Hi All,
Firstly I’m a new user and just having a play with the demo, I come from a 3DS max background (also used Amapi quite heavily back in the late 90s early 2000s).
Absolutely loving the program... although I don't see replacing 3DS for some modeling, I’ll certainly be purchasing to use on the more product based stuff and then using on conjunction with 3DS. You have no idea how nice it is to have booleans and fillets that actually work! The interface is just lovely. I recently spent nearly a day modeling a product part in 3DS max that took less than an hour in MoI

Anyway enough of the praise…

I have a quick question regarding fillets. Is it possible to vary the fillet radius around an edge?
I hope the pic might explain a little further…
I wanted to have quite a small fillet at the top of the attachment that spreads out to a much larger fillet around the base. As you can see on the right side it is constant but on the left I have attempted to achieve this using the ‘Blend’ tool with some success but wanted to know if there was an easier way?

As with most modeling programs im guessing MoI has more than one way to achieve most things and it’s a trial and error process.
I hope people won't mind me picking a few brains when I get stuck on things?

Hi Cube! I hope you enjoy using MoI. It should be a wonderful complement to 3DS-Max.

I think Michael has "variable fillets" on a future to-do list. But until then, using Blends will be your best bet.

I have a tutorial you can look at that would show you a way to go about it.
It's not a very polished tutorial, but I hope it helps.

Basically you start off with a curve that represents the adjoining seam between your two main surfaces.
That curve is used to Sweep a tubular path through different circle profiles - each can be varied in size.
The Sweep surface is used to trim from the two surfaces.
From each new edge you make your Blend.

It's good in theory, but it can get a little tricky...
You'll have to learn about using Merge and Trim to work with the sometimes fragmented edge curves on your surfaces.

I need to update the tutorial to be more straight forward, and I need to show how to use a combination of the new V3-Beta's Isocurve Trim and Blend to clean up the Sweep before using it to trim your surfaces.

I apologize if I've confused you. ;-)

Manual Variable Fillet Technique

Good luck!

Hi Mike,
That's great! I knew there would be a work around it's just getting used to the tools to find it. Ill check out your tutorial and give it a try.
Coming from max, pretty much any working fillets is a bonus, trouble is once you start playing with them you get greedy :-) variable fillets would be a great addition.
Thanks very much.

Good luck Cube!

> ...trouble is once you start playing with them you get greedy.

Fillets and NURBS are a naturally occurring pair - sort of like Chocolate cookie wafers and the center filling.

They help express both the fact that mechanical structures rely upon them for strength and are also a necessary for making edges safe for handling.

Of course... if you so happened, by chance to work in the "throw-away" room at the OREO® factory, 'greed' is easily attenuated by 'gluttony'.

Whenever MoI gets variable fillets someday, I may have to gorge myself and fillet the heck out of every corner on every model. ;-)

Hi Cube yes right now there isn't a specific "variable radius fillet" tool in MoI so you instead would need to use some alternate construction methods like Mike shows above.

But I'm definitely planning on adding in variable radius fillets to MoI, it just has not quite got to the top of my list yet.

- Michael

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But I'm definitely planning on adding in variable radius fillets to MoI, it just has not quite got to the top of my list yet
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Wow that sounds cool......


Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)