CompuServe Thread

#rounded edges

13 messages in this thread
#12205From: David HofmannMay 17, 1995 3:28 PM
Hi, I have to model and animate a screw. Sounds simple, but you haven't seen the screw's head. It's a sphere cout in many different way, two wholes with threads inside, complex fluting, … All this is not impossible to do. I used slice a lot and it worked, but edges are too hard. The real problem is: All edges have to be slightly rounded and manually adding faces to make the edge rounded is just too much work. So I need a way to create the rounded edges, but at the same time the shape of the whole object is very complex. Anyone any ideas? -David
#12208From: John StetzerMay 17, 1995 3:54 PM
>>Anyone any ideas? If someone doesn't have any better, more specific Imagine ideas, I might be able to help you out with a dxf file using the smooth.pxp routine; warning this may (dramaticly) increase the face count; I can reduce that face count if nessessary. If someone doesn't give you an easier method, email me the dxf w/a good description of what you need, and what type of face count would be best. John Stetzer JWS
#12313From: David HofmannMay 19, 1995 11:07 AM
Oh, you have a smooth IPAS. Just out of couriosity I'd like to send you an object and see what it does and how good it works. Basiacally what I need is: take a sphere, and slice it with a plane. The edges are now sharp. What I want is to smooth these edges without making the flat area rounded and without changing the rest of the object. Just like you would use snadpaper on a sharp edge. -David
#12324From: John StetzerMay 19, 1995 12:55 PM
>>What I want is to smooth these edges without making the flat area rounded and without changing the rest of the object So the resulting object would be sort of a hemisphere, right? For something like that, smooth wouldn't work well at all; for that, it'd be easier to tessalate the area you want to make curved to however dense you needed, select vertices, taper them (or 2d scale them from a top view), deselect the upper vertices,taper the remaining ones, etc, till you got the curve. Or you could use that hemisphere as a template to make a new profile w/the addition of the part you wanted rounded, then surf. rev. it. Sorry if I misunderstood what you needed, David. John Stetzer JWS
#12392From: David HofmannMay 20, 1995 3:54 PM
>> Sorry if I misunderstood what you needed, David. I'll send you an object anyway. Just want to see what this IPAS does. What I *real* would like to have it something I saw in Alias: filets. Just click on the edge and make it rounded 🙂 -David
#12474From: John StetzerMay 22, 1995 10:51 AM
>>I'll send you an object anyway OK. >>Just click on the edge and make it rounded 🙂 I believe that's one of the new features in that other program (the new version). John Stetzer JWS
#12527From: David HofmannMay 23, 1995 1:17 PM
>> I believe that's one of the new features in that other program psst! we are in the Imagine GU here <BG> -David
#12213From: GreG tsadilasMay 17, 1995 4:55 PM
>> All this is not impossible to do. I used slice a lot and it worked, but edges are too hard. The real problem is: All edges have to be slightly rounded and manually adding faces to make the edge rounded is just too much work. << David, The way I would approach it is this way. Take the sphere, cut the necessary holes. Optimize the holes. In edge mode I would then select the edge of a hole, then extrude it with say 1 section. Then I would reposition the extruded points and move them back to overlap with the original edge, and then finally scale this set of points down to add an extra edge to create the smooth edged hole. I hope you can follow this, it's easier to visualize than to type it out. After this I would insert the threaded interior object to connect the two opposite openings in the sphere. Of course, not seeing what the object looks like, and where you need the rounded corners makes it difficult to attempt to give you suggestions specific to your needs. Maybe you can upload a render of the object you need help with? -GreG
#12314From: David HofmannMay 19, 1995 11:07 AM
Greg, thanks! duplicating the edge is exactly what I'm doing right now. I thought there is an easy, automatic way… Right now I'm doing at lot by hand, and it works ok (even tho it could look better). I wish I had Alias. Just click on the edge and enter a radius for the smooth edge. 🙂 BTW, saw your www page. Looks nice! -David
#12363From: GreG tsadilasMay 19, 1995 10:14 PM
>> thanks! duplicating the edge is exactly what I'm doing right now. I thought there is an easy, automatic way. << David, I thought of a different way to do it, but don't know if it would be easier. Basically, create several tightly concentric sphere's. The internal sphere's will be used to create the extra edges to the holes for making them "rounded" later. Join the concentric sphere's, then create a slightly tapered cylinder. Now SLICE the cylinder into the sides of the "concentric spheres object" with the smaller radius of the tapered cylinder inside the spheres. Now remove all the points/faces from the internal sphere's leaving only the edges for the hole. Clean up the geometry if you want, and then use SET/FILL to edge line to connect the outer sphere hole edge to the internal edges. Like I said, it's convoluted, but depending on the object, it may offer more precision than scaling an extruded edge. >> BTW, saw your www page. Looks nice! Thanks, it still has a ways to go. Need to add more to it than just my images. -GreG
#12430From: David HofmannMay 21, 1995 1:58 PM
Took me several tries, but finally understood what you mean <g> Yes this would create several edges for the rounded edge. In the beginning I also thought about first creating only all edges (maby even as paths) that have to be rounded and extrude a small rounded shape (edge) along all of them. But it wouldn't work since the angles of the surfaces are always different. I'm almost finished with the object so I'll do the fine tuning by hand. I just don't want to start all over agin. How much does this Web page cost you a month? Can you see who has logged in? -David
#12455From: GreG tsadilasMay 22, 1995 12:07 AM
David, Once you got the object modelled, give us a look. With all the discussion I'm really curious as what this thing looks like! >> How much does this Web page cost you a month? Can you see who has logged in? I was made an offer I couldn't refuse. It's on Sharky's machine. Send him an e-mail at sharky@aloha.com, he may be able to make you the same offer. <g> I don't know who logs on…don't know if he has his system set up to log the actual addresses. -GreG
#12525From: David HofmannMay 23, 1995 1:17 PM
>> With all the discussion I'm really curious as what this thing looks >> like! pretty boring! 🙂 It's a small screw that goes into the spinal column. I spent three full days modelling it and the result will be a very profane looking animation (for a medical film). That's why I suggested them to have a steel skeleton walk in as intro for the film. <g> sure, I'll upload an image or a small FLC of it. -David