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Easy way to put lines between two shapes?


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Hi Community,

 

I had to make an even spread of lines between two ovals with a different size . This to make banners between the two (I made nurbs lines and extruded along path to make the banners in different widths). Since all distances and angles were different (well, at least a lot of them), I did every line manually. I'm wondering if there's a way to generate those lines between two shapes automatically, since this of course would save a lot of time and frustration. Also, thinking of the extrude along path, is there a way to have a shape extrude along multiple lines at he same time? I attached an example of what I wanted, where the red lines are what I want along the ovals with an even spread.

 

Thanks a million for helping me out and have a great new years!

 

Peter Telleman

line spread try.vwx

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If you want to just create Nurbs curves around the perimeter of the Ovals, then probably the most efficient way is to set your SmartCursor to Along Line only and then enable the Distance function in the Snaps pallette and set up a specific distance using SmartCursor Settings. Then you can simply draw the individual Nurbs Curves at the respective intervals along each Oval. (You do need to convert the Ovals to a Nurbs curves for some reason as the Snap to distance functions will not work properly on the Ovals.....)

 

Alternatively there is the Loft Surface tool which will create a solid object that you can Slice through using the Create Contours tool. (Contour increment=0). The Loft Surface tool will give you a sloping curve between the two profiles.

 

If you want to preserve the straight Line nature of the profile, and want to try this approach, then you can use the Revolve with Rail command from the 3D Powerpack menu. This will create a 3D Profile for you which you can again use the Create Contours tool on to get various profiles.

 

Unless I am mistaken, then I don't think there is a specific tool that will duplicate the profile between the two shapes in the way that Duplicate along Path command would do if the Ovals were the same shape.

Edited by markdd
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Hi Mark,

thanks for the quick response, I love the Loft Surface Tool, hadn't used it before. But unfortunately it does not do want I want in this case. If you set smart cursor to along line, I'm guessing your goal is to have a set distance that you can select along the line (in this case the oval shape) so I can easier start my NURBS lines. But that means I also need to calculate the changing distances on either the higher of lower oval shape, since in the bends the distance between the lower and higher oval will not be the same. That actually feels like a lot of work? Also never changed my smart cursor setting, and wasn't quickly able to find an along line choice (looked under smart cursor settings under tools). With Revolve Around Rail I get the notice that my object are not on on the plane of my axis (or the other way around), but from what I understand from the command, it will follow the chosen oval with my NURBS line around an axis, so it will keep the same form and will not adapt to my two different oval shapes where the bend. What I was indeed looking for is. as you mention at the end, a similar command as duplicate along line that duplicates along two different lines.  😞

Even though it is the least of my challenges, is it possible to extrude along path along multiple lines at the same time? That will at least save me a lot of time making the lines into banners.

I've attached a more detailed example of what I'm after, so two different sized banners along the paths of the two different shaped ovals.

 

Hope you or anyone else can get me on the right path to have Vectorworks do this automatically for me, or at least make it a lot easier  🙂

 

thanks already for the help and feedback.

specific.vwx

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@Peter Tellemansomething like this?  You can use the duplicate along path tool and set the distance to be fixed.  My least favorite tool btw.  I had to offset your curve to the middle of the banner and then flip it around to get the orientation right.  You may find it a good place to start and then manually adjust a few of them.  Or do it in quarter sections and then mirror.  

image.png

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Hi grant_PD,

 

That looks very close to what I want. I don't necessarily mind adjusting a few, still beats doing them all. Why would I need to flip it around? And also, when I try duplicate along path, it makes them all face one way, instead of moving around with the path. Sorry for asking obvious or silly questions, just never used these commands before.

 

thanks so far

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There's a tick box for "tangent to path" that rotates them as you duplicate.  It's a very vague and odd tool, you'll have to play with how your banner is oriented to see how that affects the duplication.  In your case I had to use a polyline as a path, not nurbs, and offset the original path to the center of the banner  as it wants to orient the copies from there.  Then, it was flipping them around as it duplicated, so I flipped the original to make the duplications work.  

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