Thanks Michael and Brian.

Try again with the existing tool.

Pierre.

Hi Brian, you mean by using Shell?

By the way, your idea posted above on being able to use a planar surface as a profile input into sweep is a great idea. I have added that to the wiki wishlist to keep track of that.

- Michael

Hi Pierre, I have attached here a new Pipe command which makes it quicker to create hollow pipes around many curves in one shot.

However, this will only work properly on a smooth curve, you will have to wait until MoI version 2.0 before this will handle sharp corners properly.

To install this new command, download the attached Pipe.zip file. Copy the 2 included files (Pipe.htm, Pipe.js) to the \commands subfolder under MoI's main installation folder in c:\Program Files.

That will install the new command, but you also need to add a new shortcut key to trigger it. To do that, go to Options / Shortcut keys, and push the "Add" button, and put whatever you wish for the key (for example P), and then for the command put in Pipe.

Now when you push that key the new Pipe command will be launched.

Select your rail curves first, then run the command. Then you will have the options for Outer and Inner radius which you can set in the command options area in the upper right corner of the MoI window.

So for example, taking these curves:



You can then run Pipe and create this:



This should speed up the creation of a larger number of pipes or tubing as you were asking about.

I hope this is useful!

- Michael

Michael,

You amaze me. Your contributions to your user base are very admirable and very much appreciated. I am very happy with my MOI purchase and it gets better everyday.

Sincerest Thanks

Phil

Michael.
Yes I meant shell!
Actually I was surprised that sweep did not work!
(You know which (//) thinggy "update"that should be added to!
(I inspired an idea in Michael Gibson---will I ever be able to sleep again?)

P for Pipes--all in one go! (Thanks Michael)

what about auto-intersections?

Fantastic Michael !!!. Try it when i have a moment today...
Thanks again ... (from a future MOI buyer !!!)

This is an exemple i have done with Sketchup+podium with long efforts, bad precisions, no smooth on curve....
I work on architectural prototypes with roof based on pipes frame and tended tissu : i 'm sure making this quicker and better with the new pipe tool add-on in MOI !! ....

Pierre.

Hi Pilou,

> what about auto-intersections?

It's kind of difficult to handle self-intersections without doing quite a lot of extra checking which slows processing for normal things down quite a lot as well...

So most of the time surface self-intersections like that won't be handled generally. You need to construct things like that in different segments so that the pieces can be booleaned or trimmed with one another.

- Michael

Michael,

The script doesn't work for me.
Config : mac+parallel + xp + no save Moi version ?
Impossible to see a new window after clicking a rail ... Have you got an idea ?

Bye,

Pierre.

Hi Pierre, did you unzip the files, and can you double check that you have 2 files named Pipe.js and Pipe.htm inside the C:\Program Files\MoI 1.0 trial\commands folder?

Also can you tell me what you have listed for your shortcut key for Pipe under Options / Shortcut keys?

I just gave it a quick try over here with the no-save trial version and I couldn't see any problems over here anyway...


Also, it actually isn't supposed to pop up a new window - it should show the pipe options in the upper-right area of the main window.

And also the options won't show up immediately after you click a rail, you have to push Done or Right-click after selecting the rail, if you did not have anything selected before running the command. In general I would recommend selecting the rails before running the command though, then it should go directly to the options page.


One other possible issue - I think that anything older than the brand newest version of Parallels had problems running the Direct3D display system that MoI uses, so if you are using an older version of that you might want to update it.

- Michael

Sorry Michael,

i have wrote "put in pipe", in the shortkey instead of "pipe".
Everything work fine ....Fantastic.

Thanks Michael.

Pierre.

PS : I'm just buying MOI licence 5 minute ago ....

I 'm just "playing" with the new tool ... it is really fantastic to create severals pipes in the same times ....
When i think of the time spent on sketchup to make 2 pipes .... the productivity is now fantastic.


Thanks michael.

Pierre, Pipes architect.

I'm glad it is working for you now, and thank you very much for your order!

I hope it won't be too much longer before I will be able to work on the corner mitering for v2.

- Michael

Pipe doodling:









- Michael

Wow, what a great addition to MOI - BRAVO, Michael!

I'd love to add this to the Draw Solid menu! Wasn't there a tip around here on how to add command buttons somewhere?


-Will

PS - I noticed if you set an inner radius, and then blank the field (as it is initially), the pipe still retains the last inner radius entered. You have to enter '0' to actually remove the inner radius...

PPS - Would it be possible to add a pick option for a custom profile shape?

Hi Michael,
the script is fantastic, but I have some problem.
It "freeze" moi often (probably is the first time that a crash happen to me).
My computer is not the best out there but usually moi work like a charm.

Ciao
Luca

My laptop has freezing problems with MOI when I have performed heavy boolean and filleting to my models.

I believe this is due to my laptop's video drivers since it doesn't seem to happen to my desktop computer.

Unless your computer is very slow, this could be similar to what's happening with you?

If you can, try a different computer to see if the same happens there too...


-Will

Hi Luca, yes this one behaves a bit differently than a regular command, it does not support the regular kind of canceling mechanism, and while it is busy calculating MoI will appear frozen instead of staying alive like normal.

It should be possible for me to improve this in the future, but for V1 this script will have this problem.

Also you can create a pretty complex calculation with this if you have a lot of curves, or a really long curve, so you probably should only try something complex on this particular one if you have a somewhat faster machine, since it cannot be canceled easily.

- Michael

Hi Will - also this particular command behaves a little differently, it is due to the way it kind of re-uses several other commands internal to it. This particular way of using multiple commands internally does not get the normal smooth cancel mechanism that you usually get.

So this is probably a little different than the problem on your laptop.

I don't think that it will be too difficult to get this fixed up for v2 though.

- Michael

Yes you are right, it's probably my "office" computer (P4 2,8Ghz with only 750MB of RAM).
For the Video card I have a Quadro FX 600, but I cannot update the video driver because it works very well with some programs I use for work (PDMS and stuff like that...).


Regards
Luca