Anim8or Community

Any script I post here is in the public domain.  It is not copyrighted or restricted in any way.  I do it because I love it and appreciate the opportunities and community that Steve has created with his very hard work.

If you have other script requests or ideas, I am happy to give it a try.

Steve, if you ever want help in developing the ASL (or any other part of Anim8or), I would love to help.

Attached is the requested script.  It copies a mesh along a spline.  To use it, you must have a mesh called "copytarget" that will be copied.  You must also have a spline called "copypath".  After selecting the icon, click in the editor window to make the parametric shape of the copytarget copied along the copypath appear.  If you double-click on the parametric shape, the parameters will show:

Center parameter: 1=mesh's centroid follows spline and is the origin of rotation, 0=mesh's own coordinate system's origin follows the spline and is the origin of rotation.

X-Rotate, Y-Rotate, Z-Rotate: degrees of rotation to apply to the mesh before it follows the spline (0 to 360 degrees).

Spacing %:  Amount of spacing between copies of the mesh expressed as a multiple of the z-width of the mesh after rotation (0.001 to 10)

Note that the coordinate system of the spline has the z-axis along the spline so the mesh copies are spaced according to the z-width of the mesh after rotations are applied.

Also note that the mesh has its own coordinate system based on the values of its points regardless of how it is displayed in the editor window.  Even if you change the orientation and origin of the mesh, it retains its original point values.

*** Remember to convert the parametric shape to a mesh before using it in any other objects, in figures, or scenes.  It is totally dependent on the original "copytarget" mesh and "copypath" spline while it remains a parametric shape.  As Steve stated:  parametric scripts were never intended to work this way.  ***

One final note:  this script only works with Anim8or 0.97b (or later, when they arrive).

Please try it out and please let me know your feedback.

This seems pretty straightforward, since it is only a variation on the chain_maker.  I don't think I understand everything you are saying, though.

"copypath" is the name of the spline you want to follow.
"copytarget" is what you want to copy along the spline.

What is the 10 and 1 for?  The 10 is replaced by what - a count of how many times it is copied?

How would you handle the orientation of copytarget?  What would copytarget's origin be in relation to copypath?  What is the distance between copies of copytarget?  These questions are important because you must calculate the size (length) of copytarget to space it along copypath.

Once these questions are answered, I can turn out the script pretty fast.

Attached are the new versions of the scripts.  The only change is the provision to have alternating links of different sizes.

There is a the parametric version and a command version.  They work the same as described earlier in this thread.

Enjoy!

I would be honored, but the honor is really yours, Steve, since all I did was slightly modify your spring script.

Kubajazz,

Thank you for the compliment.  I'm glad you like it.

I did post a parametric version, but I kinda cheated.  See the post in the other thread.

I have adapted the chain_maker.txt script to be a parametric plugin script.  There are some issues, though.  I am going to do another post with questions about scripts to try to resolve these issues.

It seems that parametric plugin scripts have a couple of "features" that make using the chain_maker parametric plugin a little more challenging:

To activate a plugin, you select the icon, then click or click-drag in the editor window.  This, in effect, does two things:
1) De-selects anything you have previously selected (this makes sense, since the script is creating a new shape that is automatically selected)
2) Sets the origin point of the parametric shape created by the script (also makes sense, since most of the parametric shape scripts use a drag sizing method)

The chain_maker parametric script can work around (1), but you have to rename the path you want to follow so that it is pre-pended with the word "chain".  For example: rename "path02" to "chainpath02".  Click on the "chain path" icon, then click anywhere in the editor window.  The chain that is created will follow the path, but be offset to whereever you clicked.  You will have to manually move it back into position.  I designed the icon to help you remember that you have to rename the path you want to follow.  I toyed with the idea of having the script rename the path back to just "pathXX" after creating the chain, but decided against it.

Another issue is that the created parametric object is a single shape.  Even if you have multiple paths all renamed chainpathXX, the chains created will all be one shape, even though they follow different paths.  To do the inevitable tweaking of a few links that do not turn the corners properly, you must convert the parametric shape to a mesh.  You can then access individual links by going to point editor mode, using the face selector to select a face of the link you want to adjust.  Use "G" to "grow" the selection to the full link.  Then use "t" to select the edges.  You can now move, rotate, delete, etc. that individual link.  Whew!

The upside to having a parametric script, though, is that you can immediately see the results of tweaking the parameters and get that chain looking just as you like it.

So, it is do-able, just less than convenient and intuitive.  Also, you can use the parametric plugin version to find the parameters you like best for your application and then edit the other version to reflect those parameters.

Please let me know what you think.