Orient component - examples and explanation

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on July 23, 2012 at 7:27pm

It orients objects based on reference planes. 

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 24, 2012 at 2:13am

Thank you for the reply Michael.

But I did not understand you.

The red surfaces represent what?

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on July 24, 2012 at 7:09am

flat triangle is original surface, in one we orient it by xz plane which makes the triangle standing up straight. In second we use a rectangle surface as a plane. so the triangle is now oriented the same crooked way as the rectangle. It just performs tue proper 3d rotation to orient an object based on anothers orientation in space.

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 24, 2012 at 9:41am

Thank you for the reply.

Can you post the definition and .3dm file please?

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on July 24, 2012 at 9:48am

i deleted it, its rather simple, make a surface, any surface, then orient it to a plan like zx and you will see. Its the same as rotation except the plane is telling the object how much to rotate and on what axis.

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 24, 2012 at 11:19am

I see. Maybe I am starting to understand it, now that you pointed out the similarity between the Rotate and Orient component.

But how to orient a random angled surface to a XY plane, for example?

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on July 24, 2012 at 12:14pm

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 24, 2012 at 3:19pm

Thank you for the help and reply Michael.

What confuses me the most (as a beginner) is that sometimes in Grasshopper a certain "shortcuts" can be used, instead of longer, but "basic school example" solutions. For example few days ago I found out that "rounding numbers" component is not necessary, as some other component which requests an Integer numbers, will automatically converts Real numbers at input into Integer numbers.

In this example, it took me a while to understand that Orient component has some sort of it's own way of recognizing if an "A" input is a plane. That is why I was confused with your last image, when you simple input the surface (geometry) itself into the "A" input of Orient component, and Orient component just recognized this flat surface, as a plane too, and "accepted" this input.

As a beginner, I did it this way:
I need a plane input (reference plane), so I need to create a plane somehow.

I tried doing it, either by "Pl(Plane)" component, by exploding the surface and taking it's edges as an inputs for the Pl(Plane) components x and y axis:

Or by evaluating the surface with 3 random points and then getting the plane from those three points:

I know this may be more stupid, and longer solution, but that is the one I understand.

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on July 24, 2012 at 3:47pm

whatever works, and round component is good if you want to choose to round up or round down.

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 24, 2012 at 3:58pm

Ok thank you once again.

The important part is that you explained me that Orient component is similar to Rotate, and that it needs and input geometry, reference plane, and target plane.

I guess I just talk too much.