Hallo, as far as I know I can just mirror, move, etc the whole Spline. Just for a better work experience it would be helpful to operate with the segments. It gets really messy sometimes. No clue if it possible to improve it. @Douglas u know if could work
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Not easy to do with the way the ops tools currently work. When you add objects to an ops tool the only information that is added is the object Id number. There’s no way to tell the ops tool what segments of a curve / spline you want to use.
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Hello, @MG2024
I totally agree with you and have already discussed this with @Douglas
with the same reply.
My work-around is to make a simple spline, using the angle of the preceding spline (+180°) wherever possible, especially when I know I’m going to move/mirror/rotate only a segment, just to keep my work as tidy as possible. Unfortunately, this method is not always possible, but it does help.
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Ich kann Grace und MG2024 gut verstehen. Es ist immer wieder verwirrend, wenn man Teilabschnitte einer Kurve brauch aber die ganze Kurve spiegeln muss. Dann kommen solche Gebilde raus - ist mir heute wieder so gegangen
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Solves the problem of “splines”, but not the issue of using a curve / arc / spline segmented by a “Point On” tool.
I don’t want to get in the weeds of how we get from the xml pattern to the data container to the graphic display… but the issue with either splines (which you can think of a curve with points IN the path) or curves / arcs / splines with point(s) ON the path that gives us the various segments - is that the “curve” is a single tool. 1 tool, 1 data Object, 1 graphic item. It’s why you can’t select “segments” of a curve - which would make more sense… such as creating a pattern piece where you might select seg1, point, seg2, point, seg3.
I’m not saying that there may not be a way to show / hide which segments we wish to see… it’s just not going to be a straight forward task. It’s complicated by the fact that ops tools and splines… like every other tool are dynamically created - as are the variables. So the spline or spline path names are created on the fly.
Hypothetical… we create a (simple) curve. Put a Point On the curve… so now we have 3 curve lengths. Then use the move tool with just the curve Spl_A_A1. but not the point A2
So then lets say we only wanted the Spl_A_A2 segment in the Move to show.
What happens if we delete point A2? There no longer is the segments Spl_A_A2 and Spl_A2_A1… so how is the Move tool supposed to display only the segment Spl_A_A2 when it no longer exists?
What really has to happen is the Point On tools need to is actually “cut” the curve / arc / spline into a point, and 2 new curve / arc / spline segments. So now you can select just the segment(s) you would want to opertate on.
Of course the Point On tool is semantically different than Splines, the function is basically the same. The spline tools would need to be refactored to create multiple segments (graphic objects) rather than just 1, but then it would be doing exactly as @Grace has pointed out as her work around. That’s all splines are anyways… just a series of simple curves with the internal point handles locked at 180 degs apart. Maybe it would make more sense to have a “Break Spline” tool that does just that - breaks a spline up into a series of curves?
BTW… because as usual when someone has a request I took a look at the ops tools. Since there’s already an existing request, and I now have a better understanding of how the ops tools work, I’m working on adding the color and line attributes to the ops tools destination objects.