Stars or gears? Maybe gears will be useful too :)

Your stars' drawing remember me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling :)
and its crazzy Aperiodic pavments with only 2 figures! :D

Hi Bernard, thanks for the feedback!

> Could you implement a "cap ends" function for the Revolve and
> Rail Revolve tools as you've done for Loft and Sweep ?

This part is now done for the next beta.

But I'm afraid the other ones will have to wait a while...

- Michael

Hi Pilou,

> Stars or gears? Maybe gears will be useful too :)

Just stars for now. Gears would definitely be useful, but they are a lot more complex with a lot more options needed for real engineering use, so those will have to wait for a while.

- Michael

Hi,

> Stars or gears? Maybe gears will be useful too :)

Maybe a "select 1 over n" tool can simplify this like Hex.

George

Another wish:

1) Are great if Michael add the Mirror Sketch like Max Power Nurbs! ;)

Here a demo video:

http://www.integrityware.com/tutorials/Max/AdvTutorials/new_phone_demo_Ver_02/new_phone_demo_Ver_02.html

P.S.
Why don't write a Cinema4D Plugin like this? A sort of MOI integrated with Cinema4D?

Tnx ! ;)

A virtual mirror (like Wings3D) or a real mirror?

@Mr braun
You don't find than Moi is yet "a plugin" for any 3Dprog ? :)
Why just Cinema4D? :D
"Integration" is realy necessary?

Yes Pilou, i agree with you, but CInema4D really need a plugin to manage nurbs surface and that good work with the spline! ;)

I talk about Cinema4D because Michael is a Cinema4d User: it will be great to render directely into cinema without other steps! ;)

<I talk about Cinema4D because Michael is a Cinema4d User
I didn't know that and had believed that Michael had no time to render :)

I know layers/groups are a ways off, but here is what I'd like to see...

Groups:
*You should be able to group objects together, and manipulate them as a whole wrt rotation, scaling, clipping, etc.
*Groups should be able to contain objects in different layers.
*You should be able to hide/show groups
*Groups should be lockable so that they can not be operated on.

Layers:
* You should be able to assign an object to a layer
* You should be able to lock and hide/show a layer.
* Objects not assigned to a layer, by default are part of a 'default' layer that can be locked, hidden, etc.

Colors:
* Assign a color to a object, group, or all objects in a layer.

Why layers/Groups?

Well, with even moderately complicated models, I find myself constantly pushing curves out of the way, or trying to make do with just the global show/hide.
With layers, I could lay out all my contours on a a plane or so, group them, put them in a layer, set it's color ( light grey ) and lock it. Now I have a reference for my further work.

:)

Oh, and Gordon and Coons curves. :)

A "Chop" command.

I find myself doing a lot of chopping up of solids. Draw a line, extrude into a plane, boolean or trim a closed surface with it, etc etc...

So I propose a simplified trim/boolean (diff) function, lets call it 'chop', and adding support for a orthographic 3D view with a view-relative grid.

So instead of drawing a curve, extruding to a plane, then booleaning the solid, then clicking seperate, then deleting the junk part, then joining the plane to the sliced solid to cap it..., how about following workflow:

You align your view relative to the object however you like. In 3D orthographic mode, or side view, or top view, etc, you draw your curve over the object. You select the object, and hit "Chop".

The line is automagically projected into a 'slicing' plane down into the selected object, dividing it into 2 capped pieces. These pieces are also automatically seperated and capped if you so choose. Like trimming curves, it then asks you to select the pieces you want to remove, or hit 'done' and keep them all.

I've found this to be something I do a lot of. And I think a command like this would immensely speed up the workflow, especially for those of us coming from a non-cad background.

> A "Chop" command.
>
> I find myself doing a lot of chopping up of solids. Draw a line, extrude into a plane,
> boolean or trim a closed surface with it, etc etc...

This is partway built into trim already - you can currently trim a solid with a line for example.

But it won't leave behind the piece of the cutting plane, it will cut the solid only. However if your cut left a planar hole you can fill that in easily by selecting the object and doing Construct/Planar. So that should work now for some cases.

I do want to extend this to be able to leave the pieces of the extended trimming object around as an option, and also build in some solid / curve interaction into the booleans like you are asking for. Not sure when though, there are some other things that I've got to finish up first...

- Michael

Modifiers "Twist, bend..."...but I don't know if it's realy possible for Nurbs volumes?

An "Helix" primitive :)

Michael, you rock!
This program is progressing fantastic!
Thanks
Ken

Some option on sweep to preserve the orientation of the curve relative to the global coordinates as it is swept down the rail?

I thought "Flat" did this, but it doesn't seem to do it, the curve always wiggles as it's extruded, especially if the rail has any sharp kinks.

I mean something like this:



Think of it as a top down view.

Hi Crusoe - "flat" still allows for rotations, but only rotations around the world z axis, so it pivots in a more controlled manner (no upwards or downwards changes in slope, hence 'flat' ).

If you want no rotation at all, then you can use Construct/Extrude for that, with the Set Path option - that should do what you are requesting here.

- Michael

One quick note on Extrude with Set Path - it seems that there is a bug where it won't work right if you have a path with a kink in it with, if you have "Cap ends" also turned on.

I should be able to fix this for the next beta but for now make sure that Cap ends is turned off before you pick "Set path" if you have a path with a kink in it, then you can select the object and do Construct/Planar to put on caps after that.

- Michael

Hmm, so how are sweep/extrude different then? I mean, what's purpose for having 2 seperate ones?

I guess it's partly tradition, the non-rotating type of "sweep" has been grouped under extrude in NURBS modelers before.

It fits somewhat because without any rotation you are much more limited in the path shape that you can use, you kind of have to use one that goes fairly straight, you can't make a good surface with a circle path for instance, because the shape will fold over on itself.

So in that sense it is kind of like a guided extrude, since simple extrude is straight.

Also calculation-wise it is quite different from sweep - there are some special properties to the extrude with set path. It preserves the control point structure of the path curve in the resulting surface, while sweep goes through a fitting process which is a little different.

So another use for Extrude with Set Path is if you want a straight extrusion, but with say 4 control points along it - you can draw a curve in a straight line using 4 points and use that as your path and get an extrusion with 4 points in it. People have requested being able to set the number of points along the extrusion, and set path allows for that, so that is another reason it is under there...

- Michael

New wishlist item :

Automatic solidification of objects when trimming (or an option to do so).
See the attached image. I know that there is a way to close the cylinder or the box but what about the sphere?
The only way to do what I want is to use a solid and boolean->diff but this way you loose a small part of the object.