several paths from a trace SOP

Hello everybody,
my question is about path generated by a trace SOP. I put a movie file in TOP with an image and then I use the trace SOP to generate a path from the image, to use it as a path on which I make an object follow. It works perfectly as long as every part of the image are connected and then my object follows the path from 0 to 1 and runs through the whole path. The problem is when the trace SOP generates several shapes not connected to each other… It seems that the object only follows one of the shapes and I would like my object to follow the first shape and then jumps to the other ones to run through my whole traced image. Do you know if it’s possible? How do I tell my object to run through all the shapes?
Thank you
Manu

You can follow the Trace SOP, with a Join SOP, to create one connected polygon from all the separate ones.
Cheers,
Rob.

Hi Rob,
Thank you very much, it works perfectly! :slight_smile: TD is awesome!!
I’ve another question: Do you know if I can detect when the object is moving along the path made by the shapes or if it’s moving along the path created by the Join SOP, the goal is to create an arm for a robot drawer, so I would need to know when it’s drawing the shapes and when it’s just moving to go from a shape to the other one, to be able to tell “don’t draw at this time” and also to be able to slow it down. I paste a video of how the project is for now… just started… WIP… [video]robot drawer - YouTube
Thanks again
Manu

Great project!
I love seeing TouchDesigner used to create physical things.

In terms of your question, I would ask how you’re feeding the point positions to the machine at the final stage?

I would consider not using the Join SOP in that case, and instead feeding the individual polygons instead. That way you would know when they start/end directly.

If you’re using python, you can access the vertex lists + point positions, or if you prefer the same tables can be had using the SOP to DATs. (one for points, one for prims).

Cheers,
Rob