To Michael Gibson,

Is it possible to control the History associated with a Curve?

Specifically I would like to remove location and orientation parameters of a Curve while retaining the the geometry parameters with its History. So that I can adjust the shapes of already distributed children Curves by adjusting points on the one parent Curve.

Thanx
Ivan

P.S.
Love your work

Hi Ivan, sorry no currently there isn't any way set up to edit individual parameters of the history, that is something that I want to add in the future though.

For now what you are describing wanting more granular control, you might want to check out the node editor:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8197.1

- Michael

Thanx for quick reply Michael,

"...you are ... wanting more granular control"

Granular control is not what I'm looking for, yet.
What I am looking for is either:

1) A way to quickly change a profile of a Loft/Sweep surface applied over a twisted rail curve. Maybe like 'Find and Replace' command in text editors, but for profile curves
and/or
2) An easier way to smooth-out the kinks in a Loft/Sweep surface applied over a twisted rail curve.
Rail curves that are created with the ToroidalHelix command for example.

In my brief experience with MoI, to achieve a controlled, smooth-even, surface over a complex 3D curve I must carefully adjust the position and orientation of a minimum of Four profile curves for each loop. Applied over a Twenty loop Toroidal Helix, equates to Eighty adjustments (made easier with Cplane_Change script and Transform Array command, of course)
Then come the inevitable and desirable variations of the created profile surface/solid. And then I realize I only need a Twelve loop TorHelix... you get the drift.

My next experiments with facing twisted curves is to apply the face over the 'V' direction as opposed to 'U' as I have been doing up to now. may be that will be easier to edit.

"...you might want to check out the node editor..."
Love the MaxS Nodeeditor. But i don't have enough experience/understanding to achieve a planed result.

Thanx
Ivan

P.S.
"... edit individual parameters of the history ... I want to add in the future..."
When :D ?

Hi Ivan, can you post a 3DM model file that shows your curves and your current resulting surface? That would help to better understand the stuff that you are describing.

Right now you can't replace one profile curve with another but you can edit a profile curve's control points and have the surface update from that.

> > "... edit individual parameters of the history ... I want to add in the future..."
> When :D ?

Sorry, I don't really know when it will happen, it might be a part of a major overhaul of history functionality which will involve a lot of work.

- Michael

Hello Michael,

I have had reasonable success with controlling and editing the profiles while working along the HelTor curve (V direction I think).
So no stress at this point.

However, attached are two .3dm(s).
From the TorHel good.3dm file you can see how much work is involved in constuction and editing of the Eight loop solid.
As opposed to the easy fails.

Thanx
Ivan

Hi Ivan, I'd probably recommend using "auto place" mode for Sweep combined with history. That will allow you to place the sweep profiles off flat on the Top world xy plane and so they're a lot easier to adjust. Auto-place mode is engaged for sweep if the sweep profiles are located outside of the rail's bounding box.

To set it up, you'd place 8 profiles in a left-to-right sequence, the exact spacing of them doesn't matter they will get distributed evenly along the rail. So something like this, using the Freeform type rotation:


Now after you have finished the sweep, you can select each profile and use the edit frame rotation control to quickly tweak each lobe until it has a better rotation, this is just after a couple minutes or so here:


- Michael

Michael you legend!
cant wait to give this a twist :)

Thanx
ivan