>>>>I just Googled Images for 'tube weld' and got these.........

THose would be Tig welds for sure...

THe booger weld looks more like someone tried to tube weld with an arc welder! (or they hired a hawaiian) If they could weld, it would be a raised bead.

>>>>>It seems like it would be an unusual option, have you seen it before in any other CAD program? I don't think that would normally be explicitly modeled in a CAD design.

No I have not seen it in a CAD program. It's like the age old newb modeler wanting to model the threads on a bolt. But then again, Danny did model Knurls on his camera!

I was just pointing out what a bead weld was, as you did ask. It could play into the artist side of MoI (Shouldnt Knurls be bump maps?)

The image I showed was just a normal G1 filet, inverted on it's own trim boundries. No consideration for tangency with surrounding geometry.

Your image shows the possibility to "G3 Blend", how does that work precisely?
Could you show an example, with curvature comb, that has been "G3 Blend"ed.

Because no software I know of can do that with just a single option-box, click boom and you're done! :)

Hi Burr, well adding in a bazillion unusual options for creating specialized stuff would definitely be fun, but as each one is added the user experience for creating the more normal stuff gets degraded a little bit, because it then becomes more difficult to find the "normal stuff" amid the huge sea of unusual and "cool" specialty functions.

So there's actually a negative price to be paid for adding in options for every conceivable kind of thing...

I know that you're only talking about adding in one at this point and not a bazillion, but that's how you end up with a bunch, by just adding in one at a time... :)


re: how to make a bead - I'm not sure that simply rotating a regular fillet by 180 degrees would actually do the proper job in all cases actually... One thing to be aware of is that a fillet is not always made up of a single arc in all spots like in the case you showed there. When thing are at different angles to one another they will draw out arcs that have different subtended angles in them (like some arcs are longer than others), like for stuff like this:



- Michael

What would probably be feasible would be to have a plug-in in the future that would let you select a fillet face and then it would replace it with a modified "bead" version.

Having specialized stuff like that in an optional plug-in command rather than baked as an option directly into a standard command like Fillet tends to help keep the regular stuff working more easily.

That would probably need a plug-in that would have some compiled C++ code for hitting the surface data at a lower level and not really a script one though. I don't have a system set up yet for doing C++ plugins.

- Michael

Agreed!!!!!!!!!Though it seems we'll both have to accept something.

You''ll have to accept that I will always ask for every possible tool, and that I know squat about application development.

I will have to accept that you have a heavy background in application development and MoI is a better product without the daunting interface.

We're both winner's now! :)

Hi Burr, I agree to those terms! :)

The good part is that the "add custom stuff by plug-ins" strategy helps me to deliver all kinds of additional cool tools but without bogging down the central main stuff too much.

So there is actually a path by which that stuff can get done...

- Michael

For the bead: Not possible to draw an arc or a curve (as you want) and make a sweep 2 rails given by the normal fillet?
(with heigth and tangent enable or not)

Danny, I tried Constant earlier but other problems I created kept it from working. Thanks for the tip.

I checked out your weld pics and am offering a mate to your "beauty". The welder in yours could blame the tubular surfaces; mine, flat surfaces, no excuses.

Edit: The plugin approach sounds great. Could it include an option for the techniques demonstrated in Danny's and my pics? :-)

Leonard

Hi Leonard,

> Could it include an option for the techniques
> demonstrated in Danny's and my pics? :-)

Maybe a plugin for that could be called "apply chewing gum" ? :)

- Michael

Exactly! Or, "slipshod Slick's tig".

Leonard