Doh! Yeah I have actually done what you suggest on a few models, but forgot to try it this time. It makes complete sense to me. These "gotchas" don't ever frustrate me anymore, I'm used to it after learning polygon edgeloop modeling for animation deformation. NURBS just never felt like a creative process to me before MoI so I avoided them like the plague, but right now I am having a lot of fun learning how to use them.

Thanks for taking time out to help me with these basic things, I know you must be busy on the next beta, which I can't wait to get my hands on!

> it is good to make sure surfaces join together because joined surfaces makes for shared edges between surfaces, and shared edges between surfaces are necessary to get "watertight" matching meshing for each different surface along that common edge.

Yeah I am used to this concept from learning low-poly modeling during a game prototyping course. We had to keep things "watertight" to avoid getting visible seams during real-time rendering. It has kind of stuck with me and has carried over to MoI, which is why I keep trying to make sure all the surfaces will join together. Thanks for all the tips.

> Thanks for taking time out to help me with these basic things,

No problem, helping people out also helps me to understand which things could use more tune-ups in the future.

I also don't mind especially spending time answering questions here in the forum, because it makes it easier for others to read it and benefit from it as well.


> I know you must be busy on the next beta, which I can't wait to get my hands on!

Well, it's been going a little slow so far, nothing really spectacular set up yet, I've just been nailing down a couple of bugs. But it looks like I've tracked down the one really big major remaining crash bug that I know of, so that is good.

- Michael

Hi Jesse,

> When I saw Joe's model, I was going to ask if
> you planned to put "sweep to a point" in MoI,
> but as I've discovered, it does it already!
>
> Also, I never knew what the " pointy end "
> option in MoI's sweep was for...MoI continues
> to impress me!

:) Just to clarify for others - to do a 2-rail sweep to a point in MoI you just make the rails end in a point.

To do make a 1-rail sweep to a point you use the "pointy end" or "pointy start" options.

- Michael

Sometimes moi just refuses to join 2 surfaces for a couple of reasons.

1) Try saving and then reloading the mesh. Often joins/unions/etc will work after this

2) Examine the profile curves you used for the sweep, and check for overlapping points ( Click show points ). Overlapping points will show up as a red box. Just select and delete one. These overlapping points will generate sweep curves just fine, but cause problems with joining the resulting surfaces if they occur at the edge which you are trying to join another curve to.

Perhaps moi should pop up a notice when sweeping a curve containing overlapping points? This has bitten me a few times. You can join the swept curve to other swept curves at the edges that does not contain a overlapping point.

Also, I notice trimming circles/ellipses close to the quad points leads to overlapping points in a lot of cases.

Hi Joe,

I hope my model wasn't confusing...I drew it by eye before you posted your 3dm model, so mine is a rather simplified version
in comparison.

I did the whole thing all at once as a 2 rail sweep, but because the long side of your top surface has a shape
that is uniquely particular to both sides of that surface along it's length, you might get more predictable results by sweeping the surfaces separately,
as you have done....if you swept the top surface first and then used the edge curve of the top surface as one of the drive rails of the side
surface, the two surfaces will join without gaps.. (does that make any sense)?


Michael explained it much more clearly that I am...:-) , using commonly shared drive curves in a sweep will better insure that the resulting surfaces
join up into a closed polysurface without any gaps.



-Jesse

Yeah your model helped because I realized I should include the rounded edge in my profile curve instead of trying a fillet. Thanks to help I got from you guys I'm starting get a hang of the basics. After I got the blade together I was able to put together a guard and handle very quickly. Tonight I plan to start on a more detailed knife.

I finally got some time to play with MoI more and put this sword together tonight. I am really loving the "sketchy" workflow. I didn't even draw any concept art, just played around with shapes. Now that I am starting to understand the toolset better I am getting really excited about this app. I was able to get my model into Max and throw on a couple of shaders for a quick render.

Added to the special thread Gallery :)

Hey thanks!

Very nice!

Nice job!

-jdk-

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Here is what I worked on over the weekend, a Chinese Type 67 Suppressed Pistol based on Google image references. I wasn't trying too hard to be accurate, just a learning project. Eventually I ran into filleting problems right as I was about to start detailing the handle grips. I came to the conclusion that some areas would have to be completely remodeled in order to fillet them, so I'm probably going to put this project off for a few days until I decide to rebuild those areas. I'm anxious to get started on an environment piece.






For this model I put off filleting during most of the modeling process to keep the framerate up in my viewport. However, I think a nice workflow would be to create fillets then be able to toggle them on or off, as well as keep them adjustable. I saw this kind of workflow in PowerNURBS videos, where edges can be put into fillet groups and toggled or adjusted at anytime. This way I could easily set up my objects with fillets as I model and test them out and troubleshoot any problems then turn them off to keep my viewport speed up. Of course I realize some sort of scene management would probably be needed to be implemented, which I think is a version 2 thing.

Very nice!
Yes, as far as I remember, Michael said that object grouping and probably modeling history won't be ready soon.