Hi All.......

Below is wip playing with moi :
Well, the wall created from many rectangular curves. Michael, is it difficult to add a "double line" tool that will very helpful when creating a wall ?

Thats cool. Would extruding and shelling single lines work?





Burr

[EDIT] I just noticed the shelling may be a bit of work as I had to go back and shell each line individually to choose either normal or flip to get it to shell in the direction I wanted. A 2 line tool would definatly be desired here.[EDIT]

Hi Burr...

Could you share step by step on how do you create the walls ?
You can use this free program to create a video tutorial : http://camstudio.org/

Update : OK, I can figure out your idea, but moi take more time to calculate shell. The best methode is extrude :)
My Laptop have 4 Gb of RAM, Core 2 Duo and NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600

Hi Anis,
Yeah you got it. I just drew single lines representing the walls. Then I extruded them to the height I wanted. Then I chose shell and picked the thickness. It was pretty quik though I looked at it again and noticed some of the walls were not inline. The shelling would have to be done "Wall by Wall" to be able to select the direction of the shell ( the shell commands "normal or flip" option). If doing large buildings this could get time consuming where your original request for a 2 line tool would eliminate the need for these extra steps.

If you want me to illustrate it I can but you can see the 3 steps in the picture. In my corrected file I selected each wall seperatly, shelled it, looked if the direction was proper then either switched it or moved on.

Hi Burr,

Yes, You dont need to create a video any more.

"If doing large buildings this could get time consuming where your original request for a 2 line tool would eliminate the need for these extra steps."
Yup, correct !!!

BTW, have you experience export moi as 3ds, then open in max ?
Below is the last wip :

Looks good. I have no experience with max. Lets see if there is a 2 line in our future!

I like the 2nd floor patio. I'd sit and have a beer right now!

Hi Anis,

> Michael, is it difficult to add a "double line" tool that will
> very helpful when creating a wall ?

It is quite a bit of work to do one that does the full "wall stuff", like integrating pieces with existing walls when you draw new pieces, etc ...

I have added it to the wishlist though (http://moi3d.com/wiki/Wishlist).

In the meantime probably the best method would be to draw a polyline for your pieces, and then use Offset to create the "thick lines".

For example if you have an outline like this:



Select it and then run Construct / Offset to create an inner piece a constant distance away from the original:



That combination of Polyline + Offset can give you much of the same type of thing as a double-line tool would.

- Michael

Hi Burr, Hi Anis - the nice thing about using Offset for creating your doubled lines is that it is more general and can be used with any kind of curve that you have drawn, not just single line segments.

Here is another example where the base curve contains a freeform curve segment and an arc:



To create a double-line out of this, select the pieces (they just need to touch, you don't have to join them first Offset will join them automatically for you), then run Construct / Offset.

There are 2 modes for Offset - "Through point" where you pick a point and the offset is calculated at a distance that passes through that point, or "by distance" where you specify a particular distance and then pick which side of the original curve to offset to.

For doing different pieces you'll probably want to use the "by distance" method so it is easy to have a consistent distance when working on different parts separately. You can either switch the mode for this manually, or just type in a distance value which will switch the mode automatically as well.

So for instance in this case after running the Offset command, I typed in 3 <enter> to set the offset distance to 3, then clicked once on the inside of the shape, to produce this double-line result with just one shot of the Offset command:



It's the primary tool to use if you want to get double-lined type results.


It is possible to go to a 3D solid shape before this and use Shell like you were talking about earlier Burr, but it can often be a pretty good idea to do as much work in 2D as you can first before punching things out to 3D. There are just less pieces involved while you are working in 2D and that generally makes it easier to trim things, etc...

- Michael

Hi Michael....

>> It is quite a bit of work to do one that does the full "wall stuff", like integrating pieces with existing walls when you draw new pieces, etc ...
It will be cool to have a architecture tools inside Moi in the feature, at least some basic tools like 2 lines / double line.

I know, we can use polyline & offset. The only problem is below :

Hi Anis - I would like to add an option in for Offset to add "caps" at the ends between the offset and the original, I think that would solve the problem you are showing there where you need to draw lines to connect the pieces when offsetting a curve that is not closed?

But actually if you want to clean up those corners, you don't really need to draw in those extra lines at all, just leave it like this:



Then select all the pieces (with no extra line drawn in):



Run Edit/Trim. At the prompt which says "Select cutting objects or Done for mutual trim", just right-click or push the Done button - this signals that you will be using all the pieces to cut each other.

Then at the "Select pieces to remove" prompt, select these bits:



And right-click or push Done to remove those and clean up that intersection:




If you are just going to trim away those areas, there is no need to draw an extra line there to connect the open offset pieces.

- Michael

Hi Anis,

> It will be cool to have a architecture tools inside Moi in the feature,
> at least some basic tools like 2 lines / double line.

The thing that isn't so good is that a specialized double-line tool would not be able to do curved type outlines like I showed previously.

It seems like things could end up being more powerful and more generalized if instead I focused on making Offset handle more stuff within it, like capping and maybe automatic corner cleanup type stuff...

That would then let you more easily process any kind of curves in this way instead of only straight lines.

- Michael

Thanks Michael,
Doing all the stuff in 2d is the better process.

Thanks,
Burr

"It seems like things could end up being more powerful and more generalized if instead I focused on making Offset handle more stuff within it, like capping and maybe automatic corner cleanup type stuff...

That would then let you more easily process any kind of curves in this way instead of only straight lines."


I think that's a great idea, Michael!

I would love to see offset beefed up in that fashion.

-Will

Hi Aris,

>>I have look at Steve/Manz 3D Villa and looks very cool.

Thanks,

If you have any specific question (such as, how was a certain part made in MoI), then ask away, or, if you need help with a certain part, them post a pic or drawing so I or others can help show the various ways to build.


- Steve

Hi Steve...

First, would you like to give me a tips how you create wall of your villa ?

Thanks !!!

Hi All....

I just got info about this good architecture tutorials : http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/GeometriaInformaticaArquitectonica.html. I dont know yet exactly the content of tutorials, I am try to reading it now ( I dont understand spain language ). Just follow the pictures.

Hope this help...

Hi Anis,

>>First, would you like to give me a tips how you create wall of your villa ?

The main walls? Just as being shown on thread, drawing the main shape and then offsetting the lines for the wall thickness. Then boolean out for the windows etc


- Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your tips on how create the wall and window. I think it will be interesting to have door & window standard collections.

Here are the steps :

1. create window & door in 3dm
2. just import when we need window or door than do boolean

Do you know where I can find window and door collection that can be import to MoI ?

Thanks !

Hi Anis,

>>Do you know where I can find window and door collection that can be import to MoI ?

There are many free models on the internet, unfortunately most are usually in Obj or 3DS format so they cannot be imported directly into MoI. You would need to search about, I just build what I need.


- Steve

Hi Steve & All....

One of the solution I think is search for IGES library parts.
One of the great resource is www.3dcontentcentral.com Attached below is a window from those site. The cool thing is very editable inside MoI.
You can register for free ;)

Any body know another website that more specific for architecture library ?

Thanks !!!