Hi,

I'm trying to follow this tutorial : http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5530.1

and having trouble with it.

I can get it to Network fine and then I make the bottom ring planar, but I cannot get that closed curve to join to the rest of the bottle. And if I do not pick the closed curve and instead select the edges that have been created there, they are all split into individual pieces and do not fillet right at all.

Thanks,
David

Hi David, could you please post a 3DM file attachment with your current model that you're having problem with so we could take a look at your particular model structure and see what might be going wrong?

It's way easier to figure out things by looking at your actual model rather than just a description of it.

- Michael

Hi David,

Yes, please post a .3DM file. That would help.


It is possible that the curves you used to make the bottom planar shape are not originally planar themselves or connected precisely.
Also, if each of the ends of the curves by which the main body network surface is made are not touching the same plane (Z), then perhaps the network is not forming a perfectly flat place for the two surfaces to meet.

Here's the model file. If you look at the bottom of the bottle you have both the curve that I used for Network as well as multiple separate edges that were created by the closed curve.

If I use the original curve and make it planar, I can't Join it to the rest of the bottle. If I use the newly created edges, I can make it planar and join it to the bottle, but the separate edges seem to make a funky Fillet.

Thanks,
David

Hi David - the main difference between your model and the one in the tutorial is that your bottom closed curve is not a smooth curve, it's made up of 4 segments and each segment connects to one another at a sharp point rather than a smooth connection.

Then when generating a network from that, you will inherit that sharp segmentation into the network surface as well, instead of getting a single simple network surface you will instead get 4 separate faces that are sharp to one another, that kind of segmentation will also make filleting more difficult as well.

Try getting the bottom shape to be smooth and it should then resemble the tutorial a lot more. You can do that by selecting the bottom curve and doing Edit > Show pts, then grab the corner points and use the Transform > Align tool to get the points lined up vertically and horizontally to the center ones, that will then make for a smooth bottom shape.

- Michael

Hi David,

I probably should have stressed this more: but I noticed that your four bottom curves do not meet each other at tangents, instead their ends join at cusps.

If they are either tangent to each other (and joined) or made with one contiguous curve then Network will make a smoother surface that is smooth all the way around.

Also, when I deleted the free-standing curve you had and selected each edge segment, I was able to planar those segments (without Joining them into a single curve) and I was able to Join that planar surface to the set of network surface you had constructed. However, with surface edge angles that obtuse, a Fillet did not want to take.


Please try to make your four quadrant curves tangent to each other and see if you are first, able to make a smooth Network surface that only has one panel and one seam.

Hi David, so right now your bottom curve is like this:



You can fix it by turning on control points, then selecting just 2 corner points at a time and using Transform > Align to make them vertically or horizontally aligned with the center point. In the align command pick the alignment point to be that middle point. You'll do the align command 4 separate times, 2 times to do a horizontal alignment and 2 times to do a vertical alignment on different pairs of corners so that they are all lined up like this:



Then you'll make a smooth single surface network once your input curves are smooth as well.

See the attached 3DM file for an example of the edited curves.

- Michael

One other easy way I've found to make multiple separate curves into one is to 1) Join them, 2) Turn on points, 3) Select the end points, 4) Delete those points, and 5) smooth out the adjacent points.

That way Moi now considers the multiple curves to be one.

That did it! Thanks for your help!

I'm so glad David!

And you know a little more about Moi. :-)

Good luck with the tutorial!

Another question. I got that first Join to work fine and I notice that you use that command often enough but it doesn't seem to work for me later in the tutorial. Lines I have no issue joining, but I'm missing something with the surfaces. At the end of your tutorial you say to join everything. What are the limits/rules of joining objects/surfaces, i know I'm missing something there but not sure what.

Thanks again for all the help!

Hi David, in order to join 2 surfaces they must have edges touching one another with no larger than a 0.005 unit gap between them. If there is too large of a space between them or if the edges are already joined to other things then either of those will prevent things from joining to one another.

If you have a case where join is not working as you had expected, please post the 3DM file with the things you are trying to join in it and then that would help to diagnose the specific problem that you are running into, it's much easier to tell you what is going wrong when looking at an actual model file rather than just a written description.

- Michael