Here's the first 3D body done with the new machine - of course it will look better after finishing. Ruined a few pieces of cheap wood before getting the CAM portion correct. The neck was not cut for the contoured heel but rather a standard heel - will do the contoured one in the model shortly.

(removed spam)

Latest guitar modeled in Moi - small body semi-hollow arch top coming soon.

Beautiful!

- Michael

that's really nice. you seemed to have got the hang of MoI. you're website is nice too. i hope you have a lot of success.

Great work Neil! Something very satisfying about creating an object in MoI and bringing it to reality via CNC (and a lot of hand finishing :)

Ed Ferguson

Amazing work and professional photo lighting.
Mik

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Can't take credit for the photo as the pictures are by a professional photographer who is also a customer.

Great advice - thanks!

Hi Neil,

> There is a guy selling tutorials on how to model guitars in Moi3D here: https://3dcncguitars.com/

That's great, I didn't know about this one! I've added a link from the MoI resources tutoriuals page.

That would easily be worth it to get very specific information on a complex area like this.

- Michael

Still a novice - but have learned a lot via this forum about guitar modeling. When a little further along I'd like to share, in a concise file, the tips and tricks accumulated over the years from here so that others, interested in the area, will have a solid foundation to get started with and then expand on. Certainly can save the beginner some grief.

Here is an arch top made with a different program that was shared on a CNC web site - any ideas how one could do this with Moi?

Hi Neil, that one seems to be built in a "patch by patch" type method where some profiles were drawn in and several surfaces probably constructed using a sweep or network type tool. One problem though with this kind of patchwork method is it's hard to get a totally smooth result. For example this area has a sharp edge:





It tends to be hard to get really good quality smoothness using this type of approach. But it is overall a pretty difficult thing to model.

Often times something organic where you would need to do a patch-by-patch approach can be handled better by sub-d modeling instead of NURBS modeling for those areas.

- Michael

Hi Neil, so this surface is planar so that's probably a good one to construct first from planar profile curves:



Then this area here:



I'd probably try making an extended sheet something like this using Sweep or Network:



Then that would get trimmed by a profile curve like this:



And then these areas would be done with a Construct > Blend.



You could get a large portion of it built like that but then the rounded tip protrusion like spots will be the most difficult to do well.

- Michael

Hi Neil, so this method would go something like this:

Planar curve here - build a surface from it using Construct > Planar.



Another planar curve on the interior like this:



Cross sections running in this direction, slightly curved:



Construct > Loft through those to make this type of extended surface:



Trim the loft with the interior curve:



Trim edges with lines to break them:




Select edges and do a Construct > Blend:








That would be a good way to start out I think getting an initial chunk of it done.

- Michael

Then probably the next steps would be to build these strips that rise up from the planar base level:



- Michael

Then it's going to get a bit tricky but maybe this kind of blend:





- Michael