Fractal Lines

Ithril

I'm probably missing something, and I'm not certain how to explain what I'm asking, but I'm going to try.

I'm trying to save a fractal line setting for use in other macros. So I'll draw a fractal line to experiment with the look, using the space bar to randomize it, but more importantly, using the up/down and right/left arrow keys to vary the parameters until I get the effect I'm looking for.

Once I get it, though, I can't find a way to either see what magical fractal formula I've made, or to instill those ephemeral settings to the tool I was planning to use them for. Info/List only gives the sheet, color, layer, line/fill style, line width, length etc. How can I find or save the Strength %, and Depth of the fractal settings? If I start a new fractal line, it returns to the parameters set in the Fractalization command, so I lose all the adjustments I made. How can I set the Fractalization command settings to match the fractal line I just drew/modified using the Up/Down, Right/Left arrow keys?

I hope this makes sense.

Any help is appreciated.

Monsen

You can't. Fractal settings aren't saved with the entity. Technically, there is no such entity as a fractal line, it is a regular straight path with a lot of off-axis nodes. The settings are only used within the command that draws that path, once it is done, the parameters are forgotten.

Best way to experiment is to set the fractal strength and depth in the fractalize dialog (Just Escape out when it asks you to select a line to fractalize afterwards), then draw a line with the fractal path command and repeat till you are happy. You can of course use the arrow keys and then try to approximate the amount when going back tot he box for the next test. I am not sure how much the strength increases/decreases, but the dept is increased/decreased by one for each key press.

Ithril

😆 Exactly as I expected!

At least my suspicions were correct. I guess that means that at some level, I'm starting to understand the logic that fastcad is based on.

Thank you for the quick reply.

I

jslayton

FastCAD 6 is one thing. The dozens of extensions that make up the ProFantasy products are something else entirely that have been developed and added on over the years. Most of the tools that make up the ProFantasy products are drawing assistants in that they produce geometry in terms of the basic primitives (lines, polygons, circles, and so on) and that information used to create those primitives is discarded. There are global settings that the persist from one use of an assistant to the next and sometimes can be saved to configuration files as with drawing tools, but there is very little (often none) of that state gets stored in the drawing itself.

Ithril

So working from a zeroed out fractalise command, I was able to work out that each up/down keypress is 5% strength, and each left/right keypress has a value of 1 for depth.

From this I can work out and deduce the settings I'm making. Perhaps this information will be useful to someone else as well.

Thanks again.

Edit to add:

JSlayton; thank you for your insight. I appreciate the hard work you did to bring Wilbur to a fully realized and powerful, more user friendly version in Fractal Terrains.