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View Full Version : how to make a baseboard...


zardoz
03-13-2006, 04:52 AM
Hi everyone.

First of all, I'm sorry if 'baseboard' isn't the correct name for this but I translated with babelfish from portuguese...

So what I want to know is if there is a way to do this in Lightwave the same way some of my friends do it in Max with 'Loft'.

In the attachments I have a simple example of this. I created 2point polygons that represent a wall (in picture MethA.jpg nº1 in black) and I want to 'Loft' the baseboard (the profile in blue). So this is kind of a rail extrude.

What I usually do is one of these two methods

MethA.jpg
I create a polygon and use bevel (3) to create the profile...the problem is that bevel doesn't have snap so I have to do it 'freely' and then I end up having to delete the excess polygons (4) and stretching the points in the edges of the baseboard (4 and 5).

MethB.jpg
I extrude the profile and then make several copies of it (1) and using pictrix snaptools (sp_move and sp_rotate) I snap these copies of the baseboard to the wall line. Then I have to use knife (2) to cut the corners (that's why in some other thread I requested a knife plugin with snap for line intersections) and then delete the excess polygons(3). Then, because knife has no snap I have to merge points with a fixed distance of 1 mm or so. What some times happen is that if I have a point in 10,0,3 just for example, and this point is exactly where I want it, when I merge points it can happen that this point will be merged with another in the vicinity of 1 mm and moving from where I want him to 1mm away...I know that this is not important but it's annoying (it's like an obsession...I have to go to theraphy to cure this I know...:help: )

So what I'm asking is: can I do this using something like rail extrude (I always get the corners messed up because concavity or convexity) or like the loft tool in max.

tx for reading.

kruemel_1
03-13-2006, 12:39 PM
You can modify your Methode A: use Rail Bevel, so you can use your background curve as bevelpath and don't have to do it free.

Edit: and not to forget the Profiler from LW-CAD (free if you take LW 9 upgrade :-), which will do exact what you want

zardoz
03-14-2006, 04:05 AM
well, I've been trying rail bevel and it's not quite what I'm looking for...

the profiler tool is more like what I want.

The thing is that extruding a curve in modeler is really simple, but when your curve has sharp corners, like 90º it gets harder to do....you'll have always some more work to do after. What I'm looking for is something that would detect the degree of the corners and extrude the profile accordingly.

but thanks for your tips.