Control polywire orientation

[underscoreus]

Hello!
 I was wondering if there is a way of controlling the orientation of the poly wire as it is applied to a line. Normally I guess orientation wouldn't matter since it's round but in my case I want to keep it square. This is where the problem comes into the picture as by default the polywire is oriented in a "diamond" shape when set to only have 4 sides rather than the "box" shape I am after.

Is there any clever ways of solving this?
 

I know of matricies and the possibility of just matrix rotating the whole mesh point by point but I was wondering if there was any other way of solving this.

So far I've sort of stepped around this by just copying square shapes to each point on the line and skinning but that has its own drawbacks.

 

Thanks for the read!

[bhouse]

The "Joint Up Vector" parameter at the bottom of the PolyWire node is one way to do this, but it usually won't make it perfectly straight in the manner that you are wanting I think. I would recommend using a Sweep node instead, as you have a lot more control with it.

[Noobini]

here's my 'foolin around' method. Using a couple of poly extrude to get the 'square' tube but as it offsets it in a diagonal direction, need to offset it back to centre.

I've been away for awhile needing to have a huge brain tumour removed...so you could say my method is a bit 'silly'

 

vu_square_wire.hiplc

[underscoreus]

On 10/23/2019 at 2:58 PM, bhouse said:

The "Joint Up Vector" parameter at the bottom of the PolyWire node is one way to do this, but it usually won't make it perfectly straight in the manner that you are wanting I think. I would recommend using a Sweep node instead, as you have a lot more control with it.

Yo, could you elaborate a little on how you'd do this with the sweep node? Not entirely sure how I could make the sweep node do what I want it to. To be fair I know next to nothing about the sweep node



 

 

3 hours ago, Noobini said:

here's my 'foolin around' method. Using a couple of poly extrude to get the 'square' tube but as it offsets it in a diagonal direction, need to offset it back to centre.

I've been away for awhile needing to have a huge brain tumour removed...so you could say my method is a bit 'silly'

 

vu_square_wire.hiplc

Hey! That's a pretty neat and clean solution! I'll just have to make it work with normal poly lines without having it collapse down into world center though If you've got any tips on that it would be much appreciated!

[Noobini]

here you are, squarewire and not at Origin.

Also, if you want to go the other way and want to rotate the square (ie, grid) slightly....then rotate the grid in Z, try 45 and you'll see.

vu_squarewire_nonOrigin.hiplc

[underscoreus]

16 hours ago, Noobini said:

here you are, squarewire and not at Origin.

Also, if you want to go the other way and want to rotate the square (ie, grid) slightly....then rotate the grid in Z, try 45 and you'll see.

vu_squarewire_nonOrigin.hiplc

Many thanks!

[AntoineSfx]

Have a look at the new Sweep SOP in H18, especially:

Sweep / Rotation / Apply Roll or Twist

Partial twist [x] twist Per Scale by Atrtribute

Twist Ramp attribute: roll

Then create a point attribute 'roll' on the backbone curve, and set its value according to your needs. (typically f@roll =chramp("rl",f@curveu)*ch("amt"); in a pt wrangle after a resample that will set curveu on your curve)