Radial tile?

[dr0591]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to set two concentric rows of ceramic tile around the perimeter of an oval-shaped lobby. I found an old thread started by Curt Johnson about using molding polylines to get a radial brick effect around a garden bed.

So that's what I tried -- and it definitely sets the tile in the right alignment. The only problem is that the tiles are way too narrow, even though I have the width set at 18 inches (see first image).

I think the solution is to have the polyline itself only break every 18 inches. Right now it looks like it's breaking every 3 or 4 inches (see attached screenshot of plan). But I can't see where in Chief to set the break length. Does anyone know how to do that? Or maybe instead you know a better way to accomplish this effect?

Thanks in advance!

[portrait]

Hi Kathy,
This is the way i also use for creating radial tiles. I'm not sure why you have been experiencing such a problem.
I still couldn't try this free "Circle Tiler": http://byzantos.com/lumion-circle-tiler/
It's actually for Lumion, but maybe it could be also used for Chief and other programs. I thought it could help you to accomplish this task?

[dr0591]

Thanks, Ozgur. That looks like a very cool app, but no time to learn a whole new system right now! :-)

Kay Nordby shared a trick that helped me get this done -- she suggested converting my oval CAD line into a custom countertop instead of a molding polyline. Then I was able to add two rows of molding to the countertop, one set at 0" and the other offset 18". Then I adjusted the X and Y dimensions of the texture until it looked right, the result is not perfect but reasonably accurate. Not sure why this worked better than the other method, but who cares?

Thanks to Kay, always a source of very helpful ideas.

[David J. Potter]

Kathleen, that looks awesome! Thanks for the tip and of course Kay as well, thank you both!

DJP

[gteacher]

Hmmm

It should work either way. Both just use a molding polyline.

Chief doesn't seem to be able to bend shapes to curves and some weird results may happen. I note that you second polyline is more circular than the first and that may have something to do with it. Or perhaps your symbol insert point was different.

An alternative is to use a spline distribution line which gives a little better control.

A plan would clear this up?

[dgavin]

Kathleen, that looks awesome! Thanks for the tip and of course Kay as well, thank you both!

DJP

Ditto!!!!!

[dr0591]

I note that you second polyline is more circular than the first and that may have something to do with it. Or perhaps your symbol insert point was different.

Gerry, I think the difference in shape you're seeing is simply due to a different camera angle -- it's the same lobby with the same shaped tile inset.

Personally, I think the difference in behavior is due to exactly what I mentioned in my first post but couldn't figure out how to do -- for whatever reason, there seem to be fewer breaks in the molding polyline when it's converted to a custom countertop. This allows the size of each segment to be wider, thus more realistic looking. On Kay's advice, I created this as a circle initially to get more evenly-sized segments all around, saved it as a symbol (to "solidify" the mapping of the segments), and then re-sized it to the correct oval shape in my lobby plan.

I thought about using the "distribute along line" approach, but unfortunately I don't understand how to do that and I was in a hurry to deliver the project.

[gteacher]

On Kay's advice, I created this as a circle initially to get more evenly-sized segments all around, saved it as a symbol (to "solidify" the mapping of the segments), and then re-sized it to the correct oval shape in my lobby plan.

GOOD TIP!! -- If you find a good fit on a curved molding of a particular size that doesn't work on another, just convert to a symbol to "lock in" the pattern, then resize as a symbol.

Hmmm - I see a suggestion here for shaped (circle) stretch planes?