Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted February 15, 2005 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 15, 2005 Take a look at the "lofting" tool and the "tapered extrude" command. Quote Link to comment
Squib Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Not sure who this jenks fellow is but could also make a 3D nurbs curve that curls and rises (3D reshape and then lift the last control point in the Z) and then with a profile of the bank created select both and use the extrude along path tool that also allows for scaling.... Quote Link to comment
Lynda Posted February 16, 2005 Author Share Posted February 16, 2005 I'm trying to produce 'Charles Jencks' style curved earth works. The bank is to swirl counter clockwise, whilst tapering to the top. I have managed to produce a few samples using interpolated surfaces but am unable to produce the eact shape that I want. Ultimately, there are to be a number of banks interconnected so i need to get the hang of this! I have drawn the shapes in 2d but have been unable to extrude them in to the 3D shapes that I want to use. Any ideas please or can someone point me towards some good 3d tutorials for garden designers? I'm using VW 11.01 on PC Windows 2000 Professional. I'm from a graphics background so am used to Adobe software and coreldraw - the different terminology can be confusing. Thanks in anticipation Quote Link to comment
islandmon Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 Another method is to make evenly spaced cross sections from 2D Polys(with equal number of vertices) then convert to nurbs >loft>ruled>closed. 1) make one Poly with adequate controls 2) dup as 2D or 3D modify and align 3) convert to Nurbs 4) Loft all into unifrom solid Quote Link to comment
Lynda Posted February 16, 2005 Author Share Posted February 16, 2005 Thanks for you're input. I'm investigating further but still feel somewhat out of my depth. i feel that there must be someway to pull the points to where I want them! Am trying your suggections. main thing I can't get my head around is tapering in more than one direction whilst curving at the same time (bit like the curve of a cats back when curled asleep!)As this is ultimately an earthwork it needs to be attached to the ground plane. I'd include a pic if I could work out how! Lynda Quote Link to comment
Lynda Posted March 7, 2005 Author Share Posted March 7, 2005 I managed to create my curved banks by lofting from two nurbs curves. I had to create the main shape from a polyline, convert to nurbs, copy and reshape the copy for the second contour. I then positioned this above the first nurbs curve and tweeked the z height of the end vertices to create a gentle slope. I then lofted between the two. had some strange results but have now achieved soemthing like I want. However, i've just realised that only one end of the object is solid and I have an open top surface! How do I close this surface? I've tried again ensuring that create solid is checked but am getting the same result. I don't mind the base being open but having a bank that has an open top is pretty useless! Any ideas please? I hope to put my results on to a web page when I have a spare minute or three. Lynda Quote Link to comment
Lynda Posted March 7, 2005 Author Share Posted March 7, 2005 I've now tried using creat planar caps to add a 'top' to my banks. It almost works but the ends of the 'cap' do not taper down with the gradient of the top surface. Looks fine from above but very strange in other views. Also, what happens when I want to produce a cross section if my bank isn't solid after all? Quote Link to comment
Lynda Posted April 6, 2005 Author Share Posted April 6, 2005 I've now ditched my first attempts and have resorted to created the curved banks using the dtm. Created contours from 2d polys then the dtm. Time consuming but a smoother looking result. I'm hoping I can now apply a texture bed (or similar?) to render the area. (I have Renderworks). Only problem - the dtm takes ages to process and update with lots of crashes in between. I'm using 11.5 on Windows 2000 professional v. 5 Quote Link to comment
Delmer Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 I have to admit I haven't created a DTM since moving to 11.5, but one thing to make sure on, when you say polys, are your referring to polygons or polylines? Polylines will bring your machine to its knees. Polygons, no matter how tightly spaced the vertices, are far more manageable. Quote Link to comment
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