by the way ...

Where I also have big problems is, to cutout/engrave Typo
on curved surfaces.

In this case I think I have to use "timm"
So what I#M doing is:
1. selecting object
2. select the typo-curve
3. trimm
4. offset - inset or shell
and then ...
5. problem

Should I do this also via "boolean"?

thanks
Mike

Hi Mike,

> But what, if I'm building up and the work goes further and
> further and then later (maybe too late) I decite, that I want
> to add an extra shape or part somewhere.
> How do I manage that?

Well, a lot of these tips here in this thread are about how to do things better for filleting.

Do you mean that you would decide to add another part to the object after you have done some filleting on it or before you did the filleting?

If you wanted to do it after filleting, then you may have to reconstruct that area of the object. But it depends on the particular case.

If you think you might add more parts to an object later, it would probably be better to use the "more segmented" type approach where you had things more separated out so that stuff like planar areas of your shape was one separate plane surface instead of it all as one big single surface. That approach would lend itself better to adding more pieces later.


> Does it mean, that I (better) have to rebuild the
> whole object at the end?

It could mean that but it depends on the particular situation...

- Michael

Hi Mike,

> Where I also have big problems is, to cutout/engrave Typo
> on curved surfaces.

Do you have an example file that you could post so I could see one of these situations?


> Should I do this also via "boolean"?

Yeah usually you would also use a boolean for that - finish building any pieces of your curved surface so that it is a solid volume and not just a single surface and then create your text as solids. Then select your base piece and run boolean difference, and then select the text as the cutting objects and it will cut into it and leave an engraved result.

I'm not quite sure why you're referring to offset and inset for that - are you trying to do some kind of special effect on the text or something like that?

- Michael

I'm not quite sure why you're referring to offset and inset for that - are you trying to do some kind of special effect on the text or something like that?

Because I don't know it better. I thought, thats the way to do it.

I'm comming from the Polygon/Subdivision-Modelling and have very little experience
in Nurbs-Modelling.
When I get more time I should go through the manual in detail.
Especialy for learning which functions to use for which operations.

But thanks very much for your support!

regards
Mike

Yeah usually you would also use a boolean for that - finish building any pieces of your curved surface so that it is a solid volume and not just a single surface and then create your text as solids. Then select your base piece and run boolean difference, and then select the text as the cutting objects and it will cut into it and leave an engraved result.


But how would the text follow the curved surface?

MIke

Hi Mike,

> Because I don't know it better. I thought, thats the
> way to do it.

Well it could be the way to do it in some particular situations, like if you have a surface and you want to thicken it into a slab that has uniform thickness then the Shell command can do that.

But I'm just not sure from your general description of using offset and inset if that's the kind of thing that you were doing or whether you were trying to do something different.

It would probably help to see a 3DM model file with the surface and text in it to give you better specific advice for what technique to use, it can be difficult for me to fully understand what you were trying to do from just a text description - being able to see a 3DM model file really helps me to understand what you were trying to do and I can then give better advice when I'm sure that I understand.

- Michael

Hi Mike,

> I'm comming from the Polygon/Subdivision-Modelling and
> have very little experience in Nurbs-Modelling.

Check out here for some links to previous discussions with some various tips for people coming from a poly modeling background:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4865.2

One of the biggest differences is that with NURBS modeling you should generally try to focus on using booleans as the main way to do things, and that takes some getting used to if you come from a sub-d modeling background since you usually avoid it for sub-d.

- Michael