Can you show us what it is that you want to taper?


Martin.

I suppose any volume can be tapered! ;)

Martin: Pretty much anything ;)

But just for an example, this capTop should be thinner at the top (from the front axis).

...and don't forget "shearing" (or "skewing")

Behold! All can and will be done with the power of "The Cage!"



But let Michael finish tweaking Blend first. ;-)

Do you mean the gauge of the material, or do you mean the cap is narrower at the top?


Martin.

"""""""""Do you mean the gauge of the material, or do you mean the cap is narrower at the top?""""""""""

Thats a good question!

Although, tapering the object is not terribly complex:



I could see though some command that does this with a "widget" if it's something that you do all day, all the time.

What is your method of tapering?

Did you ask me Frenchy?

I used flow from a square plane to a tapered plane.

Cool that was the trick! ;)

Oh good grief!

There you go, you see.. I was sure I was just ignorant of the method to do the tapering.

You hit it bang on the head with the square plane and the flow technique! The problem is I'm still clueless as to how you did it (believe me.. I thought I'd tried everything with flow.)

With no proper tutorial or documentation on how flow could be used, it's actually a very confusing process if trying to learn by trial and error. Honestly, I've been modeling since the 90's and this one had me stumped..

Is there any chance you could describe your method ? I'm sure it's painfully obvious, but you're a better man than me there !

:) /RH

Yes after a little headache I have found that! With the original file from Burr
Maybe like this! :)
Copy B to C on the left - move Points then all works fine! if you copy on the right that don't work! :)



Flow is a command little capricious if you don't take it on the good way! :)

Here is a video of it:



Create plane and copy and paste. start line and use tab to angle field.

""""""""" if you copy on the right that don't work!"""""""""

Probably depends on where you clcik your surfaces during the flow command. Or even how you made your surfaces, like "dragging from top down or left to right"...........

That is very mysterious now that works even I put the copy on the right, on the left, in front of, or even behind!!

Hi Rico, I'm glad you're getting more use out of MoI for modeling now!

As you've seen above you can get bending or tapering done currently using the Flow command.

For bending it's fairly straightforward, you draw a straight line down the middle of your shape, and then a curved line for how you want the bent result. Then select your object you want to bend, run Transform > Deform > Flow, then select the line as the base for the Flow and the bent curve as the target for the Flow and that will bend your object along that curve.

This allows for a whole lot of flexibility since you can bend along any kind of curve, not just necessarily an arc shape.

See here for some bending examples:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3628.246
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5097.2
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5130.5


Tapering can also be done with Flow, using the other mode of Flow where you select base and target _surfaces_ instead of using curves. This is kind of more involved, Burr shows the method above though.

In the future I want to add a "cage edit" tool which I think will be a more convenient way to do tapering as well. But until the time that is ready the method Burr shows above is how you can get it done now.

Curve to curve flow works well enough for bending that I don't think it's likely that there will be a separate Bend tool (well maybe as an optional plug-in). You just get so much more flexibility when the bent shape is defined by a curve that you can draw and customize rather than only bending around and arc shape. One of the main strategies for keeping MoI to have a light and fluid feeling in its UI is to try and get broader use out of a smaller number of tools...

- Michael

Hi Pilou,

> I believe that Michael is coding some cage or box of deformation! ;)

I am not coding it right this very minute, but it is something that I want to add in the future.

- Michael

Well Frenchy, The french are always mysterious with their fine wines and cheeses and the alure of women and such...

Hi Pilou,

> That is very mysterious now that works even I put the copy on the right,
> on the left, in front of, or even behind!!

It's only in "Projective" mode of surface-to-surface Flow that the specific placement of the base or target surface makes any difference.

In the regular mode that's being used here, it does not make any difference specifically where you have located the target plane.

If you're seeing differences it's probably because you're clicking in slightly different spots on the base and target surfaces - the pick point for where you click each one is significant, see here for an explanation of where to click on each one to match things up properly:
http://moi3d.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5853.1

- Michael

Thanks, I have never seen this post! That was not evident!

Another method with history...