Cineversity

Hello,

I’m working on an arch viz project at the moment that has me modeling a few different archways. My intent was to build the arches with splines initially, where I’d then extrude these and cap the geometry so that they could then be added to a volume builder/mesher.

However, I’ve hit a bit of a snag getting the extruded splines to be successfully capped in the ways I am seeking.

I’ve pasted a link to my project file here for anyone who would like to take a look and help me understand where I may be going wrong with this endeavor.

Project file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GCISlK7o1Qk16rXd3XkpYh3itlOLwKuF/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!

Hi, helloimneil,

I have no access to your file. It might be simpler if you send links that you don’t like to have in public via PM here.

I will have a look at it when I get the file.

Cheers

Dr. Sassi,

My apologies, I forgot to change the share permissions for the link. I have no qualms with anyone online being able to access my project file, the asset contained within isn’t under an NDA or similar binding type of agreement against sharing.

Thank you for your time!

Here is your file back, helloimneil.

Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/MxOP1n7oJD2uTuID3bybxZ5r84AxKuRkIPGZQKXBNTw

What I did was first to Main Menu> Mesh> Spline> Explode some of the combined Splines, then Main Menu> Mesh> Spline> Reversed Direction where it was needed. The direction is visible by default by the pale bluish/white color gradient along the spline. After that was done, and all splines were in the right sequences, I merged via Object Manager> Object> Connect Objects all splines. After that, wherever two splines were not joint, I used the Main Menu> Mesh> Spline> Join Segments. Then I closed the Spline, Attribute Manager> Object> Close Spline.

With this clean Spline, the Extrude should work now fine.

Let me know if there is anything else, I’m happy to look into it.

My best wishes for your project

Dr. Sassi, per usual, thank you for you insights! I’m not rightly sure where I’d be without your guidance.

The procedure you outlined in your response has me scratching my head a bit. This is the first time I’ve encountered an issue with capping extrusions and as a result have very little knowledge concerning the ‘direction’ of splines.

If I’m interpreting the edited scene file you sent me correctly, it looks like the order of the splines (their blue to white gradation) should have the parts go from blue to white (or white to blue), but that the order (perhaps arbitrary?) should result in a spline’s gradation ending with blue/white, and any splines connected to it should have their starting color value (blue/white) be the inverse of the previous?

I hope I’m wording my clarifying question well enough.

I’m attempting to recreate your result on my end, for my own learning, another question that comes to mind is how can I determine which splines are not joined?

Helloimneil, please have a look at the screen capture. Download it perhaps to see the details.

Screen capture (one minute)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/DprA38gleHfkIhAUCDjpba3wGp6NjdRK1s1R4pAgi6B
The best results are given if the blue-white, blue-white, etc. rhythm is kept. The overall direction is not as important as the single segment direction is. To have a single clean Spline is the target.

Any spline that is not joint has a point where the color goes sharply from white to blue, or it is somewhere in a symmetrically gradient, in the middle of it. If the points are exactly on top of each other, and the Visible only is not checked in the Live Selection, then both points (vertices) will be selected. While that selection is given, go to the Structure Manager, Mode set to Points, and you will see that two entries are highlighted, not just one.
At the moment you use the Join command on these two vertices, the number of points in the Structure Manager is reduced by one.

If anything is left unclear, please ask, I’m happy to look into it. Any question asked here might be of interest to others as well, so please never hesitate to do so.

Cheers

Dr. Sassi,

I think I’m with you so far. The blue-white order makes sense to me now, however, I’m still having a little difficulty working out how you’ve joined the segments. I tried to follow along with the screen capture you sent over, but haven’t been able to reproduce the results with the archway spline.

In trying to see all of the points and blue-white gradients, I’ve got all of the splines selected in addition to having the ‘Points’ view active. When I click on a mutually shared point which connects the two and run the ‘Join’ command, nothing seems to happen. I’m not quite sure what I’m missing here.

Here is a link to a screenshot to give you some indication of where I’m at in this process: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13me274A7u9Oj9aGVPoI8ud1-h6jk8LYt/view?usp=sharing

Helloimneil,

Thanks for the image.
Points do not need to be on top of each other, but your set up had this, which I would suggest, as otherwise, you have very little initial control how the Join process creates the gap perhaps not to your liking. Example below:
Screen cpature
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/USIbXBSitNLCRMrw6TxijaCQdQq7ai8MAI4x6CTDnzY

I have set up another screen capture. I hope this will help to clear some details of the process. Typically the direction of the spline might work itself out, while the Join Segments command is used, but I find it allows for a much better workflow. As I mentioned above, if the two points are in the middle of any symmetrically blueish or whitish area, it will require some extra investigation where the connection might be needed.
Screen capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/KEHMLPfSRCrFvisgVbQpV0iDeKjUD8J5XHWHjPsH21Z

If there is anything left blurry, please let me know!

Enjoy

Dr. Sassi,

Great success! I was overlooking the ‘Structure’ tab—in fact, this was the first time I’ve ever used this menu before. Following along with your screen capture I was able to achieve the same result in the modified project file you sent me.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Thanks for the detailed feedback, helloimneil! Very nice of you.

I love the feeling when something finally clicks into my mind, I hope you had the same pleasure with it.

Let me know if there is anything else, as usual, I’m happy to look into it.

Enjoy