Array to line?

[William Alexander]

I'm stuck. 2000+ pages of hard documentation and online helps. ?-is there a way to array an object such as a retaining wall block to an arc poly line? Commands, plugin or other options?

 

WHY?

I need to design a model of a wall for a material schedule and fairly decent illustration. Topography and integrating a snaking set or stairs into, onto and over a terraced wall are issues.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

 

rgds

WDA

[William Alexander]

Forgot,

 

Adt 3.3

 

WDA

[Kerry Thompson]

Hi WDA

 

I am not sure exactly what you are after but there are a number of ways of repeating objects along an arc or a polyline made up from arcs and lines.

 

Try the AutoCAD command "measure" - this will array a block along a polyline at a specific offset distance, following the curve of the line.

 

An ADT 3.3 walls can be generated from an arcs and lines by using pull down menu Design-Walls-Convert to Walls.. and using a wall style. Most polylines work provided that are made up from lines and arcs but I have difficulties with more complex polylines. With ADT 4, it seems that you can convert any 2D curved polyline to a wall - a lot more reliable that 3.3.

 

For a specialised wall profile, create an AEC profile of the wall section in plan and then right click on the wall segment, select Model Tools-Sweep profile and the AEC profile will be applied to the wall.

 

Kerry

[William Alexander]

Kerry,

 

Thanks for responding. I was searching for where I had seen aligning objects, with

commands such as measure. Here is a viz render. The lower wall is a polyline "s" shape.

That's the question as to how. I was looking for a better way, if at all possible.

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/forum/filepush.asp?file=lxd2.jpg

 

Ultimately I copied the solids and pasted to the end vertex as a starting point. Used

rotate-reference with the near snap to align the solids to the poly line. Still seems to be the

most efficient way? Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

WDA

[Kerry Thompson]

Hi WDA

 

Now I see what you are after. The way I would go about it is as follows:

 

Make a solid model of the retaining block and turn it into an AutoCAD block. When defining the AutoCAD block, place the insert point on the middle of the front face bottom edge of the retaining block. The face is aligned to 0 degrees in plan.

Lay the polyline down as a guide and use the command “measure” , select the polyline and specify B (for block), enter the name of the retaining AutoCAD block and enter Y to align it with the polyline and specify the length to be the length of the front face of the AutoCAD block plus a little for a gap. The block will then generate along the polyline, normal to the polyline. Copy the guide polyline up the height of the first block run, trim the end back by half the length of the front face plus the gap, and repeat the process. This will layout a stream of blocks stretcher bonded on top of the lower course. Carry out a bit of tweaking where required, then copy up both rows to provide the next two courses an so on.

The key is to use an AutoCAD block to interact with the polyline.

 

 

Good luck

Kerry

[William Alexander]

Kerry,

 

Thanks! That's the ticket! Sorry about the ambiguous start. This is a visual media -daaah! :gebigeek:

 

brgds

WDA

[Chad Warner]

You have no idea how many times I could have used that command. Thanks for the lesson!

 

-Chad