Drawing a tent roof.

[Mickey]

There are two of us in the office trying to figure this one out.

We are trying to draw what would be a tent roof.

The structure is 100'x200' with 10 center poles.

So far we've tried using NURBS, and it isn't working out very well.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks

-Mickey

[mike m oz]

There is a 3D PowerPack tutorial on drawing a simple tent - this may help. Follow the Quick Links at the bottom LH corner of the NNA Home Page to 3D PowerPack Info. Have a look at "Creating a Rail-Revolved Surface"

The QuickTime Examples movie No. 7 may also be worth looking at.

[rdrines]

Another example that might be of use is to look at Example 7 - QuickTime Movie in the same general area that Mike mentions above. Example 7 shows a flowing roof that might easily morph into a tent cover.

[wwlighting]

I checked out the Revolve Rail Surface tutorial and I ran into a problem. After creating the polygon, axis and NURBS curve, I tried to Model>Revolve Rail and it says that I need to pick a profile curve on the same plane. I have tried to follow the instructions 4 times and get the same result. Can somebody else give it a shot? There is one place that says "change the plane of the vertex to be perpindicular to the plane of the polygon" I think that I did that by changing the XYZ of the vertix. But maybe there is a command I am missing. Any suggestions?

[rdrines]

Walter,

I didn't see the instructions, but I looked at the popup example and created a peaked cover. Here is how it happened:

From a Top/Plan View, create an octagon in 2D. Then move to a front view and create a vertical pole in the center. From a Right Perspective the NURBS curve profile is added. Then the octagon, and the vertical line must be converted to NURBS. Now it is time to move the octagon with the Rotate 3D. My first attempt didn't get the octagon where I wanted it, but moving the view around and then rotating it right put it in the right place.

With all that done, use the Revolve Rail command and watch it fill in.

Version: 11.51 PC

[mike m oz]

You need to make sure that the "profile curve" only curves in one direction. Take a look at in Top Plan View - if you can see a curve here then you have it wrong.

When you add the curve to the "straight nurb curve" make sure you have the working plane set correctly and the appropriate constraint mode set in the 3D Reshape Tool.

Alternatively you can rotate the polygon so that the vertice you want to connect to has the same Y value as the centre Locus. Then if you go to a Front View you can reshape the curve with the Constrain set to movement along the X axis.

[wwlighting]

Well, I got it to work once by using a combination of the methods suggested but I can't get it again. After I got it once I moved on to the next phase. I am trying to build a multi peak tent by combining the tent shapes into one shape. However, I can't use the add solids command. How can I make the tent shapes into a solid that can be combined with other shapes? I will then need to put those shapes on a wall structure that is the bottom 1/2 of the tent.

[mike m oz]

It is possible - I can recall an image of a circular tent with 4 peaks that was posted in the early days of 3D PowerPack. It appeared to be made up of 4 segments, and I suspect that you may have to model this in a similar way.

Try going to the Knowledge Base Section and ask the question.

[matto]

I know this may be a bit late.

Do you have the DTM package in your VectorWorks?

Maybe use a 3d poly to define the edge of the tent, and 3d Locus for the tent posts. then use maybe the triangle mesh to get it produce a tent shape

[Mickey]

No we don't have the Digital Terrain Mapping package.

And we still haven't got this to work.

We're not giving up yet.

[islandmon]

From the Manual sect:10-23. Created a HexTent array:

[islandmon]

Here's the 100x200 using a 50x50 square with the NURBS Post-Curve-Rail procedure:

[Mickey]

Which version of the manual

11?

Thanks

-Mickey

[islandmon]

VW11 Users Guide> section 10-23. Creating a NURBS Surface by Revolving a Profile along a Rail.