Will we see a 3-Rail Sweep Command Soon?

Hi,

Evolve has a multi rail sweep command. It produces a less than acceptable result for the oval sweep condition. It appears to me that getting a multi sweep command to produce the anticipated results for a range of conditions might be too big an ask. I would hate to see another underwhelming command like network surf.

The problem with multiple rails is math.

Take one rail and you get a series of exact frames (position and rotation) for the interpolation of sections. You can decide how to interpolate the sections if they vary along the path (linear, quadratic,…).

Take two rails and you get a series of morphs (position, rotation and scale) for the interpolation of the sections. In addition to the interpolation strategy between varying section curves, you need to decide how find your positions along both rails to make sense.

Now take three rails and you essentially get a non uniform transformation. There are different strategies as to how to find that transformation that involve finding the corresponding positions along three rails. Each strategy may produce widely different results. Whatever strategy you decide, some people will find the results “less than acceptable”. You could expose the various options to the user but then you are guaranteed to hear people complain about the complexity and how they “just want to do a simple 3 rail sweep”…

Long story short: the mathematics involved in multi rails demand a lot of trade-offs if you want to keep the interface simple. Basically networkSrf is just another approach to a multi rail. It finds a solution but due to the complexity of the task, not everybody will be totally happy with the results.

3 Likes

Thanks,

This is all a big help. I’ll see what we can do to get it on the schedule.

Right now all of the geometry gurus are focused on other issues, but that doesn’t mean they won’t get to this in their spare time (between 2-6AM).

Thanks again.

3 Likes

How come they even know the meaning of “spare time”?

1 Like