curved beams?

[Anonymous]

hi

the attached image is what I want to model. this is an elevation.

any way to do this?

TIA

Adri

[Anonymous]

Experiment with TrussMaker for both the beam and the glass.
Remember TrussMaker works off centers
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Thanks Peter,

I've been experimenting for over half an hour now and no luck. I saw your reply re diamond roofs and started working away. so far the best I got was a huge beam that was curved. applying the same settings to a shorter beam resulted in a typical angled truss...

The beam I want to make is 10 metres long so it's not that short!

Very very hit and miss it seems so far...Another gem from GS.

Any tips appreciated. I've played with just about all the settings for the magic wand and nothing so far.

TIA

Adri

[Anonymous]

Adri,
What I thought might work for you is the following.
Draw a section line on the axis of the glass wall and beam
In the Section/Elevation window, draw an arc with the
circle tool the length and curvature of the beam.
Make this curve lay at the center line of the beam in elevation.
Now with another pen color draw a curved line at the center
of the glass in elevation.
Select the two curved lines and invoke TrussMaker.
Trussmaker treats each pen color as a separate component
so you can set the width, height, depth, material, contour pen,
and shape for the beam. Do the same for the glass component.
I believe this will create a symmetrical element with two components.
If you need the glass to set towards the inside or outside plane
of the beam you will have to make two TrussMaker objects.
One for the beam and one for the glass.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Peter,

10m curved line with a chord of 336mm or radius of 37336mm results in a perfectly straight truss. I can only get some bend on the thing if I make it huge and exagerate the curvature...I assume I have to play with the magic wand settings but so far no luck...

Thanks very much for your help. I'll try the twofold approach once I can get a curved truss to work. This sort of modelling is not easily done in AC it has to be said...

TIA

Adri

[Anonymous]

Adri,
I just tried to make a 10 meter beam with a shallow cord
and had the same resolution problem in spite of setting
the magic wand settings to there permitted extremes.
I solved the problem by tracing the curve using the polyline tool
with special snap points set to 21 and drew straight segments
between the snap points.
This worked and gave me a smooth looking curved beam.
I did the same with the glass wall.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

What can I say Peter...you are an AC god and I a mere mortal!!!

Thanks loads!!!

Adri (Nicholas)

[Anonymous]

help me god....

can you see the fanning of the glass wall?

not sure if there's a way round that. I'll try to see what I can do but if something suggests itself....

TIA

Adri

[Anonymous]

Adri,
This fanning is a consequence of the GDL command
used by TrussMaker. The easy way to make the ends plumb
for both the glass and the beam is to stretch both so that
the narrowest point is wider than what you want
then draw a wall that is thicker than the widest beam,
higher than the whole assembly and is centered on the assembly.
Starting at where you want the plumb edge extend the wall
until it extends beyond the widest point of the fanning .
Do a SEO with the glass and beams as targets and the wall
as operator with "subtract" or "subtract with upward extrusion" selected.
Then put the wall on a hidden layer.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Thanks Peter,

I'll have a go. Not being familiar with SEO will hamper the process but I'll give it an hour or so.

Thanks again

Adri