Moho Forum

I just thought of a script that might be useful and relatively easy to write.
Extrude...... imagine extruding text for example automatically , without having to stitch the two copies together as you can do with many other apps.
Just an idea...

Can you give a visual example of "extrude"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrude

Certainly, here's an extruded X , it didn't take much to stitch a simple letter together, but it could get tedious for a sentence or a more complicated shape.
I shaded it for the sake of communication, obviously the colouring is not needed for the script, automatic shape creation could be cool though.
If the front shape and back shapes are named groups, then changing the orientation and illusion of perspective is easy to achieve once the extrusion is done.

Yeah! It can be done with a script

One problem I see is this: Would be only valid for letters or for any kind of shape. I'm thinking on internal points that can produce strange perspective lines. Only contour points should be extruded.

Wicked ! This could be one of those features that people take for granted, I'm sure it would be used often by many users.
Thanks for replying on this idea Genete.

as a greenhorn could you explain the process
you went through to make the above
extruded x? I liked your effect!

Toonertime,

Easy. Just copy and paste the "X" shape and offset the position, use the add point tool to drag/connect new splines to the outer points. Like drawing a cube by connecting the corners of two squares.

Then of course the hard part, you have to select points and create shapes for all of the "extruded" areas. Depending on the complexity of the shape this is really... not fun.

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The problem I see with scripting this is knowing which point is which. Off the top of my head without testing it I am pretty certain copy/paste maintains the order of the points... but I'm not certain.

If it does then this should be a simple matter of connecting "matching" points in a table. You put the list of points of the original shape in a table, copy/paste/offset those points within the script putting those NEW points in the table, then connect the matching points.

Then of course you have to create the shapes... or could that be done by hand?

In order to automatically create the shapes you would need to be able to group the points logically when the extruded connections are made. The script would also need to "know" what order the shapes are in.

This would almost be an "off shoot" of your 3D script with shape ordering Genete... the only difference is that in that script the shapes are created and hand first. This would be a very cool and helpful script to be used with that 3D script. You could quickly create 3D text or shapes that could then be rotated.

Genete, do you think some of the code from your 3D scripts could be used for this possibly? This sounds exciting to me. It's the "missing piece" that would make that 3D thing really fast and cool.

-vern

This would almost be an "off shoot" of your 3D script with shape ordering Genete... the only difference is that in that script the shapes are created and hand first. This would be a very cool and helpful script to be used with that 3D script. You could quickly create 3D text or shapes that could then be rotated.

Hey Vern, this is actually what I had been quietly thinking to myself , in regards to Genetes 3d script, even though , as you have clearly established, I had only been expressing interest in an initial 2d exploration of the joining of corresponding shapes.
The issue of crating shapes is not really the crux of the matter is it? A definite luxurious extra it would be though.

chucky wrote: The issue of crating shapes is not really the crux of the matter is it? A definite luxurious extra it would be though.

If creating shapes could be "phase 2" that would make it easier*


-vern

* "easier" is a highly technical scientific term meaning "less than really freaking hard" or "not quite impossible".

more of a 2d concept would be nice to. Like one button that you would click and it would copy all selected points and paste them and allow you to move them around while they are connected to the origin points.

It would really help a lot!