Is it possible to convert several planar curves, in which all curve points lie in the xy plane, into surfaces or wide bands along their curve at the same time, whereby the exact width would be determined beforehand? Where left direction + right direction = total width would be, as I understand it.
If not, will the function be integrated in the future? It would really be very useful, for example for imported maps from Openstreetmap-org, where all roads are only shown as curves.
Suppose you have a lot of small curves, all planar to the xy plane, whose ends only almost touch each other. Would it still be possible to connect them to a longer curve, for example with a previously defined tolerance limit or something similar?
possible as a two step operation. First step would be the offset in both directions and capping into a closed polyline or polycurve. In a second step, the closed curves would be converted into surfaces.
This isn’t very complicated in Grasshopper but certainly also possible in Rhino. The question is whether pairs of two endpoints are merged into one point or whether the curves are connected with small segments?
The Ribbon command will do this in one step, but it is limited to picking one curve at a time. You would need a small script or Grasshopper to do this with multiple curves.
You could temporarily enlarge the absolute file tolerance before calling Join on the curves; but don’t forget to set it back after. Again a script can solve this - the scripted Join command allows one to set a joining tolerance.
Here is a script that will ribbon multiple closed or open planar curves. I adapted it from a multi offset script I had. I have not tested extensively, let me know if it works for you. Curves are offset both sides the given distance in their native curve plane and then surfaced with a planar surface, in the case of lines it uses the active CPlane. Previous settings are remembered within the same session.
@ Helvetosaur: Thanks for your help! I must try this.
Do I open this with Grasshopper? I’m still a beginner when it comes to Rhino. But thank you for that.
@Helvetosaur: Hey here is my feedback. The script for merging open curves works very well. But for the other script there is an error message.
Here is the message highlighted in red reads:
Message: Local variable ‘ro’ referenced before assignment.
Traceback:
line 17, in offsetCurve 2Sides, “C:\Users\slowh\OneDrive\Desktop\MultiCrvRibbon.py” line 30, in MultiCrvRibbon, “C:\Users\slowh OneDrive\Desktop\MultiCrvRibbon.py” line 96, in , “C:\Users\slowh\OneDrive\Desktop\MultiCrvRibbon.py”
OK, got it - was a bit hasty in typing this morning, sorry. Try deleting the script file on your desktop and re-downloading from the link in the post above - it should be fixed now.
