Patches

[Ravenhook]

The dreaded patch!

I need to cover a very long set of downward sloping steps and am thinking along the lines of enclosing them in a tunnel, I have found this portal to be the best looking type (darkmod/architecture/modules/exteriors/ext_stone02_plain/ext_stone02_arch01) for my needs, I am exploring several ways to make the long tunnel tube and a cylinder patch inverted is one of the options, I have created the invert patch and dragged it to an oval to get the correct shape to match the arch model but I need to angle the patch cylinder..so my question is...

1..Is there a way to clip the patch so that the ends will be vertical irrespective to the cylinders angle and..

2..is there a way to cut the lower half of the patch off as I only need the upper half for the tunnel roof.

Thank you.

D.

P.S using an endcap patch method I will still need to cut the ends parallel to the arch model.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Ravenhook

[RPGista]

Im not sure I quite get it, but the secret to working with patches is to master the vertex editing. They work in a vertex points + control point relationship. Using those, you can build pretty much anything using separate pieces. As long as the vertez points share the same position, and the control points are coplanar, the mesh will work. I have written a couple of patch articles in the wiki. There are a few videos on youtube as well that are very useful, I remember some good ones by Komag.

[VanishedOne]

You can probably cut the bottom off the patch with Scripts -> Split patch in DR, although it's a bit finnicky (it requires suitable verts to be selected first, and if it still fails, try a different grid size; also, it will mess up your Undo stack).

[Ravenhook]

Difficult to explain so I have taken a couple of screen shots, the first is made up using half a cylinder, clipped and given the correct angle to the stairs...it's not good and done in a hurry.

The second is made up with an end cap which looks very nice but I dont know how to get the angle of the first one to cover the steps.

Hope that explains it better.

(So I managed to get the pictures the wrong way around)

Edited October 26, 2018 by Ravenhook

[RPGista]

For the patches to match you need 3 things:

 

- The same number of vertex rows (along the edges you are going to match);

- Make sure the patches are snapped to the grid (while selected, press V to enter vertices edit mode, box select all of them (Shift select) and CTRL+G if needed);

- With both patches selected and on vertices edit mode, just move the vertices that need to be "joined" by dragging them manually, either as a group or individually, so that every vertex from one patch shares the same coordinate (on the grid) with the respective vertex from the other.

 

You can find further information on this wiki article I wrotte back in the day (english not that good): http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Patch_constructions

 

Either way, in masonry construction, very rarelly do you see clean, minimalistic shapes meeting each other. You'll usually find structural elements where different surfaces meet. Even if sometimes that does happen to be the usual way of building, no one will mind if you place structural elements wherever shapes intersect, not only does that help you fix any alignment issues instantly, it also makes the whole geometry far more interesting to look at.

[Ravenhook]

Thank you, I will try that out this afternoon.

[Destined]

To extend a bit on what RPGista wrote: In your case, I would use the side view (top right in your first picture), select the patch and hit "V". There should appear a couple of green and magenta squares. group-select all squres on the rightern side of the patch and pul them upwards until you have the slope of the stairs. It helps a lot if you have points you can orient yourself on, e.g. if you have the stairs present, you can move them up until the lowest vertex point is on the same line as the top of the uppermost step.

[Ravenhook]

Thank you for your help, I have been practicing all day and come u with this....

[Ravenhook]

Thank you for your help, I have been practicing all day and come u with this....

I'm quite pleased with it and I have learned something about patches and manipulating them.