Profiler resolution

[Anonymous]

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(':?:')

[Anonymous]

Erika wrote:
bug checks out here too.. today. But then why was it working correctly for me the other day?

Erika,

With the screenshot you posted the other day, you had me hoping there was a way, now I realise it must be only if you've been good today.

[Greg Kmethy]

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.

This is a bug. The easiest workaround to control the resolution is to open the library part created by Profiler, look for the 'RESOL' statement in the scripts, and modify the value there.

[Anonymous]

gkmethy,
Profiler always puts RESOL 36 at the beginning of it's 3D scripts
but I could never understand why it was there since
Profiler never uses "Additional Status Codes" for the "polyline"
or the "space curve".
The polyline and space curve are always defined with points,
yet you say the RESOL statement does something.
Perhaps you could explain.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

gkmethy wrote:
.....The easiest workaround to control the resolution is to open the library part created by Profiler, look for the 'RESOL' statement in the scripts, and modify the value there.

I believe that the resol has no effect when you've made a tubular profiler object as Peter Devlin has said - the polyline profile and the space curve path are defined in a TUBE object.

As in this Example of the attached object:

MUL a/1.200000, b/1.200000, zzyzx/0.300000
RESOL 36
MATERIAL mat
mask=16+32
IF issolid THEN mask=mask+1+2
begx=0.000000+(0.000000)*COS(ang1*2)-(-0.010000)*SIN(ang1*2)
begy=0.000000+(0.000000)*SIN(ang1*2)+(-0.010000)*COS(ang1*2)
endx=1.200000+(0.010000)*COS(ang2*2)-(0.000000)*SIN(ang2*2)
endy=1.200000+(0.010000)*SIN(ang2*2)+(0.000000)*COS(ang2*2)
TUBE 37, 14, mask,
0.300000*dir, 0.150000, 1,
0.297721*dir, 0.176047, 1,
0.290954*dir, 0.201303, 1,
0.279904*dir, 0.225000, 1,
0.264907*dir, 0.246418, 1,
0.246418*dir, 0.264907, 1,
0.225000*dir, 0.279904, 1,
0.201303*dir, 0.290954, 1,
0.176047*dir, 0.297721, 1,
0.150000*dir, 0.300000, 1,
0.123953*dir, 0.297721, 1,
0.098697*dir, 0.290954, 1,
0.075000*dir, 0.279904, 1,
0.053582*dir, 0.264907, 1,
0.035093*dir, 0.246418, 1,
0.020096*dir, 0.225000, 1,
0.009046*dir, 0.201303, 1,
0.002279*dir, 0.176047, 1,
0.000000*dir, 0.150000, 1,
0.002279*dir, 0.123953, 1,
0.009046*dir, 0.098697, 1,
0.020096*dir, 0.075000, 1,
0.035093*dir, 0.053582, 1,
0.053582*dir, 0.035093, 1,
0.075000*dir, 0.020096, 1,
0.098697*dir, 0.009046, 1,
0.123953*dir, 0.002279, 1,
0.150000*dir, 0.000000, 1,
0.176047*dir, 0.002279, 1,
0.201303*dir, 0.009046, 1,
0.225000*dir, 0.020096, 1,
0.246418*dir, 0.035093, 1,
0.264907*dir, 0.053582, 1,
0.279904*dir, 0.075000, 1,
0.290954*dir, 0.098697, 1,
0.297721*dir, 0.123953, 1,
0.300000*dir, 0.150000, -1,
begx, begy, 0, 0,
0.000000, 0.000000, 0, 0,
0.000000, 0.600000, 0, 0,
0.009115, 0.704189, 0, 0,
0.036184, 0.805212, 0, 0,
0.080385, 0.900000, 0, 0,
0.140373, 0.985673, 0, 0,
0.214327, 1.059627, 0, 0,
0.300000, 1.119615, 0, 0,
0.394788, 1.163816, 0, 0,
0.495811, 1.190885, 0, 0,
0.600000, 1.200000, 0, 0,
1.200000, 1.200000, 0, 0,
endx, endy, 0, 0

Changing the RESOL value has no effect. I think this is different for a revolved profiler object though.

[Anonymous]

I checked in the 3D script of a Profiler object that used
the REVOLVE command and again there are no additional status codes
for the RESOL command to operate on.
The 2D script of this object does use additional status codes
but there is no RESOL command in the 2D script.

The 3D script is as follows:

MUL a/0.704003, b/0.704003, zzyzx/0.914400
RESOL 36
MATERIAL mat
ROTY 270+offset
ROTX begang
issolid=1
IF angle<360 THEN mask=16+32 ELSE mask=0
IF angle=360 AND NOT(issolid) THEN angle=359.9
IF issolid THEN cmask=mask+4+8 ELSE cmask=mask
REVOLVE 12, angle, mask,
0.889000, ABS(0.000000*dir+rad), 2,
0.889000, ABS(0.254000*dir+rad), 2,
0.914400, ABS(0.254000*dir+rad), 2,
0.914400, ABS(0.266700*dir+rad), 2,
0.735901, ABS(0.323343*dir+rad), 1,
0.550836, ABS(0.352002*dir+rad), 1,
0.363564, ABS(0.352002*dir+rad), 1,
0.178499, ABS(0.323343*dir+rad), 1,
0.000000, ABS(0.266700*dir+rad), 2,
0.000000, ABS(0.254000*dir+rad), 2,
0.025400, ABS(0.254000*dir+rad), 2,
0.025400, ABS(0.000000*dir+rad), 2
DEL TOP

Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Getting back to the original question
"Does anyone know how ArchiCAD's profiler decides what resolution it will profile along a curved path?".
I haven't figured out how profiler decides the resolution but since
Profiler always makes the path out of linear segments,
one can force profiler to use as many segments along the path ("resolution") as you want.
If you are using an arc as the path (space curve),
trace the arc with the magic wand tool with the the magic wand tool
settings set to linear segments and resolution of arcs set at whatever
you want. Select the line tool, touch the arc with the magic wand tool
and the arc will be traced with as many straight line segments
as the resolution of arcs setting is set too.
Delete the arc, keep the grouped lines as the path and Profiler
will draw the path using the beginning and end points of the
line segments.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Exactly Peter!

This is how I ended up doing it. You make sure you've broken up any curves into line segments before you go to profiler. Otherwise it's completely impossible to control the number of segments along the path.

[Anonymous]

RAY,
I just did some checking of some Profiler scripts and I believe
that to answer your initial question about how Profiler decides
what resolution to use, it always uses a resolution of 36 when
the polyline and/or the path is an arc rather than straight line segments.
So I guess that's it.
Cheers,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Thanks Peter,

I did suspect that it was always the same. But then other people were getting different results; but maybe that was with the revolve profiler.

[Anonymous]

Ray,
I think that regardless of whether Profiler is using the TUBE command
or the REVOLVE command the resolution is 36.
maybe people don't realize that in AC resolution means number of
facets in 360° so if an arc is 180° the number of facets is 18 and so forth.

I'm glad you posted back because I wanted to ask you a completely
off topic question.
Since people all over the world post to this forum, I would like to
have some sense of who is "on deck" when.
Here on the east coast of the United States it is
12:26 AM Thursday March 17 th.

What day is it where you are and what time of day is it ?

Thanks,
Peter Devlin