Voila, here's a correction of the gear.
I have tried a little render test and I definitively have to change my workflow. Every edges are filleted, and I just can't move around my object anymore because it's way to heavy.
Takes 10 minutes to meshing the object for a 500.000 polys .obj output. (on a xeon quad 3.2)



IT would be really cool to find a smart way to handle more complex model like this. I suppose layers is a solution ... but even with layers it seems that all in all nurbs require more computer power than I though.

It's more easy to handle this amount of details with subdivision polygon method. You just handle the cage object, and subdivide it only for the rendering.

Here I have reduced the details in the MoI viewport, using something like 80° for the mesh angle, and remove the 'add details to inflection' of course. But it's still unworkable ... it takes age to do a mirror or a simple move.

Maybe a solution will be to able to store the fillets in an history stack, so you can choose to hide/show them when needed ...

Hi all,

Add: SpurGearProfile script

That script should draw correct outline :) except there is quite small number of sample points per involute (the profile of the tooth).

That circle "provided by the gear spur profile script" is a 'pitch diameter circle' and was supposed to help you assembly a meshing gear.


Add: empirical way leaving plus/minus 0.1 mm of space

Yep, it's something what is called the backslash...

See this two animation; the first one shows meshing gear with an operating center distance correction and second one without it.

http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/DANotes/gears/meshing/meshing.html#animation
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Involute_wheel.gif


Petr

ps: I am not expert on meshing gear, just had a quick look at my aged excercise books when I was writing that script :)

Here in theory

Wow! So graceful...

>>Every edges are filleted

It would need something like Rhino's faked filleted edges on meshes for rendering so you didn't need to make a real fillets...

Petr

And that is only one of
the foots (hi hi hi)

Now you need 32 processors

Hi Burr,

What do you mean by "super small"?
Currently, the default step for nudging is 1.0 unit. And there are two modifiers - small and large, e.g.

Nudge Left Small      this divides default value by 10 (then step is 0.1 unit).
Nudge Left Large      this multiplies default value by 10 (then step is 10 units).

You can change a default step to nudge by changing the 'dist' variable on the line 18 in your favorite Nudge.js file.





Yes, it is possible to modify the script to allow user to define the default step directly in the shortcut. To give it a try, download attached file NudgeStep.zip, unzip it to the \command directory and set up a shortcut, for example:

Nudge Right 0.5

You can still use the modifiers like

Nudge Up Large 0.5

Although, I don't know why you do this when you can just write

Nudge Up 5.0

Note that it is necessary to keep a fixed numerical format (it doesn't matter if you use '.' or ',' as a decimal places separator though). So this will work:
5.0
3.333333333
001.0
2.50

and this won't
.5
5
1.


Petr

Wow Petr, this plugin looks really sweet and will definitively save me a lot of time. It seems to work with fryrender, amazing.

Thanks a lot !

Damn this is an amazing plugin,
This is exactly the kind of small fillet I wan't everywhere, and it takes mostly no time to process !



Definitively in my MoI wish list ...

Hi Pascal, there is curve piping plug-in for Rhino as well. So you can draw a centerline curves only... -Petr

Thanks Petr!

Burr

...Every edges are filleted

Yes, in the real world every sharp edge needs at least a small fillet (unless you're making knife blades).

An automatic solution would be nice. I've experienced the slow-down and large file size increase after adding fillets, even in my moderate size models.

Auto-fit fillet would also be nice. That is, if two surfaces meet in a sharp inside corner and a large fillet is specified, the fillet could auto-taper as needed to meet in the corner.

Ed

the Edge Softening plugin is awesome. I've been using it a lot for rendering chains in Brazil for Rhino.

jonah

Really nice jonah,

So I not alone in the 'fillet everything' trip :)

I was a bit complaining last time about MoI uv's ... in fact as Michael suggest it, a simple packing and the .obj is ready to be textured :)

Nope, certainly not alone :) but it's so easy to get out of control using real fillets. I've requested texture packing a long time ago too. I think more people will support it when MoI develops a link to an external render engine...

jonah

Hi Pascal,

Even though I come from the engineering field I liked your first rendition of the foot with the wide teeth gearing, even though they are not technically correct it gives it more of a retro industrial feel to it, when modeling for visual effect I think technical correctness shouldn't get in the way of artistic expression.
Just my thoughts.

Cheers

I love the look of everything. This is total pro work. Great job PaQ!
Wish i could learn how to do that but i don't have the program yet. :)
The textures....wow. What did you use for that?

Hi Danny, yes you're right for the retro look. In fact I could make bigger technically working teeth, be I'm also trying to give a 'huge' aspectof the elephant. I'm not sure if smaller teeth will help, I have tons of reference in fact, for this gear I'm using this image :

Hi jiro, and welcome :)

For the textures, well I have a huge photo's collection I've made myself sine 10 years, and ............. no that's wrong :P
Just go there -> http://www.cgtextures.com/

For the gear I'm just using this one,



The same image is used for the diffuse color, the diffuse amount (but with a different projection scaling), and for the bump.

Then I do a little compositing in photoshop.



Image 1: color diffuse Image 2: Specular boosted Image 3: Ambient occlusion

So I mix the 2 first image with a mask, to have variation and more specular in frictions area. I can use a vertex map to mix them directly in the surface editor, but as I'm doing a still image I don't care and I paint the mask in photoshop, it's faster :)

The last image, the ambient occlusion pass, is used as an overlay layer to boost the contrast. (it's a cheap dirt layer)

Hi Pascal,
Yeah, I like how they made machinery back in the 1800's to 1900's not only were they fuctional, you can tell they had a bit more pride in their work in those days because they added a bit more styling even though the machines were hidden away.
I also like the way big clock gears look, like townhall clocks.




Oh yeah, thanks for that textures link.

Cheers
~Danny~

Nice one !!! copied in my ref folder :)

What I really love in this kind of model is how simple the shapes are, just some tubes or other basic primitives combo ... easy to build in MoI !

Yes Danny, it looks very nice. On the other hand, the gears in clock, it isn't about the power or torque. It is just matter of silent and patient cogwheels motion :) -Petr