DBUG> More than 36 Points needed

[Geoff Ward_Able <planmast@intekom.co.za>]

Ave, all...

Getting really frustrated today:

DataCAD's 3D modelling functions allow you to do almost anything, and
easily (most times) - BUT it has some achilles heels:
the 36 point limit is killing me! It is fine for most architectural (in the
sense of building structure) needs, but falls way short in the realm of
Interior design work, especially furniture.

A case in point: (just one of a few today):
Trying to model a U-shaped channel that is a small section of a wide-radius
arc (in other words, a U-shape extruded along an arc perpendicular to the
uprights of the U) with a neon tube set into the channel.

Sweep of 3D Power Tools would do this nicely, I would think, but I don't
have it yet (Ever hopeful for DC-Modeller, like a twit). Then again it
might have the same failings:
RevSurf makes the channel easily enough, but I only need a section of it,
so I explode it to Polygons, but at the wide radius, the section I want
contains only 2 1/2 channel "modules" - way to blocky to use.
I ended up modelling a small section and CircArray copying it to fill the
segment needed.

Now the neon tube:
Torus! Surely the easiest spot of modelling now...not! Again the freaking
36point lurgy pulls its tongue at me. Also uses 36 points on the circle,
not the arc in question, and is too blocky to use. Once again a powerful
feature in DataCAD shoots itself in the foot.
Can the algorithm for these things not be modified to devide the arc length
by 36 and not base calculations on the full circle? At least then I could
string a few Torii (?) together to get a smooth tube.
After all, that is all I did: create a small piece of torus, and CircArray
it to make up the segment length required.

I'll get off the soapbox now if anyone else needs it (Soapboxes are easy to
model too, you know)

                                    Geoff Ward_Able

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