Making Piping

I posted this to uktrainsim just now, I thought it may be of use here too…

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I found an interesting way of making a ( 3 sided square section low poly) handrail last night.

Littleton 4 has a rather odd shaped saddle tank with a handrail running straight up the side and over the top.

I selected all of the side and top faces of the tank and used copy/paste to create another object.

I then shrank the new object in the Z (lengthways) direction to 0.03.
I selected all the faces and extruded by 0.03 with a bevel of 0.0

This gave a square rail, (with the underside face missing) that exactly followed the tank side shape – by scaling up all dimensions by about 5%, and pressing the andquot;smoothandquot; button, it perfectly matched the tank on the model.

I found this simpler than most I’ve tried so far.

I tend to make my piping using the face selection tool, and then use the arrow/axis tools to bend each face individually, then extrude it. andnbsp;I haven’t had much luck with the andquot;bendandquot; operation. Is there a better way?

Now for the what-if/program suggestion… sorry Richard!

What I would like to see is the ability to select a face at the end of a cylinder, then be able to right click on the selected face and a pop-up window would appear that would allow me to tilt the face only. andnbsp;

The way I would envision this, is that it would work just like with the andquot;whole objectandquot; properties box, but it would only affect the selected face. andnbsp;For instance… you select the end of a cylinder, enter a value of 30 deg on the x-axis. andnbsp;then extrude 1 foot or whatever amount. andnbsp;Select the new extruded end. andnbsp;Enter a value of 30 degreees for the new face (30 deg relative to current face – OR – 60 degrees relative to existing axis of object), extrude again. andnbsp;Now you have a cylinder made of three segments, with a perfect 90 degree curve. andnbsp;

Is this possible? andnbsp;One very nice option would be a check box that allows rotation of the cylinder end without distorting the diameter of the cylinder. andnbsp;Currently, it narrows as the points are rotated. andnbsp;(perhaps locking the axis of distortion would fix this one, I’ll try that)

Mike

Alan made this suggestion to create piping:

andquot;one way of getting a bend into a round pipe is to start with a torus and then use boolean subtraction to remove the 3/4 that you don’t need – this way you can get a perfect bend…. andnbsp;andquot;

see the whole thread at (Alan’s suggestion with pictures is on reply #9):

[img:3k8wg0j4]http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=3DCModelFeedback;action=display;num=1020229010;start=9[/img:3k8wg0j4]
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I tried it this way once, but had problems with scaling the finished pipe.

The rotate doesn’t actually andquot;distortandquot; or andquot;narrowandquot; as the extruded face is rotated if the face is rotated to the right orientation and then positioned properly. But this can be tricky.

If I were to create pipe I would probably use the Extrude andquot;toolandquot;.

[img:2d3s6lxj]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilis&#46;com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Attachments/pipe&#46;gif[/img:2d3s6lxj]

Richard

I agree that this would be a very nice option to have.

I also have struggled with curved piping.

Russ

I’m very sympathic. I too have had my share of scrapped experiments with rod bending.

If I knew more about coding, I’d give it a shot, but I need to learn more. andnbsp;If anyone is thinking about creating something for the trainsimmers, this would be welcomed… well at least by the two of us. andnbsp;

A new feature for 5.7 will be support for limited andquot;in placeandquot; editing of andquot;extrude toolandquot; objects. This means the entire scene is visible while you are extruding with the andquot;extrude toolandquot; so that you can size/position to the location you desire.

But, extrude objects are not particularly andquot;low polyandquot; so they may or may not be suitable for MSTS.

Richard

Yes, Alans method is my current preferred method for creating 90 degree pipe bends.

Works great.

I’ve been doing it by eye. It is the only real way to do in a case like this. And with the strange, compound angles required, I don’t think anything other than individual manual bends can works.

I am referring to the injector piping, which runs from the top of the boiler, just behind the front sand dome, down the side, along the running board, through the running board, under the boiler and firebox to below the cab. It consists of 248 poly’s, but it is a pretty important detail. andnbsp;And highly visible, so I had to do it right.

Thanks Marc.

Looks like I need to do a little ‘sperimenting with 3 sided pipes. andnbsp;Especially in a situation like mine where you can’t see the ends. andnbsp;The existing pipe was a lot of work and is about 125 poly’s so I’m going to leave this one, but will take your advise for future ones.

Mike

Hi Mike,

For something like your Y6 I would do them in 3-sides. You’ll have one face perpendicular to the model, with the other two set at about a 45-deg angle off that. Set a single smoothing group to the pipes and you’ll get a nice round effect, and no unwanted polys where no one will see them.

I too don’t like the fact that a rotated cylinder gets skewed – What I do is to make a clone, rotate the original ends, and then squish and stretch the cylinder to match the end profile of the cloned object…Once satisfied, I then delete the clone. An extra step, but works fine for now. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Cheers!
Marc – 3DTrains
[img:f38j7qgb]http&#58;//www&#46;3dtrains&#46;com[/img:f38j7qgb]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.3dtrains.com">http://www.3dtrains.com</a>&lt;!– m –>

Anyone have any suggestions on how many sides are really necessary on piping? andnbsp;I have been using 5. andnbsp;I believe with creasing, you can use 3 or 4. andnbsp;Any thoughts.