Water Leader Path

[J Lucas]

Does anyone know of a reasonable method to trace the complex 3d path of a rainwater leader down the side of a building? The building model is complete. I thought of creating a series of intersecting 3d planes so that I could click to the intersecting points I need to define the path. But I am hoping for a more straight forward method. Searched the forum and did not come up with anything.

Thanks in advance.

[rDesign]

It's pretty easy with 'Extrude along path'.

Draw a 2D poly for the path of the RWL in a front/side 3d view, and convert it to a 3d polygon or NURBS. Then switch to Top/plan and draw the profile of the RWL (round, square, etc). Select both the path & profile and pulldown Model > Extrude along path.

HTH,

Tim

[J Lucas]

Thanks Tim,

This would work for most rwl's, the ones I need to draw, however, don't stay in a 2d plane as they jog down the building. Before I posted, I tried starting with the method you describe and then using the 3d reshape tool, in a perpendicular view to the first. The results seemed unpredictable, ie.: moving vertexes in the view perpendicular to the original resulted in wildly misplaced vertexes in the original view.

Edited October 2, 2008 by J Lucas

[CipesDesign]

More difficult and time consuming but still totally doable! Here's one I just made using one extrude and two extrude along path objects. No problem making it bend any way I want by using "real" pieces and then rotating them (in 3d space) to the correct orientation...

[gmm18]

I like Peter's method in that now you have a kit of parts that you can duplicate and re-arrange to create a variety of downspout configurations very quickly.

[domer1322]

For your info .... VW 2008 has a bug that does not allow extrude along paths for polylines that are not planar, and that have 'corner' vertex points. For instance, if your path is shaped like the number '5' and is not planar, it won't work. However, if it shaped like an 'S' then it is OK. I encountered this when trying to extrude curbs in a parking lot that showed actual height 'Z' elevations .... similar to your 'non-planar' downspout if you think about it. I've read somewhere (?) that this bug was fixed in VW 2009.

[mike m oz]

Domer1322, in VW 2009 the path can be non planar.

It wasn't a bug in VW 2008. It was just something that couldn't be done.

[J Lucas]

Thanks everyone for your input. Something jogged my memory and I remembered that the 3d reshape tool can be constrained to different axes. I created a nurbs curve in one view and then manipulated it in another to get the 3d path I wanted. Extrude along path and it was done. Very easy actually.