Hi Rudy,

The profiles have a different number of control points.
When you do a sweep, MoI sort of drives the profile curves around the rail curve... if the control
points of the profiles don't line up well, the surface breaks up and becomes a polysurface.

I took your top profile (12 o'clock ) and rotated it (with/copy option) to the 6 o'clock position.
and then using scale 1D, I made it the same size as your bottom profile.
Now when doing the sweep, the control points will line up and create a smooth surface.

Sometimes, I like to draw an ellipse or circle, then turn on the control points and by selectively grouping some
control points and then using *align *move* and *scale 1D*, I can shape the ellipse into a half dome for
a ring profile Then if I copy, rotate and scale the profile as a whole, I know all my profiles will have the same number
of control points and make a smooth surface.
I did a variation of the ring by offsetting the finger circle, shaping it the way I described above, and then a 2 rail sweep.

The advantage of a 2 rail sweep is that you can control the wall thickness of the shank at the sides where
it tends to balloon out with a 2 profile, one rail sweep. You could also put profiles at the 3 and 9 o'clock position
to control the wall thickness, but usually, the fewer curves that you use to accomplish the design, the better.
I hope this makes sense..Michael will be able to explain it better. :-)

Jesse

Dear Jesse,
thank you. Yes, it makes sense, got it.
I am actually checking all your answers to me of the past weeks and your samples files (infact, I took those profiles from a ring you designed, having a scaling rail....., but I wanted something simpler to do step by step) and tutorials and there are many, many useful info for me.
So, again thank you.

Last night I di some filigree work on a surface, which turned out OK, and my next step is hollowing things. For pendants, I think the revolve option is best.

For rings I am still thinking (I hope my brain won't start smoking).
Again, you have been an incredible help...and Michael as well, that seems having a supernatural power of taking care of everybody, and all the others that responded.
Thank you,
Rudy

Hi Rudy,

It sounds like you're getting the hang of it. Great!
There are a few things to remember like matching curves that will make easier
to get good results... I think of it as following the rules of
surface modeling. I know what you mean about rings...even after you have
an understanding of CAD work, rings can be challenging. I'm hoping this one
will be approved by the customer, then I can start making pave' settings on
the sides. won't that be fun! :-)

Jesse

BEAUTIFUL !

your customer will like it!

Rudy

Great work,Jesse nice looking piece if the customer does not like it, he might be blind.he he

Talking about making pave setting on the side. In Rhino I oftenly use command> (OrientOnSrf) which is give me a privilege of putting stone or prong on surface and fallowing the shape of the base. Um...I cound't find this command in MOI yet. (I've using MOI about 2 weeks now and completely in love with it). Does anyone know where is it? please let me know.

Michael,
If you already include this command in MoI plaese tell me where it is. I think it's really useful for jewelry designing because of the pave setting.

And thanks for making this great software.It's real cool.

Art - jewelcadstudio.com

Hi Art, that one isn't in MoI yet. But I want to add some additional orientation and positioning tools in version 2.0. It's just one of those thing that I haven't had time to get to for version 1.0

If you want to use Rhino to do it, you can actually copy and paste objects between Rhino and MoI.

- Michael

Thank for really fast responding. It's so great.

Thank you for letting me know about this copy function. Normally when i switching between these 2 softwares I always save it and open it with another one. Now it's much faster by copy and paste.

Regards
Art- http://Jewelcadstudio.com