Presagis

Is there a possibility of having a script that could extend the strip face tool so that it has a length field ?

- so that you could have a series of polygons all with a consistent maximum available length.

Put in a value of say 2 and you couldn’t create a segment longer then that amount. So curves could be consistent in curvature as an example

Unfortunately scripts cannot extend existing tools. You could write a script that cuts the polygons after they are created, but I doubt this will solve your problem. A more feasible option is to extend the existing tool to contain this functionality.  Let me ask a few questions before I log the RFE for you…

Would you want this only in areas of curvature?
If not, would you want to control curved areas separate from straight?

We’d need this function in both straight and curved areas.  Its “simply” being able to limit the maximum length of a strip segment.  So ideally you could set a given limit in a numerical field, then the toll would indicate somehow when you exceeded that limit - color of the segment line changes? - maybe the strip sticks at that length but you could force it past that length, maybe a transparent overlay of the radius length - maybe the distance appears as an odometer reading Be nice to be able to turn on and off the length limit as you are building your strips so one area could be limited but not another without the need to restart the strip tool.

maybe the odometer is the simplest solution to implement

thanks for considering this - it would really help in standardizing our dbs

Thanks for the clarification.  So you don’t care if a segment is shorter than the limit but it shouldn’t be longer, correct? Do you care if the pieces are uniform size?  For instance, one way we could implement this is just artificially insert breaks along the segment at intervals equal in distance to the length limit. However if you set your limit to 2 meters, then create a 5 meter strip, you would end up with two 2 meter strip segments, and one 1 meter strip segment.  Would you rather the segments be equally sized? (three segments with a length of about 1.667 for the above case)
As for your odometer request, this already exists.  Simply launch the view panel and select the coord tab.  The distance field near the bottom tells you the distance between your last vertex, and the current vertex. (you may need to hold down the mouse button while entering the current vertex to see the resulting distance, but you can still drag the vertex to the correct location and the distance will update until you let go of the mouse button.)

kents Cents -

i asked for something similar a while ago, for strip faces and other polys that may be long and skinny regarding aspect ration, like runways.

i am mainly concerned with straight faces.  Curvature could be handled with “degrees” and “radius” for nice circular arcs, but if you have reason for placing points in a certain way, such as an eliptical arc, you may want variable segment length.  Of course, that’s why it is an option, right?

For straight faces, such as roads, runways, runway markings, etc, I have vertex shaders that raise them off of their underlying polygons.  It is more efficient than subfacing and allows for content to be layered mroe easily.  But it requires that there are enough vertices so that you are apppying the technique properly based on range.  A face that is too long will overcompensate and look silly.  once the long faces are “sliced and dices”, they mesh very well and really don’t take a significantly longer time to render.

So, it would be nice to have two enhancements:

A - the strip face tool have a max length, a radio box to enable and disable, and a parameter to set the max length like you can set the width.  These opioins would be dynamic, so you could change them mid-stream, as you can the width and “drop point”.  Whether around a curve or a straight piece, you sould insert vertices and edges along the path, similar to a light string with delta.  As you trace the path, it slices the long faces for you.

B - an after-creation tool (in case you use the runway wizard or something and want to slice the edge markings) you would set a reference edge and max length, and the tool would traverse selected polys and slice relevant faces parallel to the selcted edge.  Occasionally, there may be some small faces left over, but that would be prefereable to spending hours doing it by hand.

And the odometer does not really allow you to drop a vertex at exactly 10.0000m - you can get close, or you can drop the mouse and type it in, but it is not inherently useful on a macroscopic scale.

Thanks for the info Kent,

For request b, and as a temporary workaround, I just want to make sure you are aware of the Connect Edges tool.  It lets you select two edges and add any number of connecting edges that split the polygon. For a road, just select the two long edges, and you can easily split the rectangle into many smaller rectangles. It doesn’t do the maximum distance calculation for you, but it sounds like this distance is more of a rough guide than a hard and fast rule.  One cool thing about this tool is if you select the left and right edges of the entire strip face, you can subdivide along the strip face very easily.

havent’ seen that tool, sounds cool.  What pane is it on ?

Mod Face tool box.  4th row, 3rd Icon

Got it, tried it, good workaround for now ....  QWould prefere a deterministic length with “leftover” as opposed to equal divisiions.  For a 10,000m runway, selecting 49 subdivisions results in 50 polys exactly 200.000m long, but a 4350 runway might not be as easy to chop neatly.