Add / Subtract Solids?

[michaelk]

Not sure if Marionette is going to turn out to be a great boon to VW productivity, or the reason thousands of drawings are late for the next few months.

Either way, it's pretty cool.

I don't see a way to add or subtract two solids. Am I missing something?

Also, if I want to move an object, what should the input for offset be? Can that input be created from 3 real values?

mk

[Kevin McAllister]

These are good questions.

Michael, I saw the Solid Boolean in the Node dropdown under Objects>Solid.vwx

(After spending a bit of time with it tonight I'm not sure its as developed as I had hoped. I experimented with making a simple parametric box which was pretty easy until I tried to set its rotation on the ground plane. I couldn't get it to work for the life of me and managed to crash VW multiple times.)

I feel like it might be the latter of your first two options.....

KM

[SBarrettWalker]

Hello Kevin and Michael, the best way to move an object is to use the Move Node in the Operations category. for the offset input, you can use a "point2" node, "point3" node, "vector2" node or "vector3" node. all of these are in the Input category. You can also use "Point3D" or "Point2D" from the Points category. For each of these nodes, you can set the x- y- and z- values the DISTANCE you want to move the object in each of the three directions. It works just like the move command in VW.

The Rotate node works in a similar way. You can use any of the 3D point or vector nodes as your input, and if you want to rotate an object within the xy plane (as you would a 2D object in plan view) you make the z value of your 3D point node the angle that you want to rotate the object by. Each x- y- and z-value represents the axis around which you will rotate the object.

I hope that answers your questions!

Sarah

[michaelk]

Thanks, Sarah. That does help.

Any thoughts about adding / subtracting / intersecting solids?

mk

[Chris Brough]

Check out the marionette setup by DomC here:

https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=215446#Post215446

It uses the "Solid Boolean" node to subtract legs from the table top.

[Kevin McAllister]

The Rotate node works in a similar way. You can use any of the 3D point or vector nodes as your input, and if you want to rotate an object within the xy plane (as you would a 2D object in plan view) you make the z value of your 3D point node the angle that you want to rotate the object by. Each x- y- and z-value represents the axis around which you will rotate the object.

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for the info. I got rotation to work but I have to admit using a Point3 Node to do it is a bit weird. Rotation is an angle but because a Point3 node expects co-ordinates it converts 30 degrees into 2'-6" in the field in the OIP.....

I also ran into trouble because I started with 2d points for my rectangle and later needed them to be 3d points to feed into the rotation centre.

I appreciate the insights but so far it feels a little more random than working in XPresso in C4D or Grasshopper in Rhino.

Kevin