Select inner edges for pipe generation

[caskal]

Hey magicians, im wraping my head trying to figure out how to add pipes in these walls, made an image to ilustrate my idea:

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[caskal]

[Noobini]

my first thoughts are some sort of skeleton...or a roof like structure (where instead of constructing an actual raised roof, you just want to get at the middle line and use it for the pipe)

Edited May 11, 2020 by Noobini

[Noobini]

this maybe ?

 

[Noobini]

very quick 'n dirty

vu_pipes.hiplc

[Librarian]

Resample edges ..take ptdist than round to integer and play with directions.. Hope it Helps
..here I have fun with Chops ..you have tutorial by Kim Goss on youtube ( color and patterns )
And here you have the endless solution but on the other side, it's only me that sees that.
@caskal

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Librarian

[caskal]

Thanks guys for the help! I was getting crazy the other day, this was my best attemp:

Then I was having a hard time to make the first and last point of the curve a little longer so it fits better, I tried a for each and resample with curveu but couldnt find a way to properly make the first and last point longer on each axis (tried normals by tangent too), any ideas for this?

@Noobini I was watching some cool houdini gamedev videos yesterday and saw that "straight_skeleton" node, then I saw your post, just tested it, played a bit with parameters, and used a poly bevel, had to isolate only 1 face by normals to make it work and is looking good, only thing would be again, making the outer points longer

 

@Librarian

Thanks for the info buddy! couldn't find that talk by Kim Goss on youtube, do you have the link?

Cheers!

 

 

 

[Aizatulin]

Hi,

if interested here is an approach from my side. Here are some ideas:

• define id sets for each prims (ideally each id represents one pipe), there can can be multiple ids [array] for each prim (if you want crossings)
• to make it easier, every id (pipe) value can represented by one int array containing the prims (dummy points can be used as storage)
• now these prims should be sorted by neighbour connectivity (to construct poly splines)
• once the prims are sorted, you can connect the prims centers (for example) and the the mid edge points for the inbetween neighbour edges
• now with the spline you can group the point, which are around 90°
• polybevel the grouped points

I'm not sure if this is working in every case, but each step should be substitutable.

prims_to_splinesB.hipnc

Edit: here is another modification. (adding offset(push) by prim average normals and another example using a prim selection)

 

prims_to_splinesD.hipnc

Edited May 13, 2020 by Aizatulin

[anim]

here is just a simple excercise of various group nodes, no VEX (apart from simple groupexpression oneliners)

the extension logic is just to connect top or bottom

ts_pipes_from_gridstripes.hip

[Librarian]

Here you have a link ..how to manipulate with chops, then I use this to find endless patterns ..Pretty much you can do what you want unlimited pipes(varies directions) ...I like them so
 

[caskal]

Hey guys, thanks a ton for all of these!

@anim now thats a use of groups, love that you made a setup without VEX (i know only couple lines of it so I would be struggling to modify if needed),

I added a dissolve and a bevel on the spline instead of resample and works like charm,  then I booled the roof, windows and pilars. THANKS!

@Aizatulin thanks for the hips and explanation, those setups gave me a cool result too, but my knowledge of VEX is limited at the moment, hope I can make something like that someday! 

@librarian thanks for the youtube and thread link buddy! super cool info there!

Cheers!