topic Re: Profiler resolution in Modeling

Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 12:41:31 GMT

I couldn't find this covered previosly anywhere, my apologies if it has been.

Does anyone know how ArchiCAD's profiler decides what resolution it will profile along a curved path? A typical example is a curved handrail to a curved balcony, which comes out badly segmented. I wondered if the resolution relates to the magic wand settings, but it doesn't seem to. The GDL script when you open the created objects has plotted nodes along this path using tube, but how has profiler decided how much to segment along the curve? Is it completely internal within the profiler operation and uneditablejavascript:emoticon(':?:')

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 09:45:13 GMT

Ray wrote:
Does anyone know how ArchiCAD's profiler decides what resolution it will profile along a curved path?

Tools/Magic Wand Settings... a VERY useful settings dialogue box

woodster

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:21:47 GMT

Thanks for your reply Woodster.

I first thought this too, as I said in my initial e-mail. But try and try again, no matter what I have the magic wand settings set to it seems it doesn't affect the resolution of the curve. Or am I missing something?

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:42:33 GMT

Magic wand works for us.

You are SPACE clicking on the path?

Have you got a picture of your segmented handrail?

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 06:21:37 GMT

Here is an example where it really shows. A curved PFC fascia to an awning.

And no, I'm not space-clicking. Using profiler you don't space click, you just select the profile and the path made as grouped lines and arcs or polylines, before you go to Tools>Profiler.

Magic wand settings are working fine for us in the usual manner with space clicking using a tool on another polyline / arc or whatever.

Re: Profiler resolution

Erika Epstein — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 08:11:14 GMT

Set the resol in the magic wand settings box per Woody's pic. Then make your object.

Changing the resol in the gdl script of an object made by profiler will not change how many segments were created.
How profiler makes the object is a multi-segmented tube. The number of segments is pre-determined by the magic wand settings.

The attached screen shot shows 3 different profiler objects made from the same 'C' shape . The left was set to 72, the middle 18 the right 8.

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 09:41:19 GMT

To be fair I use my magic wand on the 'deviation from curves' setting at about 20mm and get a good result.

It is possible to only select your profile before using the profiler tool and select your path later by space clicking (or drawing manually), and also by selecting both profile and path to begin with. Not sure if any difference in the result though, anyone?

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:36:41 GMT

Ray wrote:
And no, I'm not space-clicking. Using profiler you don't space click, you just select the profile and the path made as grouped lines and arcs or polylines, before you go to Tools>Profiler.

Space clicking is a good way to do it; select onlt the profile, then go to the Profiler.

Woodster

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 00:57:12 GMT

Thank you all for your replies. However, I'm still completely frustrated!!!

I've been trying everything that all of you have suggested and more besides. I'm setting the magic wand settings before going to profiler, and have tried all the settings. Still it does not affect the result.

One example is attached.

Just to check, this should be working with the tubular profile tool, as opposed to the revolve profile (which I realise can be altered in the script by altering resol).

And a polyline path with arcs in it, should work, shouldn't it? The only way I can seem to get the result I need is by converting the arc to line segments by space clicking on the polyline with the line tool after setting the magic wand settings as desired. But this shouldn't be required should it?

One other possibilty?? I'm on ArchiCAD 8.1, this isn't something that has changed in 9 is it??

What am I missing? What's wrong with me, My setup, ArchiCAD, My computer. Have I failed to sacrifice sufficient goats to GOD CAD?

Re: Profiler resolution

Erika Epstein — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 01:32:41 GMT

Ray,
Profiler is rather quirky as you have experienced.

1. Select the profile
2. the with shift key down also select the path. [The path if not made with a polyline should have the lines and arcs grouped. I also had groups activated.[
3. active the profiler tool by opening its settings box.
4. check your various settings in it and click OK
5. put your cursor on the point of your profile that you want to correspond to with the path. see attached. where black pencil is.

click and is object created.

Note that the finished object ended with the 'c' shape pointing out how you wanted it. the first time I did it the profile had the open part of the 'c on the right and it came out fine. Subsequently as has happened before I had to mirror the shape to get it to face the correct way. I've never noticed a rationale behind this. So make one , check it in 3D, and flip it if necessary.

I hope this helps.

Re: Profiler resolution

Erika Epstein — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 01:33:47 GMT

finshed screenshot.

Re: Profiler resolution

Link — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 01:37:42 GMT

Have I failed to sacrifice sufficient goats to GOD CAD?

The latest requirements state 17 goats.

Judging by your screenshot, you'll only have 2 segments in your arc. Have you tried setting your segment length to something really low like 20 mm's? Don't forget, you need to hit that radio button too.

Keep at it mate!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 02:50:10 GMT

Thanks Erika,

I can manage to get profiler to work fine and the direction is not a problem, the only thing I'm having trouble with is controlling the resolution. Changing settings in Magic Wand Settings is having absolutely no effect on the result. No matter what I have magic wand settings set to, the curved part of the path comes out with the same number of facets. I can't emulate what you did in your example

Erika wrote:
The attached screen shot shows 3 different profiler objects made from the same 'C' shape . The left was set to 72, the middle 18 the right 8.

I can't get a different breakup of segments like in your screenshot, it's always the same.

Link,
I was purposely setting the number of segments along an arc to 2 to see if it would only have 2 segments; the example shows that for me the magic wand settings aren't changing how many segments I end up getting.

Maybe two more goats are necessary?

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 14:20:58 GMT

Ray wrote:
I can manage to get profiler to work fine and the direction is not a problem, the only thing I'm having trouble with is controlling the resolution. Changing settings in Magic Wand Settings is having absolutely no effect on the result. No matter what I have magic wand settings set to, the curved part of the path comes out with the same number of facets.

Do you have the Tracing Method set to Linear Segments or Best Match?

woodster

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 23:51:51 GMT

woodster wrote:
Do you have the Tracing Method set to Linear Segments or Best Match?

I've tried both, also making no difference.

But while we're talking about it, Ive never quite worked out what this is supposed to do.

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:29:42 GMT

You've got to write down step by step what you are doing as you create the profile. Start by setting the Magic Wand dialog box (Tools/Magic Wand Settings...) as shown.

Then tell us step by step from there what you are doing. This works every time

woodster

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:55:01 GMT

woodster wrote:
You've got to write down step by step what you are doing as you create the profile. Start by setting the Magic Wand dialog box (Tools/Magic Wand Settings...) as shown.

Then tell us step by step from there what you are doing. This works every time

Woodster,

Thanks for your patience. I've been using profiler to make a gutter with a curved part and an awning roof similar to what you've shown, and I get a result similar to yours (see earlier post). The problem comes when you have a curve of a larger radius and want to reduce the faceting.

When I look at your image it seems that there are fewer than 36 segments along the curved part as you would assume there should be. Because I was getting similar results to yours and couldn't seem to make this smoother, I tried going the other way to make less segments to see if I could force it to be coarser (to test wether magic wand settings was actually making any difference at all), but it didn't change the result.

Could you try say 4 "segments along arc" to see if you get a "coarser" curved part

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:19:59 GMT

Ray wrote:
When I look at your image it seems that there are fewer than 36 segments along the curved part as you would assume there should be. Because I was getting similar results to yours and couldn't seem to make this smoother, I tried going the other way to make less segments to see if I could force it to be coarser (to test wether magic wand settings was actually making any difference at all), but it didn't change the result.

Ok, you got me going on this one and I tested it out. You are right in that the Magic Wand settings are not affecting the number of segments as they should but they do affect the number of segments.

What's happening is that even thought we have set the magic wand to X Segments Along Arcs it is giving us Segments Along Circles. In my case I was using an arc of 90° so when I set the segments to 4 I got 1, 8 I got 2, 16 I got 4, etc. When I drew an arc of 45° the results were unpredictable (although I didn't play around with it that much)

It's a bug!

woodster

Re: Profiler resolution

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 23:13:52 GMT

woodster wrote:
Ok, you got me going on this one and I tested it out. You are right in that the Magic Wand settings are not affecting the number of segments as they should ......

It's a bug!

Thanks Woodster,

For a while I thought I was in my own little mixed up world.

Re: Profiler resolution

Erika Epstein — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:19:01 GMT

bug checks out here too.. today. But then why was it working correctly for me the other day?
I just tried reproducing waht I made the other day.First I couldn't even generate a straight segment, kept getting "add-on errors" Then archicad crashed twice, bug report and all,. finally restarted archicad and reproduced the items, but this time they showed up with your "bug". Profiler has a history of being a quirky add-on but very useful and comes with AC...

Ray wrote:
......

For a while I thought I was in my own little mixed up world.

sounds like fun while it lasted.