Hi,

I want to copy an object along a path and orient it to the normal of each point. Just like the sweep sop, but I need control over each object, so I'd like to use the copy sop.

How can I orient the objects to the normal of each cv of the curve?

I tried the convert sop (to poly) and some other ways, but can get it…

Any help would be appreciated!

Thx,
Chris

use Polyframe SOP to create tangent and up vector for your curve
then use attribute SOP to rename
“normal” to “up”
“tangentu” to “N”
(because just specifying name in polyframe doesn't always work with “N”)

in closed curves you need to use “tangentv” as “N” to get tangent vector
you can also create arbitrary “up” if you want to avoid some problems

copy SOP will then compute rotation automatically according to “up” and “N”

or use this method
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1242&Itemid=132 [sidefx.com]

Works perfectly! Thanks so much!

Greetz,
Chris

@tamte - great advice Much easier than the link you posted actually, needed something like this!

Great trick, thank you!!!


12++

+1, thank you!

eitht.

This method only seems to work on a curved line. Guess that makes sense if it's based on the tangent of a curve.
If you copy objects along a straight line, and rotate the line in space, all objects are still aligned to world space.
The sweep trick worked though.

I want to post my network, hoping someone can verify as accurate to what tamte mentioned in the 2nd post of this thread. Except how can I get the tubes tighter to the curve ?

As well how do I preview the point normals, I added an attribute create and set the value to N but no point normals are displayed ?

tamte
use Polyframe SOP to create tangent and up vector for your curve
then use attribute SOP to rename
“normal” to “up”
“tangentu” to “N”
(because just specifying name in polyframe doesn't always work with “N”)

in closed curves you need to use “tangentv” as “N” to get tangent vector
you can also create arbitrary “up” if you want to avoid some problems

copy SOP will then compute rotation automatically according to “up” and “N”

or use this method
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1242&Itemid=132 [sidefx.com]

Very nice tip and thank you very much !
Could you explain a bit, why you need to do those steps ?