thrasherstudios77 Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 What's up Is there a tool in Houdini that is like Maya's Bi-Rail tool. For those that don't know, the Bi-Rail tool in Maya uses Nurbs curves as rails and then a nurbs curve between them as a profile, and from these curves creates a surface. Here is a Birail +1 example: 2 curves for the rails and 1 profile curve (Please refer to curve.gif for an image of the curves and surface1.gif for the resulting surface links at bottom of post) Here is another example with the Birail tool but with multiple profile curves 2 rail curves and 3 profile curves: (Please refer to curve2.gif for an image of the curves and surface2.jpg for the resulting surface links at bottom of post) Basically this tool takes the profile curves, as many as you need, and rails them along the rail curves creating a surface. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrasherstudios77 Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 Sorry the images are not showing up. Not sure how you attach an image to a post, can someone tell me how? My post will make alot more sense with the images attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anakin78z Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 would the rails sop do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 The rails SOP is definitely what you're looking for. Just remember that the template curves need to have the same point count. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrasherstudios77 Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 Hey it seems to be exactly what I was looking for but I tried to use it and could not get it to work. I created two rail curves set both to nurbs type curves. They are just straight lines offset from each other Then I created my profile curve that is placed between them, also a nurbs curve. In the Rail SOP I connected my profile curve into the first input and then I tried conncected both my rail curves to the second input, doesn't work though. When I connect the second rail curve into the second input of the Rail SOP it disconncects the first rail curve. So I tried to first use a merge SOP to connect both curves and then apply the merge SOP into the second input of the Rail SOP. Still doesn't work. In Maya the profile curves have to be actually touching the rail curves or snapped to them for the BI Rail tool to work, is this the same in Houdini? Could anyone provide a file which I could check out, see how everything works. Something really basic just so I could get the general idea. I would really appretaite it BTW how do you attach an image to you post? Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 Skin SOP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anakin78z Posted February 25, 2003 Share Posted February 25, 2003 I just tried it and it worked fine. drew 2 curve sops which are the rails, 7 points each. merged those together. drew another curve which is my cross section. didn't have to be touching, in fact, it wasn't anywhere near the rails ( I was lazy ). Plugged that one into the first input of the rails sop, and the merge into the second. Voila. Cheers, Jens P.S. you can add images as file attachments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG Posted February 25, 2003 Share Posted February 25, 2003 Oh and, I'd say Skin SOP aswell. I will show some examples, of how I do it, tomorrow... Tired rightnow Anakin, you have an incredibly handsome face. You know that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrasherstudios77 Posted February 25, 2003 Author Share Posted February 25, 2003 I gave up on the Rail SOP and tried the Skin SOP and it worked like a charm. Just like the birail tool in Maya except alot easier to work with, no making sure the profile curves are snapped to the rail curves. I have a question though about parameterization of the profile curves and rail curves. If I have multiple profile curves do they need to have the same number of spans or CV's as well do the rail curves have to have the same parameterization. BTW I saw that Anakin78z used the Rail SOP before the skin SOP. What exactly does the Rail SOP do. When I tried it it took my profile curves and like flattened them to the rail curves but no surface was created, not sure how to use this tool. Thanks to you guys for the replies, it is really helping my sanity levels from hitting the roof. BTW I used the file attach feature but when I submitted my post there was no image displayed. I see that there is an img tag just like in HTML under the Code Buttons section but cannot seem to make it work. I just want to attach images to most posts, help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anakin78z Posted February 25, 2003 Share Posted February 25, 2003 here's a hipfile which shows the use of the rails sop. It's actually a pretty nifty sop. rails.hip.gz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrasherstudios77 Posted February 27, 2003 Author Share Posted February 27, 2003 Anakin thanks I get it now that file was very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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