topic Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp in Modeling

HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2023 15:05:58 GMT

has anyone ever created a custom curved ramp in the history of archicad?? it would be the achievement of the century if i could do it just once for an important project i'm working on.

i know archicad has a curved ramp tool but it only lets you follow a circular path not a custom one.

of course you can create a custom curved path as i have done using spline and then slab or mesh tool but this is not a ramp until one end is higher than the other.

I basically want this ramp to go from say 0 - 6 metres high at a uniform gradient.

i have tried objective (much of my hair was pulled out trying to get it to do what i wanted) but my conclusion is that the 'regular profile' does not, will not and never has any intention of following a 'defined' path you give it... only the path that regular profile wants to follow.

i could raise every randomly spaced mesh point individually calculating how high to raise each point each time... this would take 78,000 light years and i have only 2 days to figure it out.

any help is greatly greatly appreciated!!

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

adzik — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:40:25 GMT

I think ArchiForma should be able to handle this kind of ramp.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:42:42 GMT

I think, with Meshtool and SE you can make your ramp.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:08:53 GMT

Markus wrote:
I think, with Meshtool and SE you can make your ramp.

what's SE? solid element operations? how?? I've considered this but can't see how it would possibly work

your clarification would be of great assistance!

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

adzik — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:39:58 GMT

You can do it with Mesh and SEO. Here's how:

1. Create polylines that mark the contour of the ramp. Duplicate them and then create two separate meshes. The first part should end a little before the ramp crosses itself for the second time so you wouldn't get any errors about intersections etc.

2. Magic wand the two meshes inside the contours. This makes sure that you have a minimal number of points on the mesh.

3. Offset one of the polylines to create a centerline for the ramp.

4. Open the Element Information panel (Window/Palettes/Element Information).

5. Select the centerline and note its length from the EI panel.

6. Split the centerline into separate parts (Explode into current view) and then starting from either end of the ramp select one part of the exploded polyline and check its length from the EI panel. With a few simple math equations (think percentages) you should be able to get the needed amount of elevation for that specific point on the mesh.

7. Elevate the meshpoints according to your calculations. Rinse and repeat.

8. When done Elevate a copy of the meshes downward as much as needed and then SEO the meshes separately and place the operators on a hidden layer.

9. Voila!

Hope this helps

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:40:16 GMT

If you use the mesh tool with equal spacing of the contours you can then increment the elevations falrly easily. What you are running into, partly, is the inherent difficulty of what you are attempting.

Keep in mind that it is impossible to maintain equal slope over any curved ramp as the inside and outside slopes will vary. This can be quite extreme on tight ones. Imagine the inside and outside handrails of a spiral (helix) stair. Where the outside rail could rise 7" in a 16" run the inside rail will have to rise the same amount in a fraction of the distance. The inner handrails in some old castle stairs I've seen get quite close to vertical.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:43:09 GMT

adzik wrote:
You can do it with Mesh and SEO. Here's how:

1. Create polylines that mark the contour of the ramp. Duplicate them and then create two separate meshes. The first part should end a little before the ramp crosses itself for the second time so you wouldn't get any errors about intersections etc.

2. Magic wand the two meshes inside the contours. This makes sure that you have a minimal number of points on the mesh.

3. Offset one of the polylines to create a centerline for the ramp.

4. Open the Element Information panel (Window/Palettes/Element Information).

5. Select the centerline and note its length from the EI panel.

6. Split the centerline into separate parts (Explode into current view) and then starting from either end of the ramp select one part of the exploded polyline and check its length from the EI panel. With a few simple math equations (think percentages) you should be able to get the needed amount of elevation for that specific point on the mesh.

7. Elevate the meshpoints according to your calculations. Rinse and repeat.

8. When done Elevate a copy of the meshes downward as much as needed and then SEO the meshes separately and place the operators on a hidden layer.

9. Voila!

Hope this helps

Nice work!

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Dwight — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:38:06 GMT

All that i can add is to suggest defining the ramp using a sinuous wall with the multi-segment wall tool and pet palette. This will provide the optimum number of control nodes to trace the overhead meshes.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:45:58 GMT

nimai2 wrote:
i have tried objective (much of my hair was pulled out trying to get it to do what i wanted) but my conclusion is that the 'regular profile' does not, will not and never has any intention of following a 'defined' path you give it... only the path that regular profile wants to follow.

Please don't ever start tearing your hair out over any of our software! If you're having any problems, just contact Encina directly - our customers will attest that we provide good support.

The regular profile object is designed to map onto a single arc. You would need to use several placed in series to create this ramp. You might want to create a custom profile for the ramp too (using OBJECTiVE > Component > New Profile). Referring to the attached image, you could create the ramp by the following steps:

1. Draw the centre-line of the ramp using the poly-line tool.

2. Place a segment of the ramp profile across each arc in the path (use the method to place by angle and length - it's really quick).

3. Use the Bend tool (OBJECTiVE > Tools > Bend) to shape each segment to the curve.

4. Set the correct rise for each segment. If you explode the polyline, you can calculate the segment rise by dividing the arc length by the length of the entire polyline and multiplying it by the overall rise (you can get these lengths from the Element Info palette).

5. The finished result in 3D

If you use a custom profile for the ramp, it can be instantly changed at any time.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:07:40 GMT

If you have Objective, this may seems too simple, but there is a
Rampes Courbes in the Accueil site, that helped me with ramps.
Simple but effective.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:52:17 GMT

i will try some of these approaches. thanks for your help!

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Rakela Raul — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:33:52 GMT

Attached find a complex interchange built using the geometry from engineers (vertical, horizontal & cross-slope).
Only using Objective !! and of course with the huge help from Encina providing us with an unreleased version of Objective.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:36:50 GMT

cartann wrote:
...
Rampes Courbes in the Accueil site, that helped me with ramps.
Simple but effective.

The Accueil site is the personal page of Olivier Dentan. It is an eye opener, awesome GDL work, the ramp and other curved, spiral, and otherwise wiggly objects.

Snap

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:09:59 GMT

I could not agree more.
The chaines and the talus objects , in my opinion
are amazing!

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:52:22 GMT

Snap wrote:
"The Accueil site is the personal page of Olivier Dentan. It is an eye opener, awesome GDL work, the ramp and other curved, spiral, and otherwise wiggly objects. "

Somehow I cannot decompress this library parts. I get the message:
The winzip wizard cannot open this file. it doers not appear to be a valid archive."
I tried 7zip it does not work either. Is this a mac thing? Im on windows

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

adzik — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:05:56 GMT

No, it's not a Mac thing.

Everything I've gotten from there unpacked nicely. Try using WinRAR or downloading again/from another computer.

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:08:50 GMT

oh, this I cannot say. I only use macs.
Is there such a difference? Objects for mac only?
I use the doubleclick method and voilá. No problem.
But some of the stuff are not zipped. Could it be
that you got one that is not zipped?

PS: Thanks for the answer Adzik

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:13:58 GMT

Here's mine RAMP: I used Olivier's object "Ramp Ellipse.gsm".

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:14:59 GMT

And 3D View

Re: HEELP!! custom curved ramp

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:38:28 GMT

"Everything I've gotten from there unpacked nicely. Try using WinRAR or downloading again/from another computer."

I tried using winrar but still no success..... Thanks anyway.
Winrar & winzip decompresses the file to something.lib. But it is unrecognizable to archicad 12.
I have noticed that all library parts have *.gsm as a file extension name but this is not the case with oliver library parts. Do any of you get the *.gsm extention when you decompress the files from this site?