I was thinking of having two (planar) curves, the fat curves, offset from the center curve.
For the tapered section, say the last 25% of the center curve, twist the two curves, using the center curve as a curved twist axis, by 90 degrees, into the
z-axis, and maintain distance from the center curve. The twist would be a tiny incremental rotation for each successive distance along the center curve.
(There is no script for this.)
Project the curves onto the plane.

- Brian....

Lots of high-level thinking here, I'm thoroughly enjoying the solution suggestions, Thanks Max, Michael and Brian. Looking forward to test it.

To spice up the challenge a little, here's a mockup of the results Fat Lines would ideally be able to generate. :)



It would be extra fabulous if the result would remain connected to the source lines with the History function, so you can adjust the source lines and see a live update of the result. But I don't know if this is possible.

Sorry if I just robbed you of a night's sleep, Max. ;)

This is quite a useful script, is there any way to get this more integrated with the rest of Moi? -its basically offset curve on steriods. What I mean is for the offset to work using the snapping guidelines like fillet and chamfer instead of having to manually guess the width.

Hi Metin
Check the new version.
Today evening I'll play with different shapes.

That's really cool Max!

Pointy Fat Lines - Fun script Max !

Ed Ferguson

Excellent!

Ps I have had a crash!
With the pointlines above
I recall the plugin then move the cursor Width then crash! :)

So load the file, Select all, call the plugin! (width with rectangle : Move the cursor several times ) Does it the same for you ?
Unexpected condition !
http://moiscript.weebly.com/uploads/3/9/3/8/3938813/fat00.3dm

Yes, I've noticed crashes too. I'll make some changes to avoid them. this script is in early beta stage.

No problem, i am confident! :)

Hi Max & Pilou - re: Crash - I investigated the crash and it appears to be a bug in boolean union, where under some complex arrangement of curves it is possible for there to get a face (curve booleans internally happen on a planar face as part of their processing) that has no loops on it which is a degenerate condition and then other code that harvests the edge curves crashes when it hits that.

I'll be able to fix the crash by just skipping over this degenerate face with no loops rather than trying to access the loops on it, but that fix won't be available until the next public release of MoI and I currently don't know when that will be.

At the moment Pilou, I'd suggest not using the script on things that will yield chaotic results like you are doing here by trying to apply it twice in succession onto the previous results of it.

- Michael

Pilou -

Your example above gives me an idea to experiment with Max's script to make Tribal Designs like these:

http://www.tattoo-bodyink.com/tribal-tattoo-designs/

Moving and sizing single curves to experiment is much easier than modifying closed curves.

Ed Ferguson

Damn Ed, you are reading my mind! I thought the exact same thing-- use MoI to create tatoo work. I've been playing around with logos lately in MoI b/c it's easier to do things than Illustrator. Tatoos is a natural!

Exactly Chipp - Great minds think alike!

Yeah - Just lay down some curves and experiment. Much faster than modifying a design like that in Illustrator.

I cut designs into rings using a CNC milling machine, so you know where I'm going with this :) Just gotta go with the Flow.

Ed Ferguson

Yes and can be also cool for rings! ;)
French version : http://moiscript.weebly.com/scripts-de-max-smirnov.html

The trick for fill them in case of Fat Lines curves 3D!
Separate then Loft! ;)

Hey, that's great Max, many thanks, much appreciated!

Hi Max,

First : thank you for your many contributions very very useful !

I have a question about this script: Is it possible to add an option to automatically fill in the result of this "thick line" with a new custom style (black by default, like the boom in "dimensions" script) ?

To make " classic " technical drawing (no color) , we have several tools :
- "Hatch-it" script
- "Dimensions" script
- "Fatlines" script

For completeness, it should miss perhaps a tool for making drawn dashed . Maybe I can detail this point if it interests people other than me ! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_drawing#/media/File:Line_types.png)

Bear

This is great fun thanks guys
Can history be enabled ? if possible so if you change the base lines the output updates
cheers
shayne