Hi marorhino
Any chance of tips or a tutorial on how to make a car? My pathetic attempt is here:

http://keith.jones61.googlepages.com/Noname.jpg/Noname-full;init:.jpg

Hello Keith,

This thread might give you some hints:

http://moi3d.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=MOI_FRANCAIS&msg=103.1

But of course personally I would prefer that you modeled boats instead of cars ;-)

All the best,

Boatstalker

Hi Keith look these tuts!
Have fun modeling!
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=898.4

http://www.etereaestudios.com/training_img/sentinel_tutorial/sentinel_tutorial.htm

Thanks for your help. I have now made the tiniest bit of a Ford Capri. Its not easy.
Keith

you will need a blue print, or your own slketch, and just place the images in view then move lines to the lines. that is all as simple as that. if you want to search some tutorials for rhno3d on modeling a car it uses the exact same tools .

Hi, all

Just possible, it think to do a tutorial modeler car.

Thanks

Thanks for the pointers to the tutorials. I have made the bonnet (hood) of a Ford Capri but its got mismatched panels (1) and holes (2) in it (see picture). Now this does add to the authenticity of a British made car of the 80's but its getting on my nurbs. I have been driven to the point where I have even started to read the MoI instruction page, which has been totally unnecessary up to now. What am I doing wrong?
Keith

Hi Keith, from the look of it, that is likely to be a display glitch - probably the display mesh that was generated didn't get enough triangles in that area to make it appear smooth.

See http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1308.2 for some tips on how you can adjust some settings that may help (but can also cause an overall increase in mesh density which can slow down the display as well).

If you can post your .3dm model file (or send it to me at moi@moi3d.com), I can double check it to make sure that this is indeed the issue or if it is actually something wrong with the surfaces.

I will be trying to improve this in the future, but it is a tricky thing to improve it without slowing the display mesh generation down too much.

But if it looks fine when you actually export, then it is just best to ignore it.

- Michael

I'm sure its me. People are making some wonderful and complex things in MoI and I'm sure they would notice if there was a real problem. That said, when I export as an obj file and render it in carrara the holes are still there and get bigger if I apply render smoothing. Anyway I have attached the file.
Keith

Hi Keith - before you export to .obj make sure to join surfaces together so that MoI knows which edges are shared.

To do this, select surfaces that are adjacent and use Edit / Join.

When the surfaces are completely separate objects, they can get meshed with slightly different vertex structures along those edges, which can result in little cracks and holes.

But when they are joined together, MoI will recognize that the edge is a shared one and will do extra work to make sure the mesh vertices along that edge are unified and crack-free.

Here's what your hood looks like when exporting with joined pieces:



Let me know if you still have any problems,

- Michael

Thank you Michael.
Keith

Hi Everyone
This car building is driving me crazy but I'm very determined and not going to give up until I have made and rendered at least one exact model. I have made various bits of car but making them all fit together is defeating me at the moment. I have looked that the tutorials and other people seem to be making elegant sweeps that form body panels whereas I am making little fiddly bits that don't quite have any point at which to join together. Part of the problem seems to be that the blue print doesn't have the necessary information to make profiles of hidden parts such as the profile of the lower body panels where they join the underchassis. Another part is that cars don't have seams (especially the rear body section) so there is no obvious point at which to make a join.

I am attaching my file in the hope that someone will be able to set me on the path to enlightenment.
Keith

Hi Keith, definitely modeling a car is not an easy task.

One general tip that I would give is that sometimes it can be helpful not to try and model around every hole or edge that you initially see on the shape - instead sometimes it is better to model a larger sheet that has a more simple structure, and then trim that larger sheet to get some of the holes and edge structures that you want. You don't do this for every single piece, but if you are having a problem in an area where it is hard to get a surface due to irregular boundary edges, then that's the kind of situation that you will want to try this kind of approach.

I was looking for car tutorials, this one may give you some ideas: http://lmd.ifrance.com/html/audittus.html

- Michael

Hi
Despite the appearance of the attached I'm learning a lot. Hopefully the next attempt wont look so much like its been dumped. I now have great respect for Marcorhino and everyone else who makes such complicated shapes.
Keith

Hi
A disappointing result. I cant seem to get things to join up properly and sweeps and lofts get waves and kinks. It took all of Saturday. I have posted a couple of images if anyone wants to comment.

Hi Michael
I should be cleaning up. cooking and finishing of fitting doors but I'm looking at that bloody Audi again.

Just 4 of quick questions.

1. When I use the Edit/Join function am I trying to join surfaces, lines or points?

2. I have been trimming lines so that I am able to use the sweep and loft function, does doing so break up things that have been formerly joined?

3. In the tutorial you posted on building an Audi the car is devoid of surfaces throughout. Is it better to build things without surfaces for any reason other than because you can see the background picture? I like to see the surfaces as I make them but this might be because I lack confidence.

4. The Audi tutorial makes reference to making sweeps and blends that I have been unable to replicate. Does Rhino have some functions that Moi does not or does Moi implement the same functions in a different way?

If anybody other than Michael can answer these questions please do.
Keith

Hi
Sorry Michael, I have started to answer a few of my own questions through experiment and reading the threads. I haven't been joining up the points have I? Its getting much smoother now.
Keith

Ok I'll stop bothering everybody now. It turned out to be quite easy in the end. Amazing software!

Hi Keith,

> 1. When I use the Edit/Join function am I trying to join surfaces, lines or points?

It can be used on either surfaces or curves (lines) - when you use Join you will glue together 2 (or more) separate objects into one composite object. The new object still contains different pieces, but now it will select as a single object. Also there are some operations that you will want joined objects for. For example filleting can work easiest when it is applied to an edge that is shared between 2 neighboring faces. To get a shared edge you use Join. When objects are not joined, MoI does not have the information about which edges are actually adjacent to one another, it just sees them as completely separate objects.


> 2. I have been trimming lines so that I am able to use the sweep and loft
> function, does doing so break up things that have been formerly joined?

Nope, it shouldn't - it will carve it into different smaller pieces but it won't automatically break apart at joined areas, those joins should persist until you use Edit / Separate.


> 3. In the tutorial you posted on building an Audi the car is devoid of surfaces throughout.
> Is it better to build things without surfaces for any reason other than because you can
> see the background picture?

There actually are surfaces in that tutorial - they are just being displayed in wireframe mode since that is kind of the default way that things display in Rhino.


> I like to see the surfaces as I make them but this might be
> because I lack confidence.

It is generally good to see the surfaces. You can often times detect more details about the surface quality by seeing them shaded earlier. Things like ripples and bumps are hard to see in a wireframe display.

I actually did quite a lot of work to make MoI function smoothly in a shaded type display.


> 4. The Audi tutorial makes reference to making sweeps and blends that I have
> been unable to replicate. Does Rhino have some functions that Moi does not
> or does Moi implement the same functions in a different way?

There are quite a few things that Rhino has that MoI does not have yet. But MoI does do sweeping and blending, if you have gotten stuck on one particular thing, can you please post a .3dm model file of it and I will take a look and give you some advice.

Hope this helps!

- Michael

> Its getting much smoother now.

It has come along well!

Sorry it has been kind of difficult for me to help you since constructing a car is a rather large complex project. I can more easily help you with more specific individual details.

It looks like you have made a lot of progress already though!

- Michael


P.S - please post image attachments as .jpg like in your last file instead of .bmp - .bmp image files are much much larger and take longer to download.