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Old 6th August 2006, 07:26 PM   #1
eldonb
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Question A Warp Function

Andy and Dennis,

I noticed in one of the examples or hints, see:
http://www.ac3d.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3686
Dennis used the "knife" plugin to generate a slope on a cylinder.

I have done similar things by rotating a set verts (one end of a cylinder) by some very small angle (i.e., .00001 degrees) and then using the normal edit handles to stretch (or warp) the group to the desired angle.

It occurs to me that nothing happen to the verts, if they are not rotated first (the edit handles do nothing) this must be some special (but common) condition in the AC3D program logic (the verts are "colinear" in some plane).

What about detecting this status and performing a "warp" using the verts centroid as a pivot point, rotate all selected verts by some very small angle, and then allowing the user to stretching them an required - as a standard AC3D edit handle warp action?

Modifing cylinders (and other complex objects with more then just top and bottom verts) to have sloping ends would be a snap!

I hope this explains it well enough?

I can see where this would be very useful, and I would use it often. I am sure I could find other uses also.

Thanks,
Eldon
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Old 6th August 2006, 09:29 PM   #2
Dennis
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Default Re: A Warp Function

Good one --- I actually kind of like your approach better than if we had a new resizing context --- very straightforward, elegant solution, actually!

I found it simple enough to do a 0.0001 degree numeric rotation then resize. Will have to remember this trick.

Not that a new tool to do the initial rotation for you would be necessarily unwelcome, but it would definitely have to be implemented in such as way as to not interfere with normal operations (i.e., I wouldn't want to accidentally warp when I wanted to resize).
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Old 16th August 2006, 11:55 PM   #3
GaryM
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Default Re: A Warp Function

This sounds like a very useful tip. Unfortunately, the link in eldonb's post now points to an unrelated thread, so it's not clear what effect it is intended to achieve. Is the "slope on a cylinder" this effect?

Also not clear under what conditions the edit handles "don't work."

??

Thx!
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Old 17th August 2006, 01:05 AM   #4
Dennis
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Default Re: A Warp Function

Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryM
This sounds like a very useful tip. Unfortunately, the link in eldonb's post now points to an unrelated thread, so it's not clear what effect it is intended to achieve.
Actually, it's sort of buried on page two of that thread --- here's a link directly to the post:

http://www.ac3d.org/forum/showpost.p...7&postcount=17

Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryM
Is the "slope on a cylinder" this effect?
Yep

Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryM
Also not clear under what conditions the edit handles "don't work."
I believe Eldon is referring to when all vertices in a selection are aligned on an axis, then resizing perpendicular to that axis won't do anything (since the "width" of the selection is zero).

HTH
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Old 17th August 2006, 02:51 AM   #5
GaryM
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Default Re: A Warp Function

Aha. The way I've been doing that is just:

1. Make a cylinder x=1, z=1, y=n (for ease of calculation --- you can scale the whole thing later).

2. Select the set of verts at the top of the cylinder.

3. Rotate those verts 45 degrees (or whatever angle you want).

4. That move will taper the cylinder, of course. So just numerically set the size of the box containing the selected verts back to 1,1,1.

You can repeat the operation to make pipe runs, etc. Rotate the verts back to vertical for the end, and again resize, but this time the x dimension (in this case) is set to 0.

The calcs are little more complicated for angles other than 45, but not much.

PS: Thanks for that knife tool, Dennis. I use it all the time. I'm still a noobie, but I expect to find uses for some of your other plugins eventually.
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Old 12th October 2006, 09:25 AM   #6
Tartarooga
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Default Re: A Warp Function

Hi just been reading your thread, I might be wrong in me interpritation of what you are doing. I have found another way to produce what you have produced using the extrude function, you can do this with any shape you want then extrude along a given path here is an image that I have done using this method see below image, and selecting the end verices end extrude edges to the centres.

Dave
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Old 12th October 2006, 09:44 AM   #7
Tartarooga
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Default Re: A Warp Function

My second one of a letter H
Dave
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