Modeling sloped conc street curbs

[rm]

I'm guessing I am hitting the limits of modeling for what I need within AC 12 to do. I can model concrete curbing in the profile I want in AC, and it looks pretty good as long as I don't have to slope it. I have attached a model I made with flat topography. Unfortunately it looks just that, flat.

But as we all know the earth isn't flat, and I need to model the curbs so they can follow the topography. The topography I can make with the mesh tool, thats pretty straight forward. Its getting a complex curb profile to match slope on the topography as it goes up and down along with the street.

ArchiForma for AC 12 is not out yet, and I don't even know if I could do it with that tool either. It would be great if we could extrude a profile along a path, then adjust the "z" axis at either end to simulate slope.

....any ideas modeling gurus?

Thank you!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Robert,

Great image!

You can use the beam or column tools with complex profiles to get sloped extrusions. You'd have to model each sloped section as an separate element to approximate more complex curves over a mesh.

Note that extrusions with the beam tool are always plumb (vertical) cut. This annoys me no end. You can either use the column tool to get square cut (perpendicular) ends, or use Link's trick in another thread of inserting holes near the end of a beam.

OBJECTivE can also slope curved profiles. And, the I believe the Cadimage profiler will let you model a continuous extrusion with multiple slope adjustment points.

Cheers,
Karl

[rm]

Karl,

Thanks for reminding me about Objective. I don't know why I have not bought it as of yet. But ArchiForma took care of most of my needs. Objective looks like it should do what I am looking for.

Thanks for the comment on the image. I liked designing that project, modeling started to stress out AC 9 and my computers. Im looking forward to getting more familiar with AC 12, storefront tool looks like it could be very useful as well.

Regards!

[Anonymous]

Robert, as Kalr pointed out, you could make curbs with beams. This way is very suitable if you want to model the exact section of the curb.

If you have complex geometry of terrain and streets, I suggest you use Mesh tool. First draw the outlines of the curb with polylines, model the pavement with the corret slopes, make a copy of the pavement mesh, raise it 0.5 cm and subtract the unnecessary part to form the curb!

Congratulaations on the nice design! I would love to see more pictures!

Good luck!

[rm]

Karl wrote:
Hi Robert,

You can use the beam or column tools with complex profiles to get sloped extrusions.

Cheers,
Karl

Karl,

I must be missing something. I know how to apply a custom profile to a wall in the wall tool. I can see an option in the Profile manager that allows saved profiles to be used on walls, beams, and columns. But when I go to the beam and column tool, I cant seem to figure out how to apply a custom profile to beams or columns.

Im guessing it is right in front of my nose, but I just don't see it.

[David Maudlin]

Robert:

See image below.

David

[rm]

Hey David,

thank you! Unless you "click" on it the option for profiles is hidden. GS should change that.