views of 2d object made in front view the same in all other views

[brent kjernisted]

Why is this. I'm trying to extrude an object along a 45 degree path and I am unable to create that path.

[Benson Shaw]

Try converting your path to NURBS or 3d poly prior to extrude. Or start with a 3d polyline or a NURBS curve for the path. This way the extrude will remain in orientation of the path in the view of creation.

-B

[Pat Stanford]

2D objects in Vectorworks are always stuck to the screen plane. This is why there is a big request going on for 3D dimensioning in another thread.

Since you can only extrude 2D objects, and the extrude command always extrudes directly into or out of the screen, just set your view to the direction you want the extrude to go, draw your 2D object in the correct place and do the extrude.

Or Benson's idea of using extrude along path would work also. That way you can create a 3D path object and extrude the 2D object along that path.

[brent kjernisted]

I draw the shape of my eyebrow dormer in front view.I want the face of the dormer to remain vertical as it is extruded along a 45 degree path that I draw in the side view. This does not work. Any suggestions. This extrude should have caps on both ends.

[Chad McNeely]

Make sure the initial 2d poly has a solid fill. Extrude it from a front view, extra long. Turn to the side view, rotate to your desired angle (45deg.?). From the side view, either split, section, or subtract solids to get your plumb/vertical face.

If needed, drill down into the original components to adjust for the skewed front shape, or remember at time of creation to vertically scale it by .707 for your 45deg. slope.

[brent kjernisted]

Chad I understood the first paragragh completely but the second paragraph lost me entirely. I think in the other thread you recommended a tapered extrude. I' ve seen framing of these with both plywood shaped cross pieces in one case and in the other 2 by 4's running from the window towards the peak of the roof. So I'm just wondering why you need a tapered extrude. Just the differences in slope of the roof and the dormer should create the proper valleys in the roof. Again thanks for your help and if you can simplify that second paragraph it would be appreciated. I'm a newbie and not an architect although I've done some framing and plenty of finishing woodwork.(woodwork in houses)

[Chad McNeely]

Tapered extrude in that other case was for a 3d poly tracing of your roof's top surface (taper=0, extrude amount about an inch). Regular extrudes don't work on 3d polys, is all. Add this to the bit of geometry that defines your dormer, then you can fillet the "valley".

I made the dormer out of a straight extrude, which I rotated to the slope needed. Do you see that vertically slicing the rotated extrude creates a different front profile than what you started with? Same idea as cutting a 2x4 at an angle- the width of the cut face is greater than the original object's width, by a factor of 1/cos(angle). Or the width of the original object needs to be reduced by a factor of cos(angle) before mitering, if the exposed shape is to be a particular size and shape.

In the example you gave, assuming there is a particular shape you want the window to have, assuming sloping the dormer at 45deg, if you start by tracing the window shape, you need to reduce the height of that tracing by cos45 = .707, then extrude that tracing (closed, solid fill, right?), then tilt and split/subtract, etc.

[brent kjernisted]

Why am I not able to add planar caps to a closed extrude polygon.

[brent kjernisted]

Even when I do a tapered extrude there are no caps added.

[Pat Stanford]

Then your source object is probably not closed.

If it is a polygon, select it in the Object Info Palette (OIP) and check the Closed button.

If it is a polyline, you need to step thorough the vertices using the arrow buttons. If you get to one and the button changes from Hide Next Edge to Show Next Edge, click it. When you have gone all the way around, you have a closed object.

If you have a combination of lines, polys and arcs, you need to go through and Compose them to a closed object.