Orienting surface using a point.

Hi guys,

I am having problems orienting a surface using a point. Basically what I want to do is by moving the point, the surface moves along with the point, effectively creating a right angle between the line and the surface (orienting based on the normal of the surface).

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Hanley on November 20, 2013 at 11:30am

Some logic to try might be:

1- evaluate surface, (this gives center point and normal of surface)

2- create a vector from an attractor point to the center of the surface, (or multiple surfaces)

3-create a plane normal, (creates a plane perpendicular to a vector), from the vector in step 2 and the center point from step 1

4-orient the surface from the existing normal to the plane normal in step 3.

a key concept in this approach involves reparameterizing the surface when evaluating. Give it a try and see how far you get.

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wong on November 21, 2013 at 3:13am

thanks guys, will give it a try and see how it goes.

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wong on November 21, 2013 at 3:31am

so i tried them out, it was as simple as drawing a line from the centre of the surface to the point, using pframes on the line then orient, i guess i was suffering from a slight mind block yesterday. thanks for the help again!

Permalink Reply by Chris Hanley on November 21, 2013 at 9:48am

glad you were able to work it out. this was a quick sketch of the logic I had mentioned. I like your approach though, very direct!