Telegraph Generator

[Haggis502 (Ungulate)]

I am wanting to make a telegraph generator, but I am unsure how to make the wires bow down. Is vertex weight from distance from a point, a thing? how else would it be done? cloth sim?(rather heavy, for a long line)?

[joseph]

Blender Secrets - Hanging cables (Catenary Curves)

[LordoftheFleas]

I can give you this here (maybe outdated by now, as geometry nodes have been reworked)

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/233890/geometry-nodes-is-it-possible-to-connect-point-instances-with-curves-blender

And some tests I made myself inspired by this, compatible with Blender 3.1.1

telephone_poles_and_cables_2.blend (114.4 KB)

Edit:
The basic idea to get the cables have curvature is to use Bézier curves and adjust the handles…

Edit 2:

This may also help:

Utility Poles with the new fields Geometry Nodes Blender Tutorial

[sundialsvc4]

Unless outdoor lines have suffered severe storm damage, linemen strive to make them very consistent mile after mile: they know exactly how many feet or meters to string between each post and gravity does the rest. A duplicated copy of a single curve should look just right: put a circular bevel on the curve to make the wire. Any “bundle of wires” coming into the device can just be a “bundle of curves” that you vary slightly – by hand. (For instance, the connectors between the pole line and a transformer, or the transformer wiring in general.) Things like “the drop-line from the transformer to the house” are standard electrical parts.

[Okidoki]

Actually the curve for hanging ropes is very simple… just the cosinus hyperbolicus [ cosh(x) ]: Equation for the Shape of a Hanging Rope, Cable, or Chain. (And a quick look into geonodes shows…math nodes… Hyperbolic Cosine…)

[a59303]

Saw this the other day.

Geometry Nodes

I upgraded my catenary curve generator to do something a bit more useful: string lights! [String light generator demo] The mesh to curve node was critical for this to get the bulb instancing working right, instancing works well with collections including a point light, and interaction is pretty fluid in eevee

[RickyBlender]

would it be possible to make normal cross member on each side of the pole ?

would look more like standard utility pole

thanks
happy bl

[Haggis502 (Ungulate)]

How would you use that as an individual value for each span?

[Okidoki]

Because of the question:

@Haggis502

but I am unsure how to make the wires bow down. Is vertex weight from distance from a point, a thing? how else would it be done? cloth sim?(rather heavy, for a long line)?

And all the different answers…
it was just my 2 cent… and i don’t know how you want to do you generator… addon (python) or geo-nodes…

(even don’t know if this is needed; seeing the anwers…)

[anon18318387]

Cables with physics
http://blender-3d.338.s1.nabble.com/Cables-with-physics-tp314.html

Hanging cables (Catenary Curves)
http://blender-3d.338.s1.nabble.com/Hanging-cables-Catenary-Curves-tp312p811.html

Draw cables on surfaces
http://blender-3d.338.s1.nabble.com/Draw-cables-on-surfaces-tp315.html

Tube Tool
http://blender-3d.338.s1.nabble.com/Tube-Tool-tp203p1429.html

Geometry nodes Setup - Electric Line Generator
https://blenderesse.gumroad.com/l/UDgXO

(Moved to > Support > Modeling)

[SterlingRoth]

The cosh is the easy part, you need to solve for the other variables in that formula to get a true catenary.

Really though, it’s splitting hairs. The difference between a parabola and a catenary is pretty tough to spot for most people.