Very often when I construct curve networks for a surface I need to reconnect curves that slided apart. But it seem to exist no convenient command for connecting them (moving the ends orthogonally (or perpendicular from & to). A single command should exist for doing this in one shot.
My typical workflow for doing this manually (a thousand times a day) :
Draw a Curve (orthogonally) from the Curve to be moved towards the target Curve
Connect the two curves with a curve (from Perpendicular to Perpendicular)
Move the source curve using SoftEditCrv (checking the curve length first), entire length
The command SoftEditCrv should have a default option to provide the length of the selected curve (now that takes an extra manual measurement + typing in the length (so it’s actually 5 steps in the above list).
Edit: As an extra option (not default though) the source curve could be cut at a point derived from the calculated intersection (from the arrow tip back to the source curve orthogonally to the right).
I plan to start learn doing some scripting, but not now because I’m still busy learning Rhino basics…
Hi Rolf - the problem I’m having, and it may be that I am just being dense again, but I do not yet see what the relationship between the input and the output is other than an arbitrary one. I don’t see what rules a command would follow, in other words.
The combination Orthogonal-Perpendicular is “deterministic”, and what I want. That pattern ends up in a predictable point, not arbitrary. So the “why” isn’t part of the example, only how.
So. the example only demonstrate how I moved the curve in that order/combination, not why.
Yes, in most cases yes (or more specifically, Ortho and then Perp/Perp between the helper line and the target line, as illustrated)
Often I also want to go Ortho - Ortho in order to hit the end point on the target curve. That makes two variants :
Source curve endpoint → Ortho - Perp/Perp → to target
Source curve endpoint → Ortho - Ortho → target
§2 is more difficult to hit though, so I tend to extrude the first Ortho curve down or up to the target curve, and then make a cut (in the target curve) to find the intersection point. BTW, why is the no such command, leaving a Point object behind where a curve intersects a surface?
Or is there another quicker way of finding the intersection for curve through surface?
Hi Rolf - Intersect should leave a point at the intersection of a curve and a surface.
I don’t see a graceful way of achieving what you want in Rhino as is… Back to the wish list…
Addition for the wish list: Since it takes multiple commands in a sequence before ending up with the final connection, there should actually be at least a third variant, namely direct Perp-Perp between the two curves
(Of course such a Line command option already exist, but not in sequence with the other commands that should do the rest of the magic to connect at that point, plus cleaning up of any helpers, of course)
Source curve endpoint –> Perp/Perp –> to target
Source curve endpoint –> Ortho - Perp/Perp –> to target
Can you point me to some existing VBScripts that contains some of the concepts involved here?
Examples could include option parameters, prompting for new keyboard values / mouse clicks / selected objects (curves/surfaces) / positions / lock screen / confirm/cancel command etc, then I can take a look at hacking my own command that does what I want. Perhaps there are some tutorials for getting started with script? (I have some experience in VBA and VBScript in addition to compiled languages).
