Example 19

I will use an scale of 1/8 here for two reasons -

So this example is based on an scale of 1/8 or, if you like, all measurements are multiplied by 8.

 

I found one these radar towers while browsing on the Web and I thought it would be a very interesting project to make.

To start with I will first make the main tower body structure using the Tower tool.

I only need to make one side of the tower as this tool only makes symmetric objects.

 

 

 

Using the Cube I will place a thin surface, or deck, on top of the tower. This is not too difficult to do as you can see.
Then, using the Fence tool, I will add railings on top of this deck.
I have placed a small cube as the base for the sphere as it gives a more realistic finish.

Finally the sphere goes on top. Notice that the sphere stands on a large surface and not over its lower point.

A closer view of this can be seen below.

This shows that the sphere lies on a flat surface rather than the lower cone of the sphere. This is possible if you set the Level 1 height to zero.
I use the shaded option almost every time I use an sphere as it gives the object a more rounded shape and a brighter color.
Finally, and why not, I'll place a red light on top of the sphere and make it blink at night.
Don't forget - the more points you use, the smoother the sphere will be but I only use 20 if the sphere I need is very large.
This finishes the tower itself and now I will start to add the stairway round the tower.
I could use a skewed cube to make the stairs but I've decided to make it all using lines. This is done using the Bridge tool. The bridge, or stair, width is 6 meters and since I don't use any textures I don't have to take care of any other arguments of the bridge like road lengths.
You can see that points 1 to 9 (in blue) have connector points shown by the Y in the Con column of the grid - this is to make the steps of the stairs.
This is a closer look at the first stairway on the tower.
We will need to add an small part, as shown on the right, to make the corner. This is made using the Fence tool.
Detail of the fence design to make the stair corner. The yellow point indicates a vertical post or line at that place.
Finally I will add a small platform in the corner using the Cube tool.

We now have all the modules to make the stairway go around the tower and up to the top.

All that is left to do is to copy the 3 modules and place each stair section at different positions and altitudes.

 

On the left you can see all the parts of the stair around the tower. Since I am using the same modules with different angles I will need to change this angle in the Maximize panel as shown below. By copying each module and placing them in a different position it also allows me to maximize the final code of the macro.
I now need a final piece to close the gap on top so I will add another small platform and a corner to it. The tower is now complete and finished.
This is the Maximize table once everything is set up properly. I have traced some dotted lines to show how each module of the stair is repeated and also the different rotations.
There are some important points to watch out for:
  • Since the stair corner and its base are placed at the same coordinates the 2 modules will work like one. That's why they share the same color in the table.
  • This means that sequence 08 will not exist because sequence 08 will be integrated with sequence 07.
  • So you have here a BLOCK or part with 2 or more objects.
  • To use this block in another sequence you only need to use the first sequence of the block. That is why I have changed sequences 10, 13, 16, 19 and 21 to use sequence 07, and I haven't change the 'second' part of each of the blocks as in sequences 11, 14, 17, 20 and 22.