Hi there,

I wonder if anyone might recommend a strategy for joining the attached canopy structure to the fuselage. It is very nearly as I'd like it and it Booleans together okay, but I would like to achieve a smoother fit, especially for the fore and aft parts of the canopy where it slopes to meet the fuselage. A slight fillet along the sides would be nice, too.

Being relatively new to NURBS, I have struggled somewhat with workflow issues that are rarely addressed by Rhino tutorials I've seen. If anyone knows of a good resource for "rules of thumb" when modeling with NURBS, please post a link!

For example, I understand that it is desirable to maintain valid solids as one models, but am not sure how far to go with Boolean unions--whether it is better to have many discrete solids or fewer solids and more unions. I find myself backtracking a lot to grab old solids, regardless. Also, memory use has been rocketing as my file gets more detailed, and I only have 512MB at my disposal.

Also, what is the best way to model a cockpit or cabin that you want to be visible through windows? Just subtract the desired volume or shell some part? Are windows modeled as solids, that is with some thickness?

The mesh is ultimately headed to a subd modeler for cleanup and further detailing. Do folks usually subd the MoI output? Will subdivision tear the mesh? If anyone has experience with this, I'd very much like to hear any tips you might have on your post-export workflow.

This is looking to be an excellent program. Thanks,

--M