Is it possible to draw Curved Walls

Hi,
I'm new to FM and thanks to these forums and the help, I'm getting my head around it.

I want to draw a room that has a semi-circular wall at the top. (I like to show raised walls as per the tutorial).

I haven't been able to work out how to do this. Can any one advise if it is possible please?

Cheers
Zeneshal

Comments

  • Are you working with vector walls or walls with graphical raster fills?
  • Hi Mark,
    Unfortunately you are talking at a level beyond my understanding.

    I just grabbed the software and started drawing. I have a workaround at the minute where I draw a circle, give it the characteristics of a wall and send it to the back so the outer curve protrudes beyond the floor.

    I would have like to use some sort of "arc polygon" but I can't see any way to do this.

    Regards,
    Doug
  • Zeneshal wrote:
    Unfortunately you are talking at a level beyond my understanding.

    If that's the case, I would urge you strongly to work your way through the two tutorials. FM8 is simple to use, and you can do the tutorials in a few days time. Once you've done them, you'll be able to do most of what you want to do, regardless of what it is, or you'll know where to look up how to do it, if it's slipped out of memory.

    Vector mapping in general uses vector symbols and objects made with solid colors from the FM8 color bar. (This is an extremely simplified definition, but it should work for the time being.)

    Raster mapping in general uses bit map symbols and bit map fill styles.

    The basic FM8 tutorial deals almost exclusively with vector mapping in this sense. You can get this tutorial free at:

    http://www.nbos.com/nox/index.php&id=125

    After you've worked your way through that get the advanced raster mapping tutorial free at:

    http://www.nbos.com/vintyri/pdftu01.zip

    and the free supporting materials at:

    http://www.nbos.com/vintyri/tu01sptpack01.zip

    There may be an easy way to make a broken circle in raster format in FM8, but if so, I have to admit that I don't know what it is. I tend to make such raster objects with The GIMP or Paint.net and bring them as raster symbols into FM8.

    Based upon what you've written, I assume you're making vector objects. Making a broken circle on vector level is easy. Simply pick the color that you want and use the arc tool to make the brokencirclel. Once you've made the basic arc, mark it. Then click the menu options Object and Line Style to define the thickness of the wall. See the sample below, where I used a scale of 3 feet.



    As long as the arc is marked, the nodes remain visible. With the left mouse key pressed upon a node, you can fine tune the shape and size of an arc.
    arc.jpg 37.3K
  • Are you talking about something like this:



    This is done by placing two concentric circles on the map, and combining them in XOR mode (Action -> Combine Polygons - Exclude( XOR)).
    Then use the vector flood fill to 'fill' that combined shape - that will create a polygon that represents the filled shape.
    To get a semi-circle, place some lines across the shape to prevent the flood fill from filling the entire shape.

    Once you have the final shape, apply the texture & bevel.

    You can also use a fixed-width line (Set it to X feet), and then use the vector flood fill to fill that in, producing a solid shape that can be textured.
  • When you follow Ed's advice, note that the Vector Flood Fill tool is misnamed as "Raster Flood Fill."

  • Thank you so much everyone for all your help, I have a bit of learning to do yet I can see.
    Mark thanks especially for the links to the tutorials, I'd somehow managed to miss those.

    I shall happily get Fracted now. :-)

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