need help with Network-Tool

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 From:  BlackBird
4526.1 
Hi. i like to model a water-tap. just to practise a bit but i allways stuck with the Network tool. it looks sooo damn unlogic for me. can someone explain how it works correct?
when i try the cone-like model from the help page it works. but not on my models. it drives me crazy!



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 From:  Michael Gibson
4526.2 In reply to 4526.1 
Hi Blackbird - in order for network to work it has to be able to unwrap your curves into a 2D grid pattern sort of like how longitude and latitude lines on a globe map to a flat 2D map of the earth.

If you have an area where several curves are collapsing together at a point, that will be a pole area like the north or south pole. That's what you've got in this area here:



So then if you imagine that's the north pole then every line of longitude coming away from that pole needs to cover the entire height of the 2D map and either end at something like an equator ending base loop or end at another pole at the other side. But this line coming off the pole does not do either of those things, it ends somewhere in the middle of the network instead of traversing the entire length of it:



And these other side areas here are kind of trying to form an additional pole area:




Network can't deal with that kind of layout that would basically have multiple pole areas in it - you can only have a single pole at either one total end or the other total end of the network.

Other areas inside the middle of the network need to be areas where the latitude and longitude lines are crossing over each other, not where multiple curves are coming to a shared endpoint which is a pole.


So you need a different structure to your curve layout in order for it to be used with Network, also please see this previous post for some other links to examples and explanation:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4448.4

For the kind of shape that it looks like you are trying to create where there are kind of 2 separate components to it (like a straight shaft and then a tilted piece) with a sort of tight bend in between them, that can sometimes be better to model as actually 2 separate parts and then fillet them to smooth things between them.

- Michael

EDITED: 18 Sep 2011 by MICHAEL GIBSON


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