what exactly is the index map output of sort along curve

So I've been playing a bit with sort along curve, and I can't ever seem to use the index map like its intended to be used(is it intended to be used?). does anyone have a good tutorial/background information on what is going on with it?

this is a little isolated example from one of my definitions to illustrate my woes.

So sometimes I try to play with the map output and do some ninjitsu on it. But the results are normally I fool myself into thinking its working, only to find out the next day its not. After a few weeks of finding work arounds to along curve index maps I've decided to see if anyone has the skinny on what it really going on.

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Permalink Reply by Jonah Hawk on August 22, 2012 at 8:17pm

Without your def, it's hard to tell what the tree structure is like. But I think I understand.

I think you want the same list going into the L and the I inputs. Keep the I output of the SortAlongCurve component.

You're basically replacing a list with the same list but rearranging the order. So use the same objects (values) as replacements using the index order supplied by the SortAlongCurve output.

make sense?

Permalink Reply by Donald E Vance on August 22, 2012 at 9:49pm

I should say I always seem to make do without sort along curve index maps, but sort along curve has whispering promises to simplify things, and I would love to understand what it is doing. so this is a strictly academic question for now I suppose.

As I understood what you suggested you were thinking that the issue was in list replace not the index map, which could be but changing the starting list, L, had no impact on the results. As I understand list replace, It goes to the index of L which is received in i and replaces that value with the first value of I. So it does make sense that the starting list L is more or less irrelevant regarding ordering in this case.

Anyways I decided I really wanted to know whats what, and I made a little example definition with an accompanied piece of example geometry.

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