Hi!!
Could this kind of shape be easily modeled in MOI.
But when I say easy I mean maybe sweeping it along a curve.....
Im asking this because I read somewhere on MOIs "tuber" or something like that operation....
Anyway thanx!

Hi Kreten - normally sweeping along a curve is for things that are more continuously smooth.

In your case there it appears to be a kind of segmented shape, so I would generally approach it by building individual pieces and then booleaning them together.

Here are some steps:

I started with a cylinder:



Then drew a box poking out of it, and mirrored that (I guess you could use just one wider box as well):



Then I switched to the top view and drew one circle:



Then used Revolve and set the revolve angle to 180 degrees before clicking the revolve axis, to make this shape:



Mirrored that and moved it over a bit:



Then selected both of those, and used Transform / Array / Dir to make some copies:



Now those pieces can be booleaned together. I ran into some problems with the boolean until I rotated the cylinder 90 degrees so that the closing "seam edge" of the cylinder was not running right through all the other stuff, you may find it necessary to do that for the boolean to finish in this case.

Is that what you wanted?

- Michael

Kretens shape is that of normal steel reinforcing rod used in concrete constructions.
Good approach to it Michael.

Yes, rebar!
No, i did it the same way in Rhino, I was hoping for something faster, aaaaaaaah I dont know my self....
Anyway what would you do if the bar was curved?

Well you can alwayds sweep a profile and a curve to create de bar, and then use the array along curve for the half tubes.

But it's far to be perfect !







Btw, I don't know if it comes from my computer, but revolve tool is extremely slow (nearly impossible to create the revolve axis)

BINGO!!!!!

Hi PaQ,

> Btw, I don't know if it comes from my computer, but revolve tool is
> extremely slow (nearly impossible to create the revolve axis)

This was a problem that was specific to the trial version and not the regular version.

But I just fixed it yesterday, you should be able to download a new trial
version from http://moi3d.com/download.htm which should solve this problem.

- Michael

By the way, PaQ's example of taking a profile that has the circle and square parts as a curve and then sweeping it, is also probably a better way of doing the straight version as well.

I mean in the steps that I posted previously for the straight one, instead of drawing a cylinder and 2 boxes, it would be better to draw that profile curve and extrude it instead of drawing cylinders and boxes and booleaning them together.

It's always generally better to add details into profile curves before even generating surfaces or solids, you're just more likely to get a more simple and accurate final result that way.

- Michael

Yes, it works now :) Thanks for the update.