New Road Construction Abilities

34 views
Skip to first unread message

Nick

unread,
Jan 9, 2011, 8:34:08 PM1/9/11
to Synekism
So, I was playing around with city plans and realized just how much of
a pain it can be to create a circular, or even just a polygonal street
plan. With our grids and 45-degree angle locks, we can make octagons
and squares. However, circles, curves, and another more complex than
an 8-sided regular shape are practically impossible.

I propose that we be able to make streets not only with our simple
road tool, but with a road arc tool. It would work similarly to the
arc tool in Sketchup: you define the point where the arc begins, and
point it ends, and then drag it out to the curve you want, and most
importantly, if you get close to making a half-circle, it locks on.

This would be very helpful whne making "highways" of sorts that curve
naturally through the city, and other cool designs like a city
enclosed in a circle.

Synekism

unread,
Jan 9, 2011, 9:03:54 PM1/9/11
to Synekism
Oh, we totally intend to add curves and more flexibility to our roads
as well as custom road types. We choose a gridless approach for this
very reason. However, curves are no simple things and require some
actual thinking (which our lazy brains have trouble with) to
implement. So...in time my friend. I will, however, say you can expect
a more mature iteration of our road tool within this year.

Nick

unread,
Jan 10, 2011, 7:04:22 PM1/10/11
to Synekism
Great! I look forward to such things. I've been designing city plans
in Sketchup, and I can tell you, arcs would help a ton! :)
> > enclosed in a circle.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Adam Bartman

unread,
Mar 12, 2012, 5:05:14 PM3/12/12
to syne...@googlegroups.com
Assuming you can reference specific points on the map, it should be some relatively simple math to draw a curve and anchor it to the terrain... I have a little programming background, not enough to actually understand how to make it work, probably, but I'd be happy to lend my 4 years of calculus to the task, if that helps.

Synekism

unread,
Mar 12, 2012, 5:25:10 PM3/12/12
to syne...@googlegroups.com
It's not so much the math being complex (though it's not trivial
either), rather, it's a matter of actually coding it. We have so many
things we wish to do right now so we just have to take them one by
one. It will be done eventually.

Also, thanks for the help offer. We'll see what we need when we cross
that bridge.

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages