Parametric Modeling?!

[braddewald]

I am in need of a parametric modeling solution. My company requires me to create the same type of 3d geometry over and over again and it is killing my production times. Each piece of geometry can be described by a handful of parameters. I generally model in AutoCAD 2010 and render in 3ds Max 2010. I looked into getting a script to handle the job in 3ds Max but it proved very costly and time-consuming. AutoCAD seems to have the dynamic blocks down pat and this is exactly what I need: a way to stretch a piece of geometry while keeping some constraints in place. The problem is that AutoCAD does not offer dynamic blocks for 3d! I found a plugin called AutoSolids that may seem to do the job but it appears that it can only handle up to AutoCAD 2008. Is there any software, plugin, add-on, or script that can do this parametric modeling in AutoCAD (preferably) or 3ds Max??

[jinsley]

if you are just stretching a solid, couldn't you use the path deform modifier?

[braddewald]

Its more complicated. Say I want to stretch a 30cm door to 60cm. Say of the 30cm of the original door 10 cm are devoted to the stiles on the left and right sides of the panel detail (5 on each side). If you stretch the door uniformly, doubling its width to 60cm, then the stiles on either side of the door would stretch as well doubling their width to 10cm on each side. In reality you would want to keep them at 5cm. Now this problem could be solved by slicing the door in half, moving it over 30cm and using a face extrude to rejoin the halves of the door, thus attaining a 60cm door whilst maintaining the 5cm stiles on each side.

 

I want a way to just stretch the bloody door and have it automatically maintain its stile widths.

[jinsley]

Ah... have you checked out the video series at designreform.net ? That might be a good place to start.

 

http://designreform.net/

[erickdt]

You could use solidedit => Face => Move and select the faces in questions and simply move them over.

 

 

If you're always using the same of a few sizes you could simply make blocks of each type and replace one with the other and vice versa as needed.

 

 

I believe there is a way to make "smart blocks" on the new block editor where you can parametrically edit blocks although I've never done it before.

 

E

[braddewald]

I am talking about very complex geometry that would make selecting faces too time consuming to be worth it. I am also talking about making things that are not a set size. So we don't always do doors in 5cm increments or anything like that. I want a way to be able to create a "door" (to continue with the example I gave) that is 53.8cm- on the fly. Smart blocks would be awesome but as of yet I don't think they have 3d.

 

As I was saying it would be AWESOME to have a dynamic block for 3d in Autocad-this is essentially what I am looking for.

[Tommy Burns]

Revit 2010 does exactly what you want to do and more but it costs a bit. Depends if it is worth it really.