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General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: falloffalot on February 25, 2008, 09:10:14 am

Title: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 25, 2008, 09:10:14 am

I have created a rollercoaster with track which; if works out I will anim8 with sounds.
The problem I have I can't work out or find in the manual how to bend the straight track section.
Can anyone help?
Thanx

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: beyond_3rd_dimension on February 25, 2008, 10:54:45 am

Here is the link to the manual for bending an object using modifier.....

http://www.anim8or.com/manual/3_object_editor.html#modifiers (http://www.anim8or.com/manual/3_object_editor.html#modifiers)

You might have a look in the Hand tutorial as well (Bending fingres section)

http://www.anim8or.com/tutorials/hands/index.html (http://www.anim8or.com/tutorials/hands/index.html)

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 26, 2008, 08:15:41 am

I have now managed to bend a single track piece using the mod tool,
but I have created a multi sectional track section to give the desired effect.
I have grouped all the individual sections together and then tried to bend it using the modifier.
But the track keeps disapearing.
Any ideas why?

Thanx for the help

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: beyond_3rd_dimension on February 26, 2008, 08:49:10 am

I am getting the same problem. Think it's a bug. u cannot use mod tool on grouped object.

Anyway, the solutiong is to use 'Build->Join Solids' instead of Group.

Hope it will solve ur problem.

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: lynn22 on February 26, 2008, 01:09:41 pm

I would suggest to ungroup all your sections and bend each one individually, then put them all together again.

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 26, 2008, 04:03:23 pm

Thanks for the advice but; if I bend the sections ungrouped, then rebuild them individually their `bend` and length becomes inaccurate and it all starts to get complicated.
I may have answered my own post in a way but the following may help someone else out.
So what I have now done is re-made the section out of 1 cube but with enough divisions to recreate what I had before. Then as a mesh extruded, reduced or removed the desired edges to make the section I need. With this method I can manipulate the entire section without any problems (yet).
Thanks again

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: benzjie on February 27, 2008, 02:33:47 am

why dont you make the rollercoaster track like this......use the straight / curved path to layout the way the track should run... make a primitive ( ngon) and then "extrude"  and check the path box. With the ngon still colored white click on the path you made.

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 27, 2008, 08:17:07 am

This is a pic of the track. Only the rails, horizontal supports and the walkboards need to be bent.
Thanx for the reply benzjie I'll give it a go, but I don't think there are any short cuts to speed up the process I'm just going to do it piece-by-piece.  :'(

(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii276/crash_photos_01/Track_01.jpg)

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: benzjie on February 27, 2008, 09:04:22 am

oops..that lloks more complicated then what i had in mind. What would be usefull here is a "duplicate along path "  script.  then you would only need a small segment of the rail and 1 horizontal support and then duplicate. Unfortunately..........

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: lynn22 on February 27, 2008, 06:05:10 pm

Keep at it, it looks very nice, great job.

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 28, 2008, 09:14:33 am

Thanks for the positive feed back lynn22
This is a copy of a scale working model I have made for my son, as he is rollercoaster mad.
Hopefully, once complete I will be able to get the carts to run round the track.
Hopefully.

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: headwax on February 28, 2008, 11:05:58 pm

http://coaster-net.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6638

you probably ave seen this site

Title: Re: Help Bending rollercoaster track
Post by: falloffalot on February 29, 2008, 05:08:16 am

Not seen that site before.
Thanks.