Posted by Jerud Crandall on December 20, 2000 at 09:33:31:In Reply to: Re: Help - Need 3D Geodesic Dome House Model posted by Mike Wheeler on December 19, 2000 at 11:00:57:
Mike:
> You are the one who let me know about Dome 4.6, so without you we
> wouldn't be able to offer so much help to othersWell i guess the system works then! Sorry if i sounded curt, was just making a funny!
I have already done all your steps up to the making of a donut, which i did in order to export to a 2D drafting program so i could play w/ floorplans. So i'm up to the donut part. I'm not getting results after that. First, let me confirm that i understand what you're having me do (and why): When i create the polyline donut and set it on the bottom of my dome, i create a space enclosed by polylines -- bounded by the inside and outside by domes, and along the bottom edge by the donut. I gather that sending the grouped conglomeration thru merge machine, while generating a single shape, also "fills in" that enclosed space (sort of like virtual injection-molding), thereby yielding a solid shell. Is that reasoning correct? I like to know the how and why of these things. If my understanding is correct, this technique would be useful for a number of other applications, and especially useful to those who regularly import .dxf wireframes. Nifty!
Back to my process -- i'm not sure how it is i'm supposed to make this polyline donut out of one line. I must have missed something about using polylines. I have no trouble tracing the inside and then the outside of the donut to create two polylines, but how do i make a polyline object with a hole through it? My only thought is that when i return to the first vertex where i started the outer ring, i jump over to the inner ring and make a loop there. But as soon as i click on that first vertex, DW closes the polyline for me. I'd appreciate a hint as to what i'm forgetting.
Anyhow, since i didn't want to mess with making the polyline donut, i just went and traced the outside of the original donut, making a polyline disk. I then slapped this up against the bottom of the outer shell of the dome, deleting the inner shell. I figured i'd try this simpler construct first (i expected it would yield a geodesic hemisphere). This may be where i made my mistake. So i used this file to upload to merge machine but i have problems with the file i am returned. It doesn't appear that the whole file gets saved (save dialog appears briefly and then goes away). The effect of this is that when opening the file in DW, the progress bar goes halfway and then dies. Is this a problem with the file i'm submitting or something else? I just confirmed that i don't have any trouble when using the lathe or tree machines.
Thanks for your help!!!
jerud
P.S.
If you could, can you look into the problem i'm having with orienting my arbitrary working axes, too? I imagine i'll need that in order to easily make objects which are perpendicular to my new solid shell, or in order to make cuts for windows that are oriented normally to the plane they're on.