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Spotlight Soft Goods Tool - Draw Curtain with an Angled Top


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Has anyone out there had success drawing and rendering a drape with the Soft Goods tool that has an angled top?  I'm trying to create a 35' long drape, one end is 24' tall and the other end is 28' tall.  So the drape pleats hang vertical but the top edge is cut on a bias to tie onto an pipe hung at an angle to the floor.  Any suggestions??

 

Thanks

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There is no way to draw the drape at an angle with the Softgoods tool. However you can use the tool to very easily give you what you want.

  1. Using the Softgoods tool draw a 35' long drape with a trim height of 28'. Finish what you need to see in 2D like say adding labels, adding the pipe etc.
  2. Duplicate it.
  3. In 2d Top/Plan, select the first drape and convert to a group. This will strip out the 3D drape that has been created but will leave the 2D elements that you will need later.
  4. In an Isometric View, using the Extract tool, select the pipe, top and bottom edges of the drape and extract the geometry leaving a group with 3 objects
    1835487173_ScreenShot2018-06-04at08_29_24.thumb.png.b234de036a9d8ea9b5821634210ea276.png
  5. Delete the Softgoods drape object.
  6. Either ungroup the 3 objects that are left or edit the group.
  7. In a front view, select the top Nurbs object (Leading edge) and drop either the left or right end down by 4'. I used the Move Vertex Only mode in the Object Information Palette and drop the Z value by 4'1236996989_ScreenShot2018-06-04at08_36_41.thumb.png.67294acf7f05cd4f31987ec366d65a51.png
  8. From an Isometric view, run the Loft Tool on the wavy nurbs curve (trailing edge) and also your now slanting leading edge line and you will create a slanted drape.
  9. Using the extract tool again extract another Top (leading edge) Nurbs curve and then select the pipe profile you made in step 4 and run Extrude Along Path from the model menu.
  10. Delete the remaining Horizontal Pipe
  11. Go to Top/Plan and Align the 2 objects so they sit on top of each other and then convert to a symbol.

 

That will do it. It seems like a long-winded approach but actually took me about 60 seconds to do. Its a really good way of allowing the built-in tools to do some of the work and then by converting to a group letting you finish the job!

1077844671_ScreenShot2018-06-04at09_06_04.thumb.png.7bf41f2c94db90ad1810fc0f461ae7e9.png

 

 

Edited by markdd
  • Like 2
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On 6/4/2018 at 7:28 AM, bcd said:

For a cheap & nasty version of the above.

In a Front View - Convert to Group and Slice

 

1808836066_ScreenShot2018-06-04at10_22_53AM.thumb.png.d7ed1465eb4a5d2affa64e321b1a8ebb.png

 

Screen Shot 2018-06-04 at 10.23.26 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-06-04 at 10.23.33 AM.png

I'm cheap n nasty too! exactly  how I have done this in the past, esp. for those tent end cap walls. Works a charm.

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On 6/5/2018 at 9:36 AM, grant_PD said:

And if the folks over at Landru Design are listening....this and swagged drapes would be a great thing to have in the next version!

I think there comes a point when one reaches the end of what you can do with plug in objects and frankly, there is limitation with using Vectorworks to produce really organic shapes in general. You can certainly do it, but not as easily and with less satisfying results than a stand alone modeling program. No harm in trying of course. 

 

MarkD, that is pretty fascinating. I’ve been a “subtract solids” guy for a very, very long time.   Your approach is fresh indeed. 

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