Creating an Insert Point for an Element

VisualARQ
1

I’ve not been able to get any points to show up in the “Insert Point” dropdown list when creating a VA Element Style from a GH definition

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Is there a specific component that needs to be utilized in the GH definition to make this work? I’ve tried creating points within the definition and referencing points. I’ve just been drawing my reference geometry so that it is positioned near the origin, but that is kind of limiting.

Can someone show me an example? Thanks.

2

Hi @tomh,

You need to use a Point Param component inside the definition, and it should be connected, as disconnected params are ignored.

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Regards,

Enric

3

Thanks Enric. I’m still unable to get anything to show up in the drop down. I created a dumb GH definintion to use as an Element style, just to try and get a feel for how this works. I created a box and tried to utilized one of it’s vertices as the insertion point. Can you show me what I’m missing here?

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image.png1091×515 29.6 KB

ExampleForInsertionPoint.gh (5.1 KB)

4

Hi @tomh,

The point parameter must be a input parameter, like the X Size or Y Size on your definition. Then, VisualARQ will fill this input point with the insert point of the element.

Enric

5

  1. So the point can’t be created in the definition, it needs to be a point referenced in from Rhino? Fair enough.

  2. In this example, what component would I connect that pt parameter to? That’s the part I’m not getting.

6

Hi @tomh,

No, it’s not a referenced point. I’m going to try to explain hoy VisualARQ GH Elements work: Each time you create a VisualARQ element that uses a GH definition, VisualARQ will evaluate the definition to get the resulting geometry. Before the definition is evaluated, all input parameters are filled with the information the user entered in VisualARQ.

Element styles can be created using a input point parameter or not. If you don’t create a input point parameter, the definition needs to create all geometry centered in the (0, 0, 0) position (as the definition cannot know where the geometry will be inserted), and VisualARQ then will move all geometry to the position where the element is inserted. At the contrary, if you specify an input point parameter, as the definition already knows where the geometry needs to be, VisualARQ will just insert the geometry without transforming it.

Specifying an input point is useful if the geometry is dependant on the 3D position. There are very rare cases where this is useful.

I guess you probably don’t need the input point.

Enric

7

Enric-

I was thinking this worked like setting a base point on a block, but I now see that it isn’t. Thanks for clarifying.