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Modeling Spiral Roof


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Hi all, 
Client wants a roof that spirals down from the top. I had quite a bit of difficulty figuring out how to model it- I have one version using a subdivison, and another with roof faces converted to NURBS. Now that we have the general shape down, does anyone have any suggestions on a more polished method of rendering? The roof face objects start looking clunky as we move further along with the model. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Alia Brookshire
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Loft Surface tool works on NURBS curves.

 

 If the "path" of the roof is a simple helix, I'd use the helix command to create the path, Modify>Convert>Convert To Group (Command K) to get the the NURBS curve.  Draw the profile of the roof as a polygon, convert that to NURBS, then use the 2nd mode of the loft tool.

 

But I bet it might be better to draw 2D sections of the roof at various strategic points, convert those to NURBS, and use the loft tool in the first mode.

 

Post back if that's all gibberish :-).  We can walk you through it.  This is just the kind of problem that VW has 7 ways of accomplishing, so someone may have a better way.  

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4 hours ago, michaelk said:

The Loft Surface tool works on NURBS curves.

 

 If the "path" of the roof is a simple helix, I'd use the helix command to create the path, Modify>Convert>Convert To Group (Command K) to get the the NURBS curve.  Draw the profile of the roof as a polygon, convert that to NURBS, then use the 2nd mode of the loft tool.

 

But I bet it might be better to draw 2D sections of the roof at various strategic points, convert those to NURBS, and use the loft tool in the first mode.

 

Post back if that's all gibberish :-).  We can walk you through it.  This is just the kind of problem that VW has 7 ways of accomplishing, so someone may have a better way.  

@michaelk Yesterday you steal Julian's symbol. Today you steal my saying. What is being in quarantine for so long doing to you morals?  ;-)

 

All will be forgiven if you can quote the seven ways to shorten a line in VW.  🤔

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Hold on a minute!

 

1.  I didn't steal Julian's symbol.  It was never a symbol.  I just "harvested" the geometry from his tool and created the symbol he told me he wished he had created years ago.  AND I named it in a way to make attribution clear to anyone who would know.🇦🇺

 

B.  You're right.  I used "7 Ways" with attribution.  To be clear, from now on I will be sure to say 7 Ways™ 🙂   At least until it goes into public domain.

 

III.  I think there are 11!

  1. Drag blue handles
  2. Resize tool
  3. Type value or mathematical operation into OIP
  4. Scale Object command
  5. Split tool
  6. Connect/Combine tool in the first mode (requires another line)
  7. Clip Surface (requires another line or surface)
  8. Clip tool
  9. Fixed Point Resize tool
  10. Shear tool
  11. Trim tool
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@michaelk Thanks! I tried using the helix tool, but the roof's spiral doesn't exactly follow it. Also tried tracing the eave line of the roof and the top of the roof, drawing a straight line from one to the other and lofting it, but I kept getting a message "Loft surfaces or solid could not be created". I think a good next step is to attempt it with the profiles of the roof, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. Any guidance you have would be very much appreciated! 

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This is exactly the kind of thing that vectorworks is a bit rubbish at modelling, I'd say, so will be interested to see what solutions are offered. I think I might try with the loft tool but would be accepting that it will be segmented to some extent, and making sure that the segmentation is tidy and regular.

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@michaelk Haha- no worries. There are two sections of roof- one is a true spiral, and the other has the level of the eaves uniform around while the top spirals up. The pitch is 18.43, the entire rise of the roof is 25'. The top part goes along a spiral that has a starting radius of 40' and ends at 10', making 1.5 turns. It will theoretically be constructed with tiles––or will be a metal roof, that part is still TBD. Let me know if there's any more info I can provide, thanks! 

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@Alia Brookshire Is this more or less what you were looking to do?

I was a bit confused at some of your dimensional parameters, etc, and I did not put walls under the roof, and was not clear

on exactly what the width of the roof should be etc, etc, but......this was pretty quick

and looks pretty smooth :-) I think you get the gist.

 

Just used the helix-spiral tool with the specs you gave. 25 ' high, bottom radius 40', top radius 10 'then extrude along path, using the 18,43°

roof pitch.

 

Of course I may have this all wrong...

in which case you need to call Pat Stanford, MichaelK, and line-weight.......when they aren't sparing verbally, that is. :-)

 

808315830_ScreenShot2021-03-15at8_46_57PM.thumb.png.72b32ee2da903e1c9179eb55c676fb84.png

 

Screen Shot 2021-03-15 at 8.47.19 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-03-15 at 8.48.04 PM.png

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I'm not sure Kevin K's solution is going to solve your problem because I don't think that method is going to adapt to the complexities of the roof you want to create. For example an Extrude-along-path has to have a constant profile and your roof is wider and narrower at different points. But maybe it can be split into sections?

 

You probably need to post a copy of your file to let people see exactly what geometry you need to fit to.

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@line-weight Oh yeah-- you're right about that. I think making several of the extrude-along-path objects that are all the appropriate width may be the way to go, or solid subtraction like Kevin suggested. Here's a copy of the file if you want to take a look. The wall heights can be adjusted to fit the roof- they aren't set in stone. 

 

Edited by Alia Brookshire
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@Alia Brookshire Do you think you could have chosen a more complicated roof?  :-)

a few notes as I check out the fie....

When I opened the file two things jumped out....you may want to adjust your prefs...

1) you need to go to prefs for the units and set it to fractions, as you had, but tick the option for 'fractional'  in the rounding selection.

2) View Menu, Open GL options set to at least high.....you had it set to Low..otherwise things will look very faceted....

....More later :-)

 

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