profiler path tool

[Anonymous]

I would like to see (for lack of a better name) a profiler path tool. How I would imagine it being used is that you could define a path using something like a polyline. Each node could be assigned an elevation, such that when you use profiler one could chose this path to create elements that have the defined profile shape, but which also have the ability to change in elevation.

[Dwight]

CadImage and ArchiForma both provide iterations of this now, but I agree that this is a feature that should be a part of the basic ArchiCAD tools.

However, the command used to create these level-changing profiles is a poor one that distorts the section of the profile attempting to adapt to extreme direction changes, so it is inappropriate for accurate work.

For instance, trying to make a fascia board profile travel around a gable roof of some significant slope will result in a distorted board. So you are still limited by the commands available internally to making the gable end board separate from the long boards. In fact, any level-changing profile should be segmented if it is to be true.

[Anonymous]

I believe the new 3D Profiler tool available around March 1st will do what you have described.


Grant

[Dwight]

Of course, more-or-less.

the challenge is in solving the code limitation of turning corners, say, for what I think will be a typical assignment for the profiler tool : gable end fascia.

I might add that the CADImage product will radius itself at corners to modulate the distortion - appropriate for handrails....

The attached image looks downward at gable fascia boards and shows three ways of making a profiled gable end:

-- on the left a continuous fascia turing into a gable - in reconciling the turn, the section distorts. trust me, it does..
-- in the middle, a simple three node profile - the profile ends perpendicular to the tilt angle - won't meet up with the eave board.
-- the final solution resolves the issue by providing some run-on for the TUBE command so that the gable end might meet up with the edge board. I made the terminator the size of the edge board, but it could be very tiny. Just a way to trim the end of the board to the vertical.

This is why the profiler function is limted - not that there aren't the dreaded workarounds...

Are you guys with me on this? Am I making sense?

[LiHigh]

Dwight wrote:
Of course, more-or-less.

the challenge is in solving the code limitation of turning corners, say, for what I think will be a typical assignment for the profiler tool : gable end fascia.

I might add that the CADImage product will radius itself at corners to modulate the distortion - appropriate for handrails....

The attached image looks downward at gable fascia boards and shows three ways of making a profiled gable end:

-- on the left a continuous fascia turing into a gable - in reconciling the turn, the section distorts. trust me, it does..
-- in the middle, a simple three node profile - the profile ends perpendicular to the tilt angle - won't meet up with the eave board.
-- the final solution resolves the issue by providing some run-on for the TUBE command so that the gable end might meet up with the edge board. I made the terminator the size of the edge board, but it could be very tiny. Just a way to trim the end of the board to the vertical.

This is why the profiler function is limted - not that there aren't the dreaded workarounds...

Are you guys with me on this? Am I making sense?

Yeah.........TUBE command is LIMITED.
I hope GS should look into making another way of doing this better.

[Anonymous]

Dwight, what is your assessment of the best tool for gable fascias and especially for intersection the gable fascia with the hip fascia.

I think the options are:
3D Profiler
CadImage
Archiforma

I am in need of a product to do just this.

Thanks,

Grant

[Dwight]

The three products work about the same for a gable end, and can make a vertical chop of the board if you add the extra control nodes as in my last image.

The difference is that ArchiForma needs a polyline set out first, then extrudes a fill you draw, while CADImage uses a saved shape that you extrude, entering node heights individually as you go.

I am contacting Orbit to see about how they are doing it these days, but last year their product had similar behavior.

Just don't turn sharp corners. Handrails are probably a better test than a gable end.

Sorry to not be more helpful. The ArchiForma tool is quite versatile and brings many more refining tools in its kit - like the easy rotate, the edge rounder and the calf-roper that every Western architect needs.

[David Collins]

Dwight wrote:
However, the command used to create these level-changing profiles is a poor one that distorts the section of the profile attempting to adapt to extreme direction changes, so it is inappropriate for accurate work.
...For instance, trying to make a fascia board profile travel around a gable roof of some significant slope will result in a distorted board. .

I also agree that the profiler is not a serious tool for this kind of extrusion work, but isn't this roof eave distortion issue a real world problem?

The TUBE command hates it when you ask it to change the angle of the path in more than one axis at the same time. But carpenters hate it just as much. TUBE, being something of an idiot savant, is just trying to obey its masters, hence the distortion.

The only way this ArchiForma stone cornice can maintain the same profile, turn that corner and follow the roof pitch is to run flat for a bit after turning the corner. If you slice the sloping part on the vertical, its profile is elongated by some pythagorean factor, so there's no way it can join with the horizontal part. Or am I missing your point, Dwight?

Anyway, the flat corner bit makes a handy spot for a bit of sculpture.

[Dwight]

MOO.

I am observing that there is an issue if any profiler user feels that the tool is magic. Sort of like fairy dust from Tinkerbell's wand, creating perfect profiles that maintain their section through any transformation.

It is practical to break the profile at certain points - not at all as implied by the idea of the tool.

[Haneef Tayob]

Mike wrote:
I would like to see (for lack of a better name) a profiler path tool. .

Just to reiterate Mike's wish more than a year later.

I'd be over the moon If Graphisoft can really overhaul and introduce the profiler as part of standard tools.

I'm not a great fan of having to everytime save and resave profiles as separate gdl objects whenever you need to adjust the path or profile.