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3D Object Snap Extrude Along Path


gooie87

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I swear this never used to be the case but if I extrude a circle along a path I am completely unable to snap to any part of the 3D object. All snapping tools turned on. VW 2021 most recent Service Pack. This is infuriating! I would understand not being able to snap to a curved part of the geometry but can't snap to the path, midpoint or vertices or the top / side of the circular profile. Short of turning the shape into a 16 sided polygon I'm not sure what else to do.

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Yes you are right, my workaround is to edit the extrude along path, copy the path, exit the extrude and insert the path at the right position. If the path is a nurbs curve you can set perpendicular working planes anywhwere along the path. Placing the profile on this working plane allows you to get the outer boundery of the extrude along path at this point and you can snap to it.

hth

Edited by halfcoupler
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7 hours ago, LarryO said:

I find that switching to Wireframe allows snapping to intersections, quadrants, end points and the surface but I've not found much use for the latter.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but this does not work if the extrude profile is a circle. In that case you can only snap to the profiles (circles) at the end of the extrude.

Edited by halfcoupler
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5 hours ago, halfcoupler said:

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but this does not work if the extrude profile is a circle. In that case you can only snap to the profiles (circles) at the end of the extrude.

Correct, I'm more often than not in wireframe and no matter which view the snap just is impossible.

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I've been using a circle to generate railings. I find that wherever the path changes abrupt direction like an intersection node of a polyline, as opposed to a radial corner, I can snap to the quadrants. But the point generated for the tool seems to be projected onto the active drawing plane if in plan view. There are definitely some areas where the developers need to work on. When in an ISO view you can snap the first end of a line to the quadrant point at an end or change in direction but the closing end point will not snap to the opposite quadrant in the junction. (To find the centre of the profile's intersection for instance.) And snapping from the end point of a 3d line to another 3d line end point is also a lot of trouble. Especially if the closing end point is located where another object's point is, like the quadrant of the circle extrusion. The line is often created on the active x/y plane at zero z but for seemingly unpredictable reasons will occur at z elevations other than zero.

 

I do a lot of decomposing and recomposing of nurbs pathing to get the tubing (circle profile more often than flattened ring) flowing continuously in the correct locations for 3d railings.  

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