Hi Crusoe,

> Well, it's hard to remember what XYZ mean, is it screen relative, or relative to global coordinates?

It is relative to the grid of the view you click in. This is so that it is possible to do 2D arrays relative to different views, like do a 2D array in the front view.

For the next beta I've added a new array tool, array "Dir". This lets you create a single-column linear array, based off of 2 points that you pick. The distance between the points is the array spacing, and it goes in the direction between the 2 points.

This might be a little easier for some situations since it responds in a direction that you pick yourself.

- Michael

Hi Michael. That's strange that your output is always polysurfaces. By default, all the surfacing tools now output creased surfaces. As far as i know, there is no option to disable it. And it works for G0 polycurves also (a kink will produce a crease in the surface). Been this way for many betas, as far as i remember...

jonah

Hi Jonah,

> By default, all the surfacing tools now output creased surfaces.

This is only on your own individual Rhino copy due to a non-default registry setting:
http://news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnewsweb.exe?cmd=article&group=rhino&item=236335&utag=

A regular default install will not behave that way.

It looks like a few others ran into it accidentally, there must have been some bug that randomized settings a bit during repeated V4 beta new version installs or something...

Historically there have been various problems with having kinked single surfaces in Rhino, for example anything involving intersections used to not work properly with them. It looks like most of that has been solved, but there still can be a couple of side-effects from using them: http://news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnewsweb.exe?cmd=article&group=rhino&item=236264&utag= , and some other things just aren't really made with them in mind yet, for instance explode will not blow a kinked surface into separate faces which you would normally expect to be able to do...

- Michael

Well, that's what Bob Ross used to call a "happy accident"...

Funny i have the same problem on both of my computers. there is a command called "DivideAlongCreases" which creates an edges along each crease. So i mapped that to CTRL+D for quick "uncreasing" when i need to do fillets. If this is a registry mistake, i certainly don't want to fix it.... :)

jonah

Hi Michael,

>>...is there anything specific that you can pinpoint that makes it feel non-intuitive to you?

Maybe, I used an inapt word to describe it, but...
I think it is because (1) I must enter the number of copies first and (2) command doesn't allow me to rearrange the spacing and/or change a number of copies (it just terminates after entering all necessary data).
I would like to make a rectangular array using this workflow:
-Select a object to array
-Draw a rectangle or box to define a spacing
-The prompt with input field of default number of copies would appear along with points that would stand for a corner of cell (number of points would correspond to prompt's default number of copies)
-Now, I could change the number of copies either by typing value in the input fields or draging something like the corner grip (grips(?)) so rows or/and columns would (dis)appear according to previous given spacing.



Petr

Hi Petr, that's an interesting idea.

One potential problem is that I think that many people may think the grip was a way to change spacing instead of a way to change the number of items. If you grabbed the grip and moved it only a small amount (not enough to go another row), nothing visibly would change as a result of moving it... That could be a bit confusing.

How does it happen that you want to do an array but don't know the number of items that you want?

Is it because you have more of an area in mind that you want to have filled in? Sort of almost like filling in a hatch pattern or something?

- Michael

Hi Michael,


>>One potential problem is that I think that many people may think the grip was a way to
>>change spacing instead of a way to change the number of items.
>>If you grabbed the grip and moved it only a small amount (not enough to go another row),
>>nothing visibly would change as a result of moving it... That could be a bit confusing.

So "typical" grip could be for changing spacing and another type of grip (we have two kind of grips now - for scaling the image and for rotating the one) for extending the included area "discretely".


>>Is it because you have more of an area in mind that you want to have filled in?

Perhaps yes. I think it is quite useful. For example a dish drainer or a bathroom mat are this kind of stuff... You want to fill some area with objects while searching for a "form", i.e. spacing and number of copies. Anyway, the new Array-Dir command seems quite helpful from that point of view.


Petr

> So "typical" grip could be for changing spacing and another type of
> grip (we have two kind of grips now - for scaling the image and for
> rotating the one) for extending the included area "discretely".

That could work. But it is a bit difficult to think of what an "extend area" grip should look like.

Another possibility would be some mode switch drop-down in the command UI area, that would change what the grips did - either changing spacing or changing the area . I don't think that I'll be able to experiment with these right now though, this will have to wait for a future version.


> You want to fill some area with objects while searching for a "form", i.e.
> spacing and number of copies.

For this purpose I was thinking it might be better to be able to select a pre-drawn 2D curve as the area for the array to fill. This could be something that you would do instead of specifying number of copies, there could be a "select area curve" button on the same UI that asks for number of copies, and if you pushed it you would then be prompted to select a boundary curve instead (and I guess pick a base point), before going to the spacing stage. But again I don't think I'll have time to work on this for V1 though.


> Anyway, the new Array-Dir command seems quite helpful from that point of view.

Yeah, I was thinking this new one should give you more of an interactive feel like you were looking for, so for V1 that should help out for this kind of form experimenting.

- Michael

>>For this purpose I was thinking it might be better to be able to
>>select a pre-drawn 2D curve [...] But again I don't think I'll have
>>time to work on this for V1 though.

Nice... Yep, we let idea mature... -Petr

Question: I am a little confused :)

Hi Pilou, that's a bug - the "Pick base point" is supposed to be hidden there. This is fixed for the next beta now.

Thanks for reporting it and for paying such close attention to the UI!

- Michael