I always vote for Value inputs. Sometimes if you know a value, its easier if you can type it in.

Hi Burr,

> I always vote for Value inputs. Sometimes if you know a value,
> its easier if you can type it in.

Yup, in general that's certainly true! But in this particular case you are not very likely to know this special "rho" value beforehand unless you are looking over airfoil tables from the 1960's or something like that... ;)

But I've added it in anyway though.

- Michael

Hi Jamie,

> I guess an rho value is a little arcane and not fitting the
> simplicity of MOI so well,

Well, I guess it won't really hurt anything and since it is kind of traditional I put that in as well.


> but will you be able to adjust the conic curve after creation? For
> example if you make a loft with conic curves will you be able to
> update the conic and see the surface update?

The output of conic is just a regular curve object, so you can adjust it by moving control points around and have a loft update same as for other curves. But currently you won't be able to adjust the rho value afterwards though, since that is not something that you can edit on a general curve object right now.

In the future I do want to make a deeper history mechanism that would allow you to adjust various numeric parameters that went into the construction of an object, which would at that point allow for that kind of tweaking.


> Will the conic curves be in the next beta? or in V2?

It'll be in the next beta. Also I added in a feature that if you snap the ends of the conic on to curves, the intersection point of the curve tangents is available as a tan/tan snap point, like this:



Also that can be used to make an ellipse segment like so:




Also the Rho value will update when you move the mouse around so you can see what Rho value corresponds to the current shape that is defined by the "through point". And also MoI will allow for negative Rho values (normally they are restricted to between 0 and 1) which will produce the ellipse segment bulging from the other side as in the second screencap above.


> I guess the beta stage for V2 is nearly over and its time
> to earn some well deserved money.

:) Yup, it's getting pretty close to being wrapped up, kind of in the final stretches here but it always takes longer than I wish to wrap up the final details.

- Michael

I was thinking that knowing the value of the one you "create" could then lead to addition of others with some kind of progressive formula.

I may not understand what this value is and how its used. I was assuming it had something to do with the curvature of the segment and that if I used .01, .05, and .1 it would give me some kind of natural progression between 3 curves.

Hi Burr, actually it does work like that so you may like to use the value in that way.

For example here is one with Rho = 0.5 :


And here Rho = 0.6 :


And here Rho = 0.8 :



As the value moves towards 0 it becomes flatter, here is Rho = 0.01 :



The category of conic section is also related to the Rho value.

With Rho = 0.5, the curve is a segment of a parabola.

With Rho > 0.5 and < 1, the curve is a segment of a hyperbola.

With Rho < 0.5, the curve is a segment of an ellipse.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Is this going to be a keyboard shortcut or are you adding it to the Draw curve icon set ?

Cheers

Hi Danny,

> Is this going to be a keyboard shortcut or are you
> adding it to the Draw curve icon set ?

I think I'm going to add it under Draw curve > More > Conic , beside Helix.

- Michael

Excellent, Michael, great addition to MoI!

-Will

Here's where the new conic command will live in the UI:



- Michael

Just stay now one place free here or can you have more levels possible? :)

Hi Pilou, I generally try pretty hard to figure out other possible ways to add functions without adding too many icons...

But in the future it will be possible for me to add more than one additional item there. It will wrap and expand to take up multiple lines if necessary, like this:



- Michael

Saved :)

very nice addition :)

Hi Michael

Great you could get this done so quickly. Looking forward to the next beta to try it out.

I like the interaction shown the tan/tan snap. I understand the command creates a curve object so the rho value is not editable after creation. Will be nice when this type of history is built in.

Jamie