Curved ramp

[Guest Demfis Fyssicopulos]

Dear all,

Can someone shine light on what is the best way to draw a curved ramp?. E.g High end hight is 4', and with a radius of 3'?. Thanks.

df

[Robert Anderson]

I say use a sweep.

[Guest Demfis Fyssicopulos]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for replying. That's what I have been trying but the best I can come up with are conical shapes.... Advise?

df

[Benson Shaw]

Set a locus representing the center of the sweep to the left of your profile poly. Select them both and sweep.

Or, in stead of a sweep: In plan view, place 3 or 4 NURBS lines at proper z and rotation around an axis, arranged/placed kind of like control joints would be in a curved concrete ramp. Loft them, simple mode.

-B

Edited November 13, 2010 by Benson Shaw

[GWS]

Pat had a good .mov at 'Vectortasks' but I can't get it to load.

[Horst M.]

The Way it worked was cutting an extrude with a sweeped Line

I also tried to project a the Ramp Profile up to the Sweep, but VW 2011 either refused to select the objects or crashed.....

Edited November 13, 2010 by Horst M.

[Guest Demfis Fyssicopulos]

Thank you everyone. I still can't seem to figure out the sweep, but I got it with solids and subtractions.

df

[Guest Frank Brault]

In this situation, I might consider using a round wall object set to 3 feet thick and 4 feet tall with the end peak set to zero on the low side of the ramp.

[VincentCuclair]

I seem to have solved that once using a circular stair and by giving the stair very low tread heights ie. 1cm? And on another occasion i've tried (and I think I succeeded) using the helix tool(is it called that? like a cork screw)......

Edited November 13, 2010 by Vincent C

[Horst M.]

I think the Coolest solution for that is the Curved Wall.

Good to see, that at least NVW Employees know how to use the Software. :-) (and sometimes tell us!)

Thanks Frank.

While Playing with that Solution (tried to get a Solid) I dicovered, that one can convert a Wall and also a Sweep directly to to Nurbs Surfaces with the 3d POWERPACK.

Cool!

Has this always been the Case?

I've also tried to Convert to Group: Useless result! (a bazillion of Polygons!)

[bcd]

The cutting plane method is not really accurate enough for this as it doesn't produce a helical ramp and fails completely for ramps >90?.

The Sweep tool is very powerful:

In Front View draw a 2d-polygon describing a typical cross-section, or a line representing the surface of of the ramp.

Place a 2d locus at the center of rotation relative to this cross-section.

Select both

Model>Sweep

Set Arc angle to 90? for a 90? ramp.

Set Pitch to 16'

Using the Round Wall tool to solve this is a super idea. It's very fast & easily edited via the OIP.

[bcd]

I think the Coolest solution for that is the Curved Wall.

can convert a Wall and also a Sweep directly to to Nurbs Surfaces with the 3d POWERPACK.

I've also tried to Convert to Group: Useless result! (a bazillion of Polygons!)

You can also Extract the surfaces / lines of the wall. Great for additional modeling & creating Extrude along Path objects.

[Horst M.]

The cutting plane method is not really accurate enough for this as it doesn't produce a helical ramp and fails completely for ramps >90?.

Where does the inaccuracy come from.

I produced the cutting Plane exactly how you discribe as a sweep.

So, as far as I see it must work up to 360?.

Edited November 13, 2010 by Horst M.

[bcd]

Your cutting Surface isn't Planar. So my mistake, no inaccuracy there except in terminology.

Edited November 13, 2010 by bcd

[Guest Demfis Fyssicopulos]

Dear Frank,

Thank you!. I really like the curve wall solution but where do I set the "end peak" value?

df

[Horst M.]

@bcd:

I did some scetions. The Ramp surface is perfectly planar, with the curved Wall method and the cutting Plane.

@df

In a 3d View, you can doubleclick the wall and pull the upper Handle on one end down to the lower.

[Guest Demfis Fyssicopulos]

Dear Horst,

Wonderful!. Many thanks to you and everyone!.

df

[mike m oz]

Demfis you need to use Sweep with Pitch and a 2D locus to define the sweep origin:

[Pat Stanford]

Sorry to take so long, but the movie showing how to make the curved ramp is back up.

http://www.vectortasks.com/Movies/Movies.html