[Feature] Ability to set direction (CW or CCW) for Spiral or Circular course generation
Closed this issue · 8 comments
What is the problem this feature/enhancement solves?
We can set headland direction (Clockwise CW or Counterclockwise CCW) but we have no control to set direction of spiral or circular modes (for rows).
I have noticed that if you generate a spiral course with 1 headland CCW, after the headland, combines will take this first spiral row in CW direction.
The opposite is also true : 1 headland in CW and after the spiral is CCW.
Describe the solution you'd like
Ability to set spiral and circular direction CW or CCW
don't need a setting here. CP automatically detects the pipe side - only thing missing is to use that knowledge for spirals course generation as well. The logic is already existing for lands mode, and basically lands is just a reverse spirals. So that logic could be used for spirals as well, just turning into the opposite direction (pipe left: turn left for lands and right for spirals, pipe right: other way round).
As a workaround, it's also possible to have headland and field rows completely worked in the same clock direction already now, but you have to play around a bit with the course start point. If you set the start point into the first half of a short edge of the field, the generator will create a course where headland and field rows will be worked in the same direction (i.e. for combines headlands and field rows clockwise).
don't need a setting here. CP automatically detects the pipe side - only thing missing is to use that knowledge for spirals course generation as well.
If you set the start point into the first half of a short edge of the field, the headland and field rows will be worked in the same direction.
Thank you for your answer. Didn't know that CP could automatically detect pipe side. Let's hope it will use this information in spiral or circular mode as well as in lands mode.
I ran my test with starting point in a field corner but do you suggest to place the starting point a bit further ? Maybe a screenshot would help :)
Don't know if that's still valid, but CP team always recommended to NOT start the course within or towards the corners. This had at least led to problems with multitool courses in FS19.
To show what I mean:
The red area is what I mean with "first half of a short edge", which is where you should place your starting point.
But even this trick only works if the field is not too small. For those nasty small fields you can find around the farms in Elmcreek, it's hard to get it working with 2 headlands even for the Deutz. For those fields I had to go down to just one headland:
In the end, it seems it's decided by the position of the transition from headland to center. In most cases CP will try to place it at the start of a short edge, with the effect that headland and center are worked in different directions. With placing the startpoint like depicted you prevent CP from doint this, and the course generator will place the transition short before the end of the short edge - exactly where we want it in this case. And then you even don't have any collisions for multitool courses anymore.
Oh that is a good trick to know if we want lands/circular/spiral center rows have the same direction of headlands.
Pipe side used only with the lands pattern.
The generator will move the transition from one headland to the other away from the corner so should not matter if you start your course in a corner.
Also, for those small fields you may want to try the narrow field headland pattern.
That was just to depict him, what he has to take care of to be able to work around the issue for now. For irregular shaped fields what I called a "short edge" here can even be longer than the "long edges". But the small rectangular fields provide a understanding what is meant with both. So short edge is where the field row turns happen, while long edge is just parallel to the actual field rows.
Pipe side used only with the lands pattern - that's actually the root cause for the issue here. Should also be used for spirals, so that pipe is always directed toward the field edge, independently of starting point and headland direction.
So if pipe is on the left: the transition from headlands to center always is a right turn (field row to field row right turn as well of course), if pipe is on the right side: always a left turn.
We can now set cw/ccw for spiral and lands, and also select if spiral outwards or inwards.
I don't have the circular pattern implemented yet, is anyone even using it?
detecting pipe side would have solved all issues already, but why not.
With circular you mean the racetracks? It's a great (and by me often used) pattern for multitool courses and even chopping, but not appropriate for any harvest with fixed pipe side. So don't see why that pattern should need a turn direction setting. And so far there's no other field work where direction of turns is of any matter.