Custom wooden supports?

Custom wooden supports?

I still haven't totally figured out the Auto wood supports, but have played with it. How can I change the spacing, height between ribbon boards, etc.? In essence, create supports where I want them on a coaster?

I'm wanting to do this b/c I'm working on an accurate coaster design, so would like the correct spacing. I'm pretty sure most ribbon boards on woodies are 6' apart, and I'm getting ledgers are about 8 feet wide and there is about 9' from ledger to ledger. The coaster I'm working on is American Eagle, and I think spacing between ledgers on new coasters may be tighter, anyone else come up with anything or think about this stuff? Thanks

Re: Custom wooden supports?

You can't use to the Auto Supports feature to do that. You have to do it yourself.

AV Matt
Long live the Big Bad Wolf

Re: Custom wooden supports?

^and how do I do that? Nodes/free nodes stuff? Sometimes hard to figure out the program, as it doesn't really come with a manual.

Hey thanks for responding AV, I was starting to think no one was out there

Re: Custom wooden supports?

Yeah, all I know is to create the nodes and connect the dots yourself. You could start by first using the auto-supports, then add in additional nodes and beams, but I don't think there is any other way to do it unless someone has created a third-party app to do all the work for you.

This is one of my gripes with the program as well. The scale of the auto-supports isn't right. The track area looks fine, but the structure isn't dense enough so when you look at a hill in profile, it doesn't look life-size as the spacing between the lateral supports is about double what it should be. But I'm sure it was done this way to cut down on objects rendering time on the computer. Even with the current structural density, my computers get bogged down when trying to animate a view with a lot of structure in it.

AV Matt
Long live the Big Bad Wolf

Re: Custom wooden supports?

I hear ya there, my computer is so old (I've updated with ram, etc., but I think it's an old graphics card) that watching a video is kinda slow...

I'm wondering if you could get into the code for the auto-supports, and change the spacing.