Flip planes to Mesh Normal

Hi

I would like to flip these planes according to the normals of the mesh. The planes have different z-normals and move in different directions when using the planes as a vector. When using the mesh normals they all go in the same direction.

How can I flip the plane z.direction so that they all point away or into the tubular mesh like the mesh normals?

Thanks
(No plugins have been used)


Flip Planes.gh (132.6 KB)

Your code sprawls over a very large area, which makes it hard to understand. I know you want to use mesh plane normals for some reason*(?)*, but I kept it simple (as usual) and used the initial brep (white group), before it was turned into a mesh. I’ll look at the mesh later.


Flip Planes_2025Feb1a.gh (131.7 KB)

P.S. On second thought, I don’t care to rot my brain trying to understand your complicated code so if simple doesn’t work for you, you’re on your own. Good luck and have fun.

Thank you! I’m sure ill make this work!

I tried to understand your mesh code but it quickly gets too complex for my taste. One thing I noticed was your “normal” lines start at edge midpoints instead of face centers, as mine did :question:

Yes, they are supposed to be connectors. The point is to extrude these lines inwards as planarly as possible. Hence the planes, the planes are the way they are because it will not work unless the extrude according the the position of the line

It would really help if your descriptions were clearer. “as planarly as possible” isn’t adequate.

Why use a mesh? KEEP IT SIMPLE :bangbang:


Flip Planes_2025Feb1b.gh (135.3 KB)

I haven’t heard any explanation for why you are using a mesh, so deleted all of that.

This version places face normal planes at the midpoint of each face edge and aligns them with that edge.


Flip Planes_2025Feb1c.gh (130.2 KB)

P.S. Added Line SDL (highlighted) to show each plane’s Z direction.


Flip Planes_2025Feb1cc.gh (130.7 KB)

Can anyone please tell me how to enable plane icons’ Z vector? Somehow I disabled that and can’t find the way to make it visible again?

Hi, yeah, maybe I am not supposed to use a mesh, a brep will probable work ok. And “planarly as possible” is probable not a phrase that maybe makes much sense come to think of it.

This is what I want to do, I have accomplished it using a code that you rightly point out is too complex. The planes should be aligned with the connection curves, and then extruded inwards. So, the planes that I used on the original file, are aligned with the connection points. I just need to make sure they point the same way

Your code seems to put two planes on each connection
The connections are basically one curve on each triangle connected with the meeting triangle and joined together

One for each adjacent face. Some of them shouldn’t be there, at top and bottom edges.


Flip Planes_2025Feb1d.gh (134.9 KB)

Sorry to bail when we’re having so much fun but I need a break.

1 Like

This looks good, ill work with this, Thank you

One last hurrah - this purple group culls (removes) planes at top and bottom edges.


Flip Planes_2025Feb1e.gh (139.5 KB)

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This works great! Thank you!

Hi,
Just a follow up question. If I want to use the point on the triangle connecting the incircle shapes rather than the mid point of the triangle edges, how can I find and use that point in the same manner, and get the z-planes like in the previous code.

I got this point pulling it from the hexagonal edges below the triangles, but can’t find a way to get that same point using the triangle brep edges.



Flip Planes incircles.gh (27.2 KB)

I don’t understand, but can see that you ignored the code I posted yesterday, so… :roll_eyes:

I did not ignore your code, I used it and got exactly what i wanted, it was great! I just deleted some of it to make it simpler since I focused on the incircles, but here is the code I used from you :
Armbad custom Long Optimized.gh (278.0 KB)

What I meant is that the incircles have a more natural connection point than the triangle. The mid-point of the triangle is not where the incircles “meet”. The idea would be to just move the planes to where the incircles meet.

Did you understand it? I see no “incircles” in the first code you posted today. Didn’t bother to look at ‘Armbad custom Long Optimized.gh’. Feels like I wasted my time yesterday and don’t care to waste any more.

Not at all wasted! I managed to get the final design out of it! This is just a another design using incircles instead of triangles. But its fine, ill find another way

Starting with the last version I posted Saturday (Flip Planes_2025Feb1e.gh) and ignoring what you posted yesterday, I believe I’ve got something close to what you want?

I have a slider to cull adjacent incircles that are too far apart. Unfiltered distances range from 0.000016 To 0.284613. You can see some of the large separations here:

You can also see that in cases where separations are large, the plane pairs are skewed so creating a hinge axis is problematic.

I managed to get what i wanted here, although in a relativly complex way, they are connected based on the circles proximity to one another, but they connect via the triangle.

The only problem here is that the box does not work properly.


Proximity 2.gh (137.7 KB)

Sorry, I see no value in reading your code.



InCircles_2025Feb3a.gh (38.4 KB)

I discovered an internalized half torso mesh buried in your code:

And realized your real goal might be chain mail? It’s been done several times on this forum: