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Point on a Curve?
S1mon
Member Posts: 2,359 PRO
I've been looking around for a FeatureScript that would do a few things:
I also know that if I would write this imaginary FeatureScript it would help others, but I'm hoping that it exists already and I just can't find it.
- Create a point on a curve based on a parameter (0..1)
- Create a point on a curve based on chord length from chosen endpoint
- Create a point on a curve based on the distance from an arbitrary reference (plane, point, line, maybe surface?)
I also know that if I would write this imaginary FeatureScript it would help others, but I'm hoping that it exists already and I just can't find it.
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Best Answer
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Evan_Reese
Member Posts: 2,064 PRO
3D Points can at least do the first one.Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
Website: ovyl.io1
Answers
Website: ovyl.io
I rediscovered that there's another FS called 3D Point (no 's') which does some similar things and some different things to your 3D Points. It looks like it hasn't been actively updated in a while, but it's popular. It seems like there could be some value in combining some of the functionality from each of these approaches into a single tool.
It says that it was created/updated by "Morgan". Anyone know who this is?
(There's also a much older, more simple FS with 3DPoints in the title that just takes a list of coordinates and creates points)
IR for AS/NZS 1100
IR for AS/NZS 1100
Part of the challenge is that points are only so useful in and of themselves. Typically they're used as the basis for other features, and there's not a clean way to stack up features parametrically like there is in Grasshopper. It would be great to add a lot of niceties to ways of specifying points and then have that available in any feature which needs points (e.g. Freeform Spline).
So what you are wanting is basically a bit like Onshape's Mate Connector feature being able to be used inside other features that use mate connectors.
IR for AS/NZS 1100
Yes. To build on that example, ideally the mate connector feature (and its use inside other features) would be even more powerful than it is. Mate connectors, planes (and coordinate systems) are basically defined all the same way inside of Onshape, yet the tools for creating MCs and planes are different. Other people have built custom features to define MCs and planes in more powerful ways, yet they are still missing from Onshape. A simple example is an MC normal to the end of a curve.
I have an IR about selection filters which is somewhat related to this. In an ideal world, there would be one feature or block or whatever we want to call it, which would be a super flexible/powerful way to create/select points, and this tool could be used to drive anything which needs a series of points.
Instead, each tool which needs a bunch of points has slightly different ways to create them. Both you and Evan have points along edges/curves based on a parameter. Your tool has an option to create a point a certain physical distance from an end. His has a face reference option (based on U/V).