jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I've been searching for days for a solution but can't seem to find any. How can I assign a constant slope (degrees) to a spline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Rotate it? Can you explain a bit more what you're trying to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 ok i ll elaborate a bit more.. I've got spline with various vertex points and I want to move them up in the z-axis so I have a constant slope, for instance 10 degrees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thought so, just checking. Ok, there's a couple of ways to do this, but no one-click way. Easiest would be to make a plane, rotate it 10° and do a shape merge, then extract the spline you want from the new object. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thank you for your reply. I also thought of that but that would only work for a straight line, not a curved road for instance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Not sure why you think that, works perfectly for a curved spline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Because only lines parallel to the plane rotation would have the exact 10 degrees... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I guess I misunderstood then. I thought you wanted the whole spline tilted at 10 degrees while maintaining the shape in plan. So what you need is actually a constant 10° gradient following the path of the road? More like a spiral for instance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Hmmm, not quite so easy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Yes that's what i meant The only way i can think of is by measuring segments one by one and calculating the individual elevations. but my spline has like hundreds of segments so it might take a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Create a single segment line with the exact degree of slope you want. Always snap it at each point of your original spline, rotate from upper view and use as a reference. Much faster than calculating trigonometry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Schroeder Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Create your ground plane that is sloped 10 degrees, probably create a quad plane and rotate it 10 degrees. Create your road spline in the top view completely flat, run a normalize spline on it, then loft your road shape. Apply an edit poly to both your ground and road. Under "FreeForm Tools" in Graphite choose "Conform". Pick your ground plane as the surface, then paint conform the road down to the ground plane. You'll have to fiddle with the settings and strength, but this will give you a pretty good start. Or use one of these handy scripts: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/terrain-conformer http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/poly2surf Remember, there is literally no way anyone is going to be able to measure a constant 10 degree slope in your rendering. So, like hand grenades, just get it close. Getting wrapped up in maths and specifics is just going to burn time and gray your hair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. Unfortunately, for this assignment I do require numeric precision, as my model will be imported into another (client) I still cant believe there's no way to edit a spline like with a helix, where you can pick the height and get a constant slope... Or even better, get the first and last vertex of a spline then select height or angle for the elevations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salvador Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Ok, here's a thought: create a plane in top view - rotate it to whatever slope you need - set your coordinate system to the plane's xyz and draw your spline with Autogrid turned on. You can still move any vertex's XY in top view, maintaining the slope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Draw a few picture by hand and upload them so everyone can see what you are trying to do. This entire thread consists of people trying to decipher your brief description. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miauu_u Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 The "plane" technique will works only when the spline/road don't have U turns. All cases solution is with maxscript. Watch the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam_ed Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 Yes Miauu's script seems to do what I was looking for. He kindly sent me a trial version so I can test it. Practical uses which I'm trying to solve are landscape and infrastructure designing, like modeling curved slopes and flyovers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erkutacar Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 do u mean something like this? 10 degrees incline and turn after each vertex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonstewart Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 I understand what you are trying to do but it is hard to do and not a common request. I would use the spacing tool and space out a object evenly along the spline of the shape you want, just use as many copies as you need feet or whatever in height and then you can manually adjust the base spline to climb up the hill. Then you can apply a sweep to create the road or path or whatever you are trying to do exactly and I guess a turbosmooth or something to smooth it out because it will be sort of choppy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miauu_u Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Constant slope of a spline using maxscript: watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salvador Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Very useful Kostadin. I just don't seem to be able to find the script in scriptspot.com or your blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miauu_u Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 The script is not released yet. Jam_Ed _ made some suggestions which I will add next week(I hope). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salvador Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 The script is not released yet. Jam_Ed _ made some suggestions which I will add next week(I hope). ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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