I need help with a rib builder I'm trying to build. I know there is the grillage fabricator out there but i want mine to behave a little differently. And i promise to share the definition once i've finished.
So my problem is;
I have divided the geometry in the x and y as curves. So i have these curves and i want to lay them out flat on a sheet in the x & y plane. But for some reason i can't get it to work.
So i need help with this. Any ideas.
I want to lay out these curves first and then i plan on offsetting them, closing them and then adding the notching. I think this way is better because it will enable me to chop up any free form surface and make a rib type construction with the laser cutter.
So your help would be most appreciated. Attached is a model file and also the start of the definition.
I think your grillage fabricator would work better if you set such a thing up. Or at least a version of your grillage fabricator that can do this…because sometimes when i use your fabricator if it is just a free flow surface with no depth / thickness the rib components are not quite what you want.
Permalink Reply by taz on November 23, 2009 at 10:59am
I agree with you, but I was attempting to make the definition as generic as possible.
This issue is this:
If you want to create a rib/waffle/grillage from a polysurface with a constant offset, Rhino/GH will only offset each individual surface and these surfaces may or may not intersect. Rhino/GH doesn't do "Shelling".
This becomes problematic (for me anyway...) when taking sections (curves for cutting) and determining notch locations (from intersecting planar surfaces created from the section curves) .
Extruding is much nicer/easier since it will automatically work with polysurfaces and produce a closed BRep.
So for the general case (if a constant offset is required) its easier if the user manually offsets all surfaces, cleans up the geometry, and then slices-and-dices a closed BRep.
I could set up an offset option for the special case of a single surface, but that could still produce problematic conditions that would have to be solved on a case by case basis.
I'm not sure if that makes sense, but the summary is this: Since Rhino/GH doesn't do shelling it would be a lot of work to put together a definition that would always work for any polysurface.
"So for the general case (if a constant offset is required) its easier if the user manually offsets all surfaces, cleans up the geometry, and then slices-and-dices a closed BRep."