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Real Curves and Curved Extrusions


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I've read a lot of discussions on curves. I haven't seen a real answer, though...ie: one that leads to good curves.

I'm trying to build a curved ladder. I've extruded a square tubing profile along a path, and duplicated the rungs along the same path. no matter what combo of attributes i use, the rungs and rails do not line up.

worse than that, in my renderings the "curves" are very crude.

i've read a couple of solutions:

set the 3D quality to high is one, and that's covered.

the other is that some display engine isn't good enough. has that been fixed in 2014?

what can i do to draw proper curves that behave properly using extrude and duplicate alone path?

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I have two suggestions that may help things -

- check your OpenGL render settings (I think you're rendering in OpenGL) in View>Rendering>OpenGL Options. Your rendering mode also needs to be set to High or Very High

- avoid Extrude Along Path.

There are two other ways I can think of to build this -

- Draw it using three extrudes. Draw it from the front (side) and extrude things using separate extrudes for each rail and a single extrude for all of the rungs. (Example attached)

- Draw it using a solid subtraction. Create an extrude that is the side rail profile and runs the entire width of the ladder. Create a second extrude that is the space between the rungs. Subtract the second extrude from the first.

Kevin

Edited by Kevin McAllister
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Thanks for the work around. I only showed the OGL with Black background to make the illustration more clear. it doesn't matter how the thing is viewed, the extrusion is never as clean as the path arc.

one thing i think i figured out is that the duplicate along path is actually more precise and true to the path.

my only problem is that my paths are deceptively irregular, and whenever i try to connect them into a shape, VW crashes. i spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what's wrong, but...

now i just want to know why the extrude along path is so crummy.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Curves should be significantly improved, especially in OpenGL in 2014 compared to 2012, there were a few changes in 2013 as well.

Attached is a simple extrude along path with 3d conversion res and 2d conversion res to Very High, rendered in OpenGL. You can get much smoother results in the Renderworks rendering modes as well if you like but this is what I got in OpenGL set to Very High alone.

Edited by JimW
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Thanks for the work around.

I'm not sure I would call it a workaround. Using copied geometry instead of trying to match geometry created by two different methods almost always results in better alignment in 3D, especially in older versions of VW.

it doesn't matter how the thing is viewed, the extrusion is never as clean as the path arc.

I'm not sure this is true, especially in older versions of VW. The extrude along path is very dependent on the quality of your path. If your ladder had rails that were a different profile I can see the advantage of a EAP. But since they are square it shouldn't be hard to make the curves equally as smooth using extrudes even in VW 2012.

Duplicate along path is very useful as you discovered.

KM

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