Phil hunt Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 i think that i used to be able to extrude along a path starting with 1 shape and ending with another a square and a circle to give a 2 source sweep something like attached any help please thanks Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted October 19, 2015 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) Might have been Loft Surface you were thinking of, but someone else here may know better. You can take two 2d polys, a square and a circle in the attached example, convert them to NURBS (ungroup the result of the convert before lofting) then loft those with the first mode of the Loft Surface tool. [img:center]https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=13176&filename=Screen%20Shot%202015-10-19%20at%2012.15.09%20PM.png[/img] Edited October 19, 2015 by JimW Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted October 19, 2015 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted October 19, 2015 This covers a few of the other modes as well: Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 The Loft with Single Rail mode can make Phil's shape, but it requires an extra profile(s) along middle of the rail to pull the rail out of the plane of the start and end profiles. Is that a bug? Working as Designed? Predicting shape of any intermediate profiles can be difficult. Example includes the 3 profile Loft with Single Rail, and, for comparison, the wire frame outline of a simple Loft Surface among the 3 profiles (no rail). -B Quote Link to comment
Phil hunt Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 It's a good fix benson I'll give it a try in the morning. Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) Here's some further thinking, and a better shape (but still not great) than the middle profile offered. If only two profiles, and they are sort of co planar, the rail traces around them more or less in the plane of the profiles. The rail comes way out of its plane to do this. As currently implemented, the loft single rail mode needs additional profiles to force the rail to stay sort of parallel to its plane as it traces the profiles. Seems like a bug, or an unintended limitation. This tool should create this blended shape from two profiles and a rail. Not sure why the profiles have to touch the rail, either. There might be lots of possible shapes from any arrangement those 3 elements, but some parameter choices could make a successful loft. (guessing about that). My new example shows duplicated end profiles moved a bit along the rail. Final loft has some undesired creases. sigh. It shouldn't be this hard. The rubber band formed during creation predicts (sort of) how the loft will complete. Added the 3d pdf. 1st time I used that export. Pretty fun! In Adobe Reader prefs, tick the 3d Double Wall option. -B Edited October 30, 2015 by Benson Shaw Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Try A Multiple Extrude using your 2 source shapes. Slice across the center to obtain the missing intermediate shape you need. Thought - this 'tweening' of shapes is a relativly common feature of several graphic & cad software. Wish - multiple EAP, LWR etc. profiles with tweening controls. Quote Link to comment
Phil hunt Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 these are the steps in formz draw a curve and the 2 profiles Quote Link to comment
Phil hunt Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 not knocking vw but seems easier than lofting maybe something for the future you can always shape after the loft Quote Link to comment
Phil hunt Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 just as a test exported the file out of formz as a .dwg and then imported into vw interesting how you see the transition when rendered Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 (edited) This is another one of my flogging a dead horse problems. Seems that Vectorworks can't accommodate this process, at least by way of the Loft with Single Rail. More likely to work with standard Loft Surface among several accurate profiles. @bcd - Great idea about finding that intermediate shape. It should help to guide the loft with rail, at least in simple cases (loft is rail, profiles are perpendicular to rail, etc). The idea is that this should work in one of two ways: like Extrude Along Path with the profile incrementally transforming to each new shape along the path, or, that the rail would trace, expanding and contracting to touch corresponding points among the profiles. Is that correct analysis? In these examples, the rail causes fins and bulges near the origin plane of the rail. Especially pronounced in the s-curve. The loft process can fail if lofting from circle to square instead of square to circle. NURBS direction and other things can cause failure, too. Adding to wish list for EAP, or Sweep, or Rail Loft with multi profiles for this shape. -B Edited November 2, 2015 by Benson Shaw Quote Link to comment
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