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Old 9th March 2012, 11:06 AM   #1
Hans_Petter
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Norway
Posts: 45
Default Cutting rounded windows

I've been working on an X-Plane fuselage for a long time and have decided to try a different approach regarding windshield and windows. A long time ago I created the windows by means of alpha channel transparency. However, even with partial transparancy along the edges it's not as smooth as I want it to be. Since I did create internal structures by downsizing a copy of the fuselage to 95 percent, flip the normals and work from the inside I know that I can cut the windows by adding vertices, creating new edges and deleting extra vertices / surfaces within the window area. This took long though. So I wonder if there's an easier approach. From the outside view I've got the basic fuselage shape and the windows show as texture transparency. I want to cut out the windows along the edges of the transparent area. Intuitively, some kind of knife should be able to do the job but I've not been able to use anything but rectangles for knife. What I would want is to cut out rounded corners so I tried using a cylinder object as a knife but it didn't work.
Once I get properly cut out window areas I plan to add a flange along the edges and add rivets through texture. Anyway, what I want is to cut elaborately shaped holes in a curved object without messing up its shape. How would the pros approach this?

By the way, one thing that does save time and ensure lateral symmetry is to work on one side of the fuselage only and then mirror it to get both sides when it's finished.
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