@MO (MO_TE)
Hello again MO,
and thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. All three points made it into
MultiPipe2, and they led to a few other additions along the way. Here's what's in the latest version,
1.1.7:
1. Cage output and different radii
- The new
Output option has four choices:
Pipe frame (the smooth SubD result, as before),
Cage curves,
Cage surfaces and
Cage solid.
-
Cage surfaces is the one for your workflow. It gives you the raw low-poly cage as editable surfaces, so you can change it, connect pipes of different radii, and then run ImportSubD yourself, manually or from a script.
-
Cage curves skips the SubD import completely, so it's very fast. On a 300-strut frame it takes
about a third of a second, compared with about 17 seconds for the full pipe frame.
-
Cage solid: the cage joined into one faceted solid per frame. It's closed when Cap is on.
-
Different radii are also supported directly now. Each curve takes its radius from its
MoI style. If your selection spans several styles, the panel shows one Radius field per style, labelled with the style's name. Joints where different radii meet are built automatically. Limited to a max. of 8 styles, the script will tell you that it can't proceed if you select more.
2. Failed joints
- The panel no longer fills up with coordinates. When joints can't be built, the summary gives one line with the number of failed joints and dropped frames.
-
The curves at the failed joints are left selected and everything else is deselected, so you can see them in the viewport right away.
- A failed joint
no longer stops the whole run. Only the frames containing it are left out, and every other frame is still built.
3. Back button
- The summary step now has
Back, which takes you back to the options with your values still there. You can adjust and rebuild without cancelling and restarting.
Also new since your post:
-
Live Preview: while the options are open, the viewport shows the result and updates after every change. On large frames it falls back to cage curves to stay responsive, and it tells you when it does that.
-
Pick radius: each Radius field has a
Pick button. Move the pointer over the viewport and a guide circle shows the radius on the nearest curve; click to set it.
Previous features left untouched:
-
Round joints / All nodes: these options add an extra ring beside tight-angle joints, and optionally at every node. That keeps the joints round instead of pinched, and where the geometry allows, it gives a clean miter point.
-
Automatic joint growth at tight angles: the summary tells you how many nodes grew and by how much.
Links
- GitHub repository:
scripts-for-moi on GitHub
- Latest release (direct zip):
MultiPipe2-1.1.7.zip
- Manual:
MultiPipe2 manual
To update, copy the three files over your old ones and
restart MoI, since MoI caches command scripts. Thanks again for testing it on a large, tricky scene. That's exactly the kind of feedback that makes the tool better, so please let me know how the new version works for you.
I've mentioned you in the README and the help file :)
There is a little demo video demonstrating all the new features.
Cheers,
Gabriel
