I am trying to replicate the crystals to the inner surface of the half sphere (orange), Can not get it to work satisfactorily, as it would in the outside of a sphere, even with a shading domain?

Any advice appreciated

Brian

bwtr

 Since the replicators will align the replicated object with the normal, you may need to flip the normals. Typically, they point to the outside of the sphere. 

Thanks Mark but I think Carrara has had a crazy!
I started from scratch trying to get a small cylinder to arrary around a sphere--even trying the normals flip,

It's not working properly--and I seem to have done it before countless times?

GGggggggrrrrr

Brian

bwtr

 What exactly is happening? 

All the cylinders should be sticking out from the surface! Crazy! Brian

bwtr

 Hate to ask a silly question but have you enabled "Align to Normal" with the little checkbox in the surface replicator? 

Still wrong! Different wrongness! Brian

bwtr

Does this give any clues? Similar look to the originl posts hot point settings. Brian

bwtr

Probably of no help! The VERY rough idea here, using a MoI array of a simple crystal shape, and bringing into Carrara as a .obj file.

Brian

bwtr

And the MoI array. Brian

bwtr

 There is simply something in your set up that is getting overlooked.I was able to get everything to work here as intended. :-/

when you created the cylinder that you are trying to use via the surface replicator did you create it within the vertex modeller or use a preset object. The reason I ask this is because if you turn the object to a different angle it will have affect as to the direction it is pointing with regards to its placement upon the sphere. Also as mark states, if you want the cylinders within the half sphere you do need to flip the normals of the sphere.

The sphere and the cylinder efforts are all with the default Assembly Room ones.
And as the example, flipping the normals changed things but not effectively.
Thank you both.
Will start AGAIN from scratch and see if I can find a solution.

Brian

bwtr

Taking it VERY quietly, checking everything I can think of, I just can not get the cone to array properly on the sphere. Using the Assembly Room or Vertex Room objects makes no difference!

Can someone confirm if they CAN get the cone to array please.

Brian

bwtr

As you can see, I have managed to set them up to follow the sphere shape though they are a little random and when I flip the object upside-down the generated forms also flip.

I would be happy with that--IF I could achieve it!
Can you show me a close up of your hot point setup and initial cone placement please?

Brian

bwtr

If you're going to model all those objects, might as well use Replica.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Good idea Shawn, much as I had done with the MoI alternative, but, for me, it does not solve the problem of WHY its not working for me as it "used?" to!

Brian

bwtr

If it looked like an array in the past using Carrara's replicator, it may have been just luck.  I don't know if Carrara 7 does arrays like Inagoni's Replica does.

That was a box overlay that I used on the sphere array.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

I have kept Replica updated--it has some features/benefits still over the Carrara Replicator.

I just want to solve this "simple"?????? Surface Replication difficulty--I have done it countless times and why is it a problem now?

Brian

bwtr

All I did was to drop a sphere and cone into the window and a surface replicator, then just drag the cone directly onto the replicator and select the sphere as the source. I made no adjustments to the hot point setups etc. If you want me to I can send you the carrara file for you to play with if that helps

Quote - All I did was to drop a sphere and cone into the window and a surface replicator, then just drag the cone directly onto the replicator and select the sphere as the source. I made no adjustments to the hot point setups etc. If you want me to I can send you the carrara file for you to play with if that helps

That's all I did, too, with the Carrara replicator.  The cones were randomly placed like yours.  Increasing the population and adjusting their distance from eachother may create an array-like pattern.  Been awhile since I tried.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

WHEW! Lesson 1. You dont need the hot point or the object actually touching the surface on which it has to be replicated. (I allways thought you did!) Lesson 2. You DO need still to do a LOT of rotating to get it to look right.

In this instance I used a shading domain of the inner surface of the inner half shell.

The odd look? renders of the between inner and outer shells is because iI used several shells, some overlapping.

Thanks for taking an interest and giving me ideas to investigate.

Brian

bwtr

 Glad you were able to isolate the issue. 

Yes.. only too happy to help where I can and I am looking forward to viewing the completed project because from what I can see so far it is going to be a good one.

Do I need to do more? Brian

bwtr

It looks about complete to me....nice job there.

Thanks
Brian

bwtr

I'd love to see some meeting between the Replicator and the Surface Replicator.  The Surface Replicator lacks the ability to make geometrically precise arrangements...it is all about probabilities.  (What is particularly annoying is that when you ramp up the "try to fit this many in" high enough to fill up most of the gaps, it also begins to violate the spacing limits, meaning you have objects replicated inside each other).

The Replicator lacks the ability to drive it with a texture map or otherwise move away from the simplest of array shapes.  (Plus it won't follow a surface...)

My latest project for replicators was an outdoors audience.  With a painted map I could define seating areas and even aisle space, but getting the chairs to be more-or-less evenly spaced and in rows....

That, and both replicators could use an instance weighting scheme.  Making multiple duplicates of the higher-probability objects is only a stopgap.