Duplicate Objects Along Edge¶

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/14288520/201220460-0bd7d0b2-dcf7-4c93-91b5-a928d266b9ef.png

Functionality¶

This node creates an array of copies of one (donor) mesh and aligns it along given recipient segment (edge). Count of objects in array can be specified by user or detected automatically, based on size of donor mesh and length of recipient edge. Donor mesh can be scaled automatically to fill all length of recipient edge.

Donor objects are rotated so that specified axis of object is aligned to recipient edge.

It is in general not a trivial task to rotate a 3D object along a vector, because there are always 2 other axes of object and it is not clear where should they be directed to. So, this node supports 3 different algorithms of object rotation calculation. In many simple cases, all these algorithms will give exactly the same result. But in more complex setups, or in some corner cases, results can be very different. So, just try all algorithms and see which one fits you better.

This node also can output transformation matrices, which should be applied to donor object to be aligned along recipient edge. By default, this node already applies that matrices to donor object; but you can turn this off, and apply matrices to donor object in another node, or apply them to different objects.

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Inputs¶

This node has the following inputs:

Vertices. Vertices of the donor mesh. The node will produce nothing if this input is not connected.
Edges. Edges of the donor mesh.
Polygons. Faces of the donor mesh.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/14288520/201330888-49b42b2e-fd4f-49a3-91d5-6c08863a9bd6.png

Vertex1. First vertex of recipient edge. This input is used only when “Fixed” input mode is used (see description of Input mode parameter below).
Vertex2. Second vertex of recipient edge. This input is used only when “Fixed” input mode is used.

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VerticesR. Vertices of the recipient mesh. This input is used only when “Edges” input mode is used.
EdgesR. Edges of the recipient mesh. These edges will be actually used as recipient edges. This input is used only when “Edges” input mode is used.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/14288520/201318700-6bed15f8-471a-41a1-820f-92c37bcd9630.png

Count. Number of objects in array. This input is used only in “Count” scaling mode (see description of Scale mode parameter below). Number-> List Input allowed to connect to count socket.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/14288520/201315561-08dcae28-9277-44c0-8763-ed3260406482.png

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Padding. Portion of the recipient edge length that should be left empty from both sides. Default value of zero means fill whole available length.

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Parameters¶

This node has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Scaling mode	Count Up Down Off	Count	Count: specify number of objects in array. Objects scale will be calculated so that copies will fill length of recipient edge. Up: count is determined automatically from length of recipient edge and size of donor mesh, and meshes are scaled only up (for example, if donor mesh is 1 unit long, and recipient edge is 3.6 units, then there will be 3 meshes scaled to be 1.2 units long each). Down: the same as Up, but meshes are scaled only down. Off: the same as Up, but meshes are not scaled, so there will be some empty space between copies.
Orientation	X / Y / Z	X	Which axis of donor object should be aligned to direction of the recipient edge.
Algorithm	Householder or Tracking or Rotation Difference	House holder	Householder: calculate rotation by using Householder’s reflection matrix (see Wikipedia article). Tracking: use the same algorithm as in Blender’s “TrackTo” kinematic constraint. This algorithm gives you a bit more flexibility comparing to other, by allowing to select the Up axis. Rotation difference: calculate rotation as rotation difference between two vertices.
Up axis	X / Y / Z	Z	Axis of donor object that should point up in result. This parameter is available only when Tracking algorithm is selected. Value of this parameter must differ from Orientation parameter, otherwise you will get an error.
Input mode	Edges or Fixed	Edges	Edges: recipient edges will be determined as all edges from the `EdgesR` input between vertices from `VerticesR` input. Fixed: recipient edge will be determied as an edge between the edge from `Vertex1` input and the vertex from `Vertex2` input.
Scale all axes	Bool	False	If False, then donor object will be scaled only along axis is aligned with recipient edge direction. If True, objects will be scaled along all axes (by the same factor). This parameter is available only in the N panel.
Apply matrices	Bool	True	Whether to apply calculated matrices to created objects. This parameter is available only in the N panel.
Count	Int	3	Number of objects in array. This parameter can be determined from the corresponding input. It is used only in “Count” scaling mode.
Padding	Float	0.0	Portion of the recipient edge length that should be left empty from both sides. Default value of zero means fill whole length available. Maximum value 0.49 means use only central 1% of edge.

Outputs¶

This node has the following outputs:

Vertices
Edges
Polygons
Matrices. Matrices that should be applied to created objects to align them along recipient edge. By default, this node already applies these matrices, so you do not need to do it second time.