Re:
Well from a glance it does not necessarily look like you couldn't do it that way with lofting. Could you post your .3dm model file so I can take a look at what you've got?
Here is the file that I was testing, see attachement. I have not been able to fillet the part but it must be because I am still having some problems to understand the different logic when modeling with nurbs.
Thanks for everybody for all the tips! I was not really expecting this many tips with such a detailed instructions. I need to do some more testing this weekend!
This is what I have been able to model so far. I have actually "lifted the top up" in the top and the plan is to create some holes (circular array) to place some artificial flowers on it.
So it looks like the problem with filleting your shape on the right is that you have 2 loft sections that have sharp corners in them:
Then for the top profile curve of the loft it has a different shape, there the curve segments are smooth to each other instead of sharp like the lower 2 sections:
This is not a good situation for filleting, basically because a fillet is something that goes on a sharp edge.
Check out this example here where I've got 2 surfaces that vary in angle to one another, starting at 90 degrees to each other and then progressing to being almost smooth to each other:
If you make a fillet between there it will look like this:
So note there that the fillet starts out wider and then gets narrower and narrower as the surfaces become closer to being tangent to each other. If the surfaces became completely smooth to each other then the fillet would shrink down to 0 width at that spot and that makes things a lot more difficult for the fillet construction.
Also that above is not what is called a "variable radius fillet" - it's a constant radius fillet. What is changing there is the length of the arc for that spot in the fillet. They are all arcs of the same radius, just some are long and some are shorter length arcs. Here is another example this time with curves showing how it works as you go from a larger angle to an almost smooth angle. These are all the same radius circle but you can see that the piece of the circle that will be used gets shorter as the tangent directions approach being smooth:
Then there's also a fillet mechanism called "variable radius" fillets - that's where the radius of the fillet arc is also changing as you travel along the fillet. That will also make for variations in the width of the fillet but in a different way.
So for filleting to have a better chance to work well you would want to avoid this kind of "sharp segments, sharp segments, smooth segments" progression between your loft profiles. If you had made them all the same sharpness like your ones in the middle, then you would be able to fillet it ok:
I am still learning Moi3d and I would like to again as some help with modeling logic because I am so stuck with Sketchup way of modeling.
Is there a way to create "Sketchup components or Groups" in Moi3D. For example if I have 4 tires or bolts in the model and I would edit one of the tyre it would modify also the rest of the tires in the model. In addition, is the are way to move the items as a Group for example creating an individual group for multiple Objects and moving all the Objects at the same time? Or how do you deal with this kind of items?
Are there some video tutorials how to use the Construction lines? I have been reading Command reference document but it is not clear to me for example how to offset construction lines.
Hi mk1978, MoI does not currently have that type of "instancing" function like SketchUp components but it is something I want to add in the future.
For moving a set of objects all at the same time, if the objects are all selected then they will move together at the same time when you drag them or use Transform > Move. If you are repeatedly selecting the same set of objects you can assign them a name and then that name label will appear in the Scene Browser and you can select them with one click there.
> Are there some video tutorials how to use the Construction lines? I have been reading
> Command reference document but it is not clear to me for example how to offset construction lines.
I don't think there is a video, but if you want to make a construction line and then move it somewhere else you can use the "Relocate cline" option on the construction line pop up menu that is shown in the command reference. To move it by a set distance set the "distance constraint" value in the bottom toolbar.
If you can maybe sketch out an example of the situation where you want to use it I can make an example video for you.
Thanks for these links I don´t understand any french but these are anyway very helpful. The construction lines scripts are also great. Only challenge that I have for construction lines is that I don´t really understand what is the best way to offset the construction line. Somehow I am not able to define/lock the axis that the construction lines are drawn.
I will take a look of the Elephant nodal system later this week. It is good to know that there could be some help for this instancing challenge also.
re:
> Only challenge that I have for construction lines is that I don´t really understand
> what is the best way to offset the construction line.
After you create a construction line if you press and hold on the little tag that appears a menu will pop up and you can pick "Relocate cline" on it, here is a demo:
> Somehow I am not able to define/lock the axis that the construction lines are drawn.
If you want it to go in a world axis direction then make sure "Straight Snap" is turned on in the bottom toolbar:
Default of the simulated dashed lines is the physical holes and not the same gap between Offseted curves!
(will be an hard work to have the same gap)
So best is used colored curves as Helpers Lines! ;)
And the Offset is the real Offset! ;)
And can be hide with a simple one click on the toggle "Eye" of the Style Color Browser section! ;)
What do you want more ? :)
Thanks for all the explanation and videos. My offset challenge is maybe little more simple and it mainly because my Sketchup habits". Here is what I mean with problem to offset the construction line outside of the geometry. In this case (video) it still works fairly ok but if there is more geometry around it has been difficult to define which is the direction that the construction line offset will be created. Naturally it would be great to be able to press for example "arrow up" so that the construction line offset direction would be locked to Z-direction, "arrow left to lock it to X-direction", etc. I am sure that I will get used to this and make it work once I get more experience with MoI.
Hi mk1978 yeah for that particular type of usage I probably wouldn't use construction lines. I'd probably just use object dragging. First drag it to align with the reference point, then drag 2 more times using distance constraint. You can enter in your distance constraint for an object drag by typing in a value and pushing enter before doing the drag, like this:
Or if you know the displacement in the x and y directions you can use the Transform > Move command instead of the last 2 drags and enter in a relative coordinate value for the second move point by typing rx,y, so for example type r-10,-10 to move by -10 in x and -10 in y from the first picked point in Transform > Move.
If you like to visualize the target point by an offset outline, then another possibility would be to use the offset command to build some temporary geometry, then you only need to enter one offset value. And you also can then just drag the object into place instead of using the Transform > Move command:
Do you know what is the reason why I am not able to execute Shell command on this part?
I would assume that the problem is with the curve that has been used for creating the face but is there something that can be done to clean the curve, etc.?
Hi mk1978, same as Phiro over here - shell is working on your object as long as you stay under a thickness that would cause the area shown above to collapse in on itself. That's around 170 units or so.
re: make construction line tag bigger - the size of that comes from the image MenuLauncherTag.png in the ui sub-folder. If you increase that image size it should increase in the UI as well to match.
I've been thinking of maybe getting rid of that thing and having a "Construction line" section appear on the side pane when you make one instead.
Pottery.3dm
