Auto-correcting mechanisms for flex track

[kimbo]

Dear Developers,

Firstly, thank you once more for producing such an easy-to-use software.

One of the features which gives me the most trouble, I would say is getting the flex track to look just right. For example, I may have a piece of flex track that has just the tiniest of imperfection and I find it rather difficult to manually resolve those imperfections - it's a bit of the same thing when one wants to do a U turn using flex track - I find it really difficult to get the flex track to do a perfect 90 or 180 degrees turn.

I think it would be great if we had some sort of feature where you could just right click and then something that would allow the CPU to calculate what would make it straighten out or give it the best curvature.

Hope that makes sense --- meanwhile, would love some tips on how to make the perfect 90 degrees or 180 degrees flex track curve!

Cheers,

[David]

There is a way to get perfect straight or curved pieces of flex.
Right click the flex track, and select 'Adjust flex...'.
If you select 'Straight flex...', you have to set a length and the flex will be adjusted accordingly.
If you select 'Curve flex...', you have to enter a radius and an angle. The software will calculate an almost perfect arc for you.

A comment on the arcs: the flex is internally represented as a Bezier curve. For this reason the arc that you see is not always perfectly circular. It might deviate slightly from the perfect arc by about 1 percent. The greater the angle, the worse the effect.
For the same reason,you cannot create an arc over 90 degrees. Of course you can create two arcs from two pieces of flex, and simply connect them.

Hope this helps!

David.

[kimbo]

Thanks for that, David - Oh man, I wish I had gotten that tip about angle and radius this out a little bit sooner - I tried it out a couple times at first but didn't seem to quite get the hang of it.  I hadn't quite figured out how to do use the curve flex mechanisms - and so haven't had great luck getting the flex track to do perfect 90 or 180 degree turns. I had managed to work around it, but that tip's going to save me loads of time!

Cheers!

[csa02221862]

'Adjust Flex' is ALWAYS greyed out? Never been able to usse it. Any idea why?


Thanks,
Rich

There is a way to get perfect straight or curved pieces of flex.
Right click the flex track, and select 'Adjust flex...'.
If you select 'Straight flex...', you have to set a length and the flex will be adjusted accordingly.
If you select 'Curve flex...', you have to enter a radius and an angle. The software will calculate an almost perfect arc for you.

A comment on the arcs: the flex is internally represented as a Bezier curve. For this reason the arc that you see is not always perfectly circular. It might deviate slightly from the perfect arc by about 1 percent. The greater the angle, the worse the effect.
For the same reason,you cannot create an arc over 90 degrees. Of course you can create two arcs from two pieces of flex, and simply connect them.

Hope this helps!

David.

[David]

Hi Rich,

To use those functions, the flex track needs to be disconnected.
They don't work when either end is connected to other track.

To disconnect the track, right click on it and select 'Disconnect'.

Hope this helps,

David.

[csa02221862]

Well, not really. My problem is the 'kink' between two or more sections of flex track  causing what appears to be a slightly wavy line or where the flex track is connected to a fixed geometry piece of track. There needs to ba a way to adjust sections of 'connectd' track. I understand the use of the two handeles in flex track but, that need to be able to be moved on an angle not just 'in and out'. I have seen this feature with several drawing programs.

Hi Rich,

To use those functions, the flex track needs to be disconnected.
They don't work when either end is connected to other track.

To disconnect the track, right click on it and select 'Disconnect'.

Hope this helps,

David.

[David]

Hi Rich,

I'm not completely sure what you mean, but if the endpoint of the track is connected, the associated 'control point' can only move on a straight line that is exactly aligned with the fixed track it is connected to. This has to do with the geometric representation of the flex where each pair of two points define the angle of the endpoint of the flex.

This explanation might make things appear more complicated then they are.
Maybe our flex track tutorial explains it more clearly.

If not, could you please upload a plan that explains the issue?

Thanks a lot in advance.

David.