Hi Jesse,
quote: So if it used the two different-in-diameter circles to calculate an offset along a perpendicular line from a line drawn between the closest points of those circles,
would it replicate the same placement as you would if you took into account the curvature of the array?
No, I guess not - the prong location would be more following just the line between 2 circles and not necessarily on the offset of the path curve.
It's more like it would be on the offset of a polyline going through the circle centers.
But I guess if your array was dense enough that there was not a lot of change in the path curve between each item it would be pretty close to the same thing.
quote: I used the midpoint of a line I drew between the intersections of the two circles
and an offset parallel path curve, but that method entails too much user intervention to effectively automate, I would think.
Yeah an automated tool needs to have some relatively simple rules that it follows to generate the stuff.
It can't really do stuff like "just make the spacing look good" or something that requires judgment like that, it has to have the mechanics for how it works really nailed down.
Is there ever a case where you would move stones around in order to accomodate the location of a prong?
If not (if you always want to have the stone placement be primary), then I will probably focus on just the stone placement initially and see if it is possible to nail that down first before worrying about prongs.
- Michael
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