The tool would be for standard plates & beams. I've been told Starbase only works with predefined parts (Sketchup is freeform by comparison). HOWEVER, being able to push/pull/stretch pieces between the predefined sizes would be a much timesaver!
Example: The tool would let you take a 24x48 standard plate and expand it along a single dimension in 12 increments (e.g. to 24x72 or 24x24 etc)
UI:
Select part that you want to modify
Select the push/pull tool
Click and drag in a direction to expand or contract the part in that direction. IF there is an alternative part of that size, the part expands or contracts to that size.
If there isn't a part of the right size, error beep of a certain tone with error message. If there isn't space for the expanded part, error beep of a different tone with error message.
This would make fitting plates and beams far far faster. Huge timesaver! You could place beams & plates of any sizes and then "stretch" them to the right sizes. Also much easier when you want to make modifications to existing designs.
Example video:
Obviously the video shows freeform manipulation from flat planes, which Starbase cannot do, but hopefully you get the idea. The tool would still be very effective and useful even just using the default beam & plate sizes.
Example: The tool would let you take a 24x48 standard plate and expand it along a single dimension in 12 increments (e.g. to 24x72 or 24x24 etc)
UI:
Select part that you want to modify
Select the push/pull tool
Click and drag in a direction to expand or contract the part in that direction. IF there is an alternative part of that size, the part expands or contracts to that size.
If there isn't a part of the right size, error beep of a certain tone with error message. If there isn't space for the expanded part, error beep of a different tone with error message.
This would make fitting plates and beams far far faster. Huge timesaver! You could place beams & plates of any sizes and then "stretch" them to the right sizes. Also much easier when you want to make modifications to existing designs.
Example video:
Obviously the video shows freeform manipulation from flat planes, which Starbase cannot do, but hopefully you get the idea. The tool would still be very effective and useful even just using the default beam & plate sizes.