Arrays

Hay IStonia,
About Arrays, you know arrays for me looks like the most complicated stuff in NVil I tried to dig into them many times and stiil do not fully understood how things works, so I leave them on very end.
It would be greate to have some simple intuitive tools, lets make things a bit simpler with the same logic as we did Tube tool.
Lets start from Spline Array.
It will have only this basic options(latter I think we will extend them):


Rotation have 3 options:
- Freeform
- Flat
- None



Rotation:Freeform calculates a change in orientation by doing a gradual rotation around the curve tangent. This means that there isn't any abrupt change at any one point, but the orientation will be constantly changing and in some cases can end up upside-down.


Rotation:Flat will only do rotations about the world Z axis. It will swing the object around the z axis to point it as much as possible in the tangent direction of the curve, but it will always stay pointing upwards, giving it a kind of stabilizing effect with regard to the z axis. This can work well for simple path curves, but it doesn't work well if the path curve slopes upwards very sharply with any parts tangent or nearly tangent to the z axis.


Rotation:None performs no orientation of the object at all and just moves it along the path curve.

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- Tool will always use Selection Center as Refference.
- Tool will be activated only if you selected Spline and Objects, if something of them is not selected NVil will show message like: Select Objects that you want to Array and Spline than run tool again.
- If it is possible introduce Apply and E buttons.


Let me know if you have questions.

What is the reason you want to use distance?

You are right, we can go without distance, just with item caunt.

- Tool will be activated only if you selected Spline and Objects, if something of them is not selected NVil will show message like: Select Objects that you want to Array and Spline than run tool again.

When you open the tool, you may not intend to use spline but other instance methods instead.

- If it is possible introduce Apply and E buttons.

No possible.

When you open the tool, you may not intend to use spline but other instance methods instead.

Do not understood, explain pleas.

- Tool will be activated only if you selected Spline and Objects, if something of them is not selected NVil will show message like: Select Objects that you want to Array and Spline than run tool again.

Can you explain this first?

Looks like I understood what you meant.
This tool intended to be in separate small UI window and will have its own hotkey.
So you will be able to activate it only if you selected objects and spline, else NVil will show warning message.
The idea is to have 4 separate UI windows for:
- Array
- Dirrection Array
- Circular Array
- Spline Array

It will be small windows with basic stuff, very intuitive and have their own hotkeys.

 

http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jun-24-16.rar

Edit > Customize > Tools > Object Shortcut Tools > Create Instance (Spline). You can create multiple instances of the tool by firing it multiple times.

I am trying it! It is exactly what I asked for! Many thanks!!!
There is some stuff to polish but first i wanted to ask you -
Can we make it to work with Pivot as Refference? So you activate this tool than start Manual Pivot tool and start to set Pivot where you need it and watch changes?
I neet it to try to find best option, Selection as reffernece good but have some weekness. Can yuo pleas add option so I can dig into it?

http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jun-24-16.rar

Looks like it uses only Pivot Position but it also have to use Pivot Orientation, it is very important.
And can you pleas made it to use Start Spline Position as Start, now it reversed, it used End Spline point as start. Just flip it.

And can you pleas made it to use Start Spline Position as Start, now it reversed, it used End Spline point as start. Just flip it.

Can you show this in a video?

This is it:
https://monosnap.com/file/IbqYIDcY7wQmYAnh3ozhzrs5NkMhYJ

I think when you will make it work with pivot orientation it have to use Z axis as axis that will go along tangent and Y will be Up/Down and X will be Left/Right.

http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Jun-24-16.rar

In spline space, x axis points along tangent direction. This is used through out the program. So I don't want to change it. In you example, it is just a mater of how you orientate your object in the reference space.

Works!
IStonia, looks like I will start bother you a bit, but it is important thing, is it hard to make this new arrays tools to use Z axis instead of X? I will explain why I asked for it.
It is used for a long time to consider Z axis as Front/Back, for example when NVil starts Z is Fron/Back axis and for a lot of people Z consider az Fron/Back. X in apposite never was considered as Frond/Back even in CAD modeling where Z is Up/Down Y is Front/Back and X still stay Left/Right.
So it will be very hard to beginners to start use this new logic, because even for me it is hard a bit.
For example our spline have Blue color so in all tutorials I am going to explain that Spline is Blue and array will go along Blue Axis so it will be very easer to remeber.