Hi all,

Im just testing out the demo of MOI and im really liking it so far - looks to be what i have been looking for, for a while now. One thing that has been bugging me though. I have tried to sweep a profile along a poly line that is also raised in the z co-ordinate. Anyway the sweep seems not to fill in the corners where the poly line changes direction. offsetting the polyline doesn't wok very well as that also has problems conecting the lines at the corners and the lines also seem to follow different z heights too. Using the extrude on path also doesn't seem to work as that follows a constant direction with the profile.

What is the best way to achieve joined straight corners on this type of rail? Also is history supposed to work with the sweep comand?

Many thanks
Rob

Array file along a curve
Select result : Loft Straigt

Ah just read another post and it appears this isn't possible in version 1 which is a shame as it would be a tool i would use often for things like handrails on stairs. I haven't found anything on whether history works with sweep though - im thinking no but i might be doing something wrong. I take it it must be hard to create history for all objects - like extrusion amount and fillet, both of which would be very useful to adjust?

Cheers

EDIT:sorry you beat me to it Frenchy! yeah the problem is i cant seem to offset the rail correctly.

Lofting chamfers the edges rather than extending them at the corners of the rail. - the profile needs to be scaled at the corners accurately to get the propper corner.

Array file along a curve
Select result : Loft Straigt

Yeah that's the problem - your rail has 4 sides/lines and your resulting shape has 5/6 sides as well as profile distortion around the corners.

You only need two ends and a rail to sweep along I would have thought?

Better : Menu Construct Offset : no problem for found the second curve of the path :)

this is what happens when the rail is offset. This is just a random shape i know and wouldnt work as a ramp but say i wanted to use the rail as a hand rail and therefore want it offsetting for the other side of the ramp. It seems it's not possible to get a joined up result. A guess a way around this would be to offset it on the ground plane and move each point up vertically.

I think I would have done with a sweep of two shapes and arail?

Arrggh this doesn't work either with a 2 rail sweep. See how the junctions don't connect propperly?

Sorry brian perhaps i wasn't clear. Im looking to use sharp corners not smooth curves so the corners mitre. The points will also need to be placed vertically as well - like my first example. The ramp is climbing up if it's not clear from the picture. Thanks though.

Is this more like you were looking for(It was good fun anyway!)

Here is some details of the approach for the corner bits.

hmm i still think its not really the same as what im after. I don't think moi supports it yet. If you look at my last image you will see that using 2 rails the junctions are not clean between sections. your examples appear to be flat or the whole shape angled upwards. I am wanting it to be a continuos ramp upwards with sharp corners.

Kind of done it i think! I just copied and pasted the cross section to all the corners of the rail then using the second rail (that i offset before i elevated the points) as a snap guide i rotated the cross sections individually so the were running from corner to corner of the two rails. I then selected the points on the section and dragged them to snap onto the second rail. Then lofted them all. This has seemed to work and moi's nice snapping and selection and interface made it not too much of a chore!! The next challege comes when doing that with straights and curves - but probably do that in separate objects and join together.

With regard to snapping and construction - is there an option to get more construction lines appearing so a point can be referanced with anothers x and y co-ords more easily?

Thanks for people input to this problem.

Cheers

Seems at this date you have no need to rotate the sections by hand
just elevate the sections to the curves after the offset + sweep 2 rails from the view top then loft
I believe your function is on the Wish list for the V 2 :)

I don't understand why i don't have to rotate the sections by hand - how do i get them to align corectly at each junction automatically. Using the two rails as a guide is useful to snap everything to. I think perhaps im doing what you are saying i just might not have explained myself very well - i do need to rotate the sections though.

Can't wait for version 2 already!! I take it there is not kind of time frame on the v2 release yet?

Thanks

< I don't understand why i don't have to rotate the sections by hand
Because the sections have the good orientation on the "flat" plan of the first sweep :)
So you have just to elevate the sections before the straight Loft (or normal if you want a sweet form :)
zip file format 3dm
http://www.divshare.com/download/3659309-13a

Re: History - history will work with Sweep but it is a limitation of history in general that it will only work on commands where there is a single output object generated.

In this case due to the kinks in the rail curve, you're getting multiple separate output objects - that will prevent the history update from working the way it is set up in version 1.0 .

If you do your sweep on a smooth rail curve so it generates one single output object, then history updates will work with it.

I do want to improve history in the future to work in these situations as well, it is just another area like the mitered corners that I wasn't able to get to for version 1.0 .

- Michael