Hi all,

Happy 2014!

I would like to know how to make dips in each mesh in the diagram. The dots indicate the centre of each shape. The problem is if I loft from the shape to the dot the surface is very angular as it follows the sides of each polygon. How do I make a smooth dip in each polygon which does not have any angles... kind of like a hammock!

Thanks for your help..

Gunter

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You could try centering circles on the points and include them in the Loft to help smooth the shape.


Martin.

Select polygon -> Extrude (cap ends off) -> Nsided

Can you post an example 3dm file?

Thanks very much Max. I can't seem to get it right though..

Here goes Burrman..

Thanks Martin.. will try that.

Hi Gunter,

> Thanks very much Max. I can't seem to get it right though..

For n-sided to work, you need to make sure to select surface edges and not the original generator curves. If your original curves are right in the same location as the surface edges you need to select, then hide the curves so they won't get in the way of selecting edges.

So you want to have an extrusion like this with a set of edges selected like this (again, the key thing is these are _edges_ selected here, not the original generator curve objects):



Then when you run Construct > NSided you will get this kind of result:



Those will have some angularity right in the immediate neighborhood of the sharp corner but it gets nice and smooth as it travels a little ways away from it.

- Michael

Nsided works. Have to adjust bulge to approximate point.

Here is a try with a conic of revolution, some projected circles, and a loft:

-Brian

Hey Michael,

Thanks for the clarification. It works!

Thanks so much.
Gunter

Hey Michael,

So it works really well. However, I realised that I have to do each polygon individually. If I select more than one, it doesn't work. is there a way to do all simultaneously? There are a ton of polygons and doing
each one individually will take forever.

Thanks again,
Gunter

Mine didn't work. I was going for tangency through the surface... Too much work...

Hi Gunter, sorry currently there isn't any way to do it as a batch type operation, n-sided only works right now on one patch area at a time.

How many polygons do you have to do?

One thing that may speed up selection a bit is to do the extrusion as a solid, then delete the top face. Now you can use the "Select naked edges" script to select all the target edges with one keypress instead of directly selecting them. That should speed up the worst part of it. You can set up the select naked edges script on a shortcut key as described here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6051.2

- Michael

Michael. Have you thought about making a way to have window selection perform a drill down selection?

Hi Gunter, so maybe give this a try - you can select all the polygons and extrude them at once to produce a bunch of extruded solids. Right after doing that, the generator curves are still selected and either delete or hide those to get them out of the way.

Now to open up the top or bottom of those extrusions, go to the Scene browser, Types section. On the entry there for "Faces" hold down the Ctrl key and left-click on the selection dot area on the far right hand side of the item (as described here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4438.21). A little filter icon will appear. This activates a selection filter on this item which means that only faces will be targeted for selection while this is set. You can now go to the Front or Right side elevation views and do a window select (starting on the left and dragging the mouse towards the right, that makes things only completely contained inside the window to be targeted) around the top or bottom area of those extrusions. Now just those top or bottom faces will be selected and you can now hit Delete to delete all of those. Now push Escape to clear the selection filter.

So now that has prepared each extrusion with naked edges to be targeted. A small customized script can help with the targeting - this script will look for a selected "joined surface" object (like one of these open ended extrusions that you've just created), switch selection to its naked edges and then run the nsided command. Then you need to right-click or push enter to finish the command and then click the next extrusion, push the shortcut key again, push enter or right-click to finish the nsided command, etc... This still needs individual actions for each piece but it's narrowed down to a click on an extrusion and then a keypress and another click for building each one. It should go pretty quickly. Probably do it in the Top view so it's easier to click on each extrusion.

To set up the helper script, go to Options > Shortcut keys and add a new shortcut key, and paste in the following for the Command part of the key (on the right-hand side):

script: /* nsided helper script */ var breps = moi.geometryDatabase.getSelectedObjects().getBreps(); if ( breps.length == 1 ) { var brep = breps.item(0); moi.geometryDatabase.deselectAll(); brep.getNakedEdges().setProperty( 'selected', true ); moi.command.execCommand( 'nsided' ); }

- Michael

Hi Burr,

> Michael. Have you thought about making a way to have window selection perform a drill down selection?

Yup, already done! ;)

The trick is to set a selection filter (Ctrl click the selection dot on the right hand side) on the Types > Faces entry in the scene browser. Once that is set all selection actions including window selection will only target faces directly. It's like being already "drilled in" to every object. The same thing works for edges as well.

So for example once that is set, you can do one strategic window select (use the "start on left and move towards the right" type of window that only targets things completely inside the window, right-to-left targets anything that intersects it) from the side view to select the top or bottom end cap faces and delete them.

Don't forget to Ctrl click on it again or just push Escape to clear the filter right after you're done using it, you don't want to forget that those are active.

- Michael

Just saw you above response. That's it. I haven't eaten at the filter buffet yet. I keep forgetting to get a plate! Good stuff.

Thanks very much Michael. I will give this a try.
Gunter