Create Point Surface Project

[Travis_Buchanan]

Why is it sometimes you can't get a point to project on a surface? I know the surface is there and I know the point is above it and points are falling all around it but some go and some don't what is up with this? I am set to project normal to plane.

[BernieT]

I don't think I've ever seen it not work.

 

?????????

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Are projecting "normal" or "view". Normal == perpendicular to the surface. View == straight down in Z of the CPlane. Note also that, since "normal" projection can sometimes give you unwanted solutions away from where you might expect (curved surfaces will do that), there is a "maximum distance" value that you control (only in "normal") that says don't allow solutions when the point you're projecting is more than that distance away from a solution. For instance: a line running down a cylinder is actually normal to the surface at 2 locations - where it lies and on the opposite side of the cylinder. If the maximum distance is less than the cyl diameter, only one solution (the one where the line is) will be found. If the max distance is greater than the cyl diameter, it'll find both

 

(whew.....)

[Travis_Buchanan]

I have had trouble a number of times with getting points to project normal to view when I know there is a surface there for them to go on. Yesterday I was trying to project a grid of points down onto a patchwork surface 78 points out of 100 went. No projections found for the other 12 points. The points that it missed were not all buched together, it was on here and one there, and points fell all around the ones that did not. The points that did not fall were not at surface intersections either, some were in the center of the surface. I have at times mirrored all the geometery about the y axis and got the some of the points to project after mirroring, then mirror all geometery back. I finished the part I was working on yesterday but the next time I see this I will put the mc9 file on the ftp. I can't believe no one else has seen this.

[Travis_Buchanan]

OK here it is. Point_Project.mc9 on the ftp. All points but 2 will project.

[LaszloK]

Travis, that is an interesting problem. I don't know why they will not project. I was able to connect the point with a line and then project the line onto the surface using the create->curve->project function. You can then creat points at the end of the projected curve, but the point project function should work. Not much help, I know.

[BernieT]

Sorry, no help here either, maybe send it to CNC. Have not seen that before.

 

I tried it in Rhino and it worked fine.

[camguy]

Travis, the surface has a wrinkle in it. If you analyze dynamic and drag your cursor down from the top edge slowly, you will see it jump suddenly. There is a lot of "noise" in the surface in this area and that makes it difficult to project onto. Have a look at the goemetry used to create the suface and see if you can reduce the number of control points on the splines.