Monday 17 August 2009

User Defined Profile Libraries

I've just uploaded a new version of the Structural Drawing Plug-in with plenty of improvements. I'm preparing to post a detailed tutorial showing how these new tools could be implemented to model the Beijing Water Cube, so watch this space.

The plug-in can now use profile libraries defined by the user. These are simply created by creating (or copying) rhino files into the plug-in sub-folder at C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\GeometryGym\UserProfiles\ or C:\Users\USER\Application Data\GeometryGym\UserProfiles\  (Note folder may be hidden, and is now reported on the Manage Tab of the main StructDrawRhino dialog). There's an example file there showing some numbers and letters as example profiles (you'll find them now listed in the selection drop down boxes). You can create as many collections of profiles as you like, and they will be grouped by filename (First Selection Box), layer name (Second Selection Box) and object name (Third selection box). The profiles must be located in the model YZ plane, and the origin is used as the default insertion point. A curve can be used to define a simple singular profile, or if it has voids, add it as a planar surface.



The files should allow easily to share and collate your profiles, let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements. Note that if you later rename either the file, layer or object, it will have to be reassigned. Another quick tip, the profiles are now assigned by dragging the first button over your model view (instead of clicking the button as per the previous release).

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