Real World Simplify Polyline/Polygon Tool

[Kevin McAllister]

I would like a real world simplify Polyline / Polygon tool that simplifies while maintaining an overall shape and key anchor points (i.e.. 90 degree corners / fillet corners etc.). So often I encounter profiles with too many points but using the existing Simplify Polys can't do enough without completely changing the shape. I end up rebuilding it manually instead.

It needs to maintain key points / shapes. Maybe this is done by the user choosing anchor points or by a user defined "smoothing" angle.

It needs to recognize when there are too many points on a continuous smooth curve. Maybe the command needs to work on user selected segments (ie. a marquee selection of points) of a polygon / polyline.

It needs an option to recognize common changes (ie. a fillet transition between two segments at 90 degrees) and ignore them when simplifying.

It needs to recognize a change in direction (ie. the transition point on an S curve) and maintain the points creating these changes.

Kevin

[markdd]

Excellent idea. Yes please

[Benson Shaw]

+1

This is what computers and software are supposed to be good at. Or?

Vectorworks often makes unexpected conversions of simple components.

Source objects in extrudes, clipped polys, EAP and others gain extra vertices, often of different type. A circle becomes a 4 arc polyline, an arc becomes a NURBS, a poly with a few arcs or splines becomes a myriad of beziers, etc.

I wonder if Simplify Poly uses some similar processes that do not recognize or preserve arcs or other simple shapes, preferring instead to redraw the entire object with convenient point types, often beziers.

-B

[Kevin McAllister]

Here's a file / screen shot of what I want. Top and bottom rows are the same only the bottom highlights the points. From left to right looking at the screen -

Left - Original object with way too many unnecessary points.

Middle - Using Simplify Polys command. Using the maximum deviation option does almost nothing unless you ramp up the deviation more than I would like (the deviation on the one I simplified manually is definitely under 1"). In the end I used the minimum distance option set to 1'.

Right - Manually rebuilt to more than halve the number of points while maintaining the intended shape. This is what Simplify Polys should be capable of.

Kevin

Edited July 21, 2016 by Kevin McAllister

[Benson Shaw]

Wow, Kevin - Great example!

Not sure how the original was forged, but the simplify version is useless. Your rebuild is certainly the goal of Simplify.

Wishing the command was up to date and up to the task.

-B

[Dave Donley]

Hello Kevin:

Is this object a polyline or a polygon?

[bcd]

+1

& nicely phrased Kevin.

[Kevin McAllister]

Hello Kevin:

Is this object a polyline or a polygon?

Hi Dave,

Its a polyline. Honestly almost everything I work with is a polyline or becomes a polyline. I either use the Polyline tool to draw or use the Paint Bucket mode of the Polygon tool to create shapes from guide boundaries (which ironically creates polylines). I've never really understood why 2d "polygons" exist in VW. In my mind these two tools could easily be combined.

The source shape for my example was found online as a DWG and imported into VW. It came in as a polyline.

Kevin

[Dave Donley]

OK thanks for the info!

[Kevin McAllister]

Bump