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27th January 2009, 05:44 PM | #1 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Thank you but I can't make them work on my example.
If I make an "L" with a Polyline of 3 points, it appears that I cannot "unweld" the corner vertex since it was always only one vertex. I can't make the other tools do it either. Can you elaborate using my "L" example? Thanks! Wes |
3rd February 2009, 10:35 AM | #2 | |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Quote:
I should draw each segment separately to begin if I have any intention of curving it in the future. Another question then if I may, once the whole piece/design is complete, and it's been given a surface, how do I make the whole unit say 1/8" thick? Right now it's "paper thin". Thanks! Wes |
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3rd February 2009, 05:55 PM | #3 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Sorry for the slow reply. The big game developer's conference is in a few weeks, and I've been tearing my hair out.
The polyline "L" is kind of a special case, as AC3D sees it as a triangle. (Switch it to polygon mode, and you'll see what I mean.) So yes, draw each as its own object to start for that case. Most of the time you don't need to do that however. To make your object have thickness, you'll want to select your shape and use the extrude button. AC3D will add thickness along whichever axis you drag once you click extrude. Incidentally, once extruded you should be able to unweld that corner and curve it. |
3rd February 2009, 06:07 PM | #4 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Thanks Lisa, and I understand your constraint.
I'm just wondering though, if my 'piece' is 20 or so panels, even if I go through and extrude each one, how can I be sure they are all the exact same thickness? Eyeball it? There's no Global command? (If that's the right word) I am looking at Rapid Prototyping and thickness is supposed to be very exact. Thanks! Wes |
3rd February 2009, 08:27 PM | #5 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Couple of options there.
You can multi-select, and extrude them all at once if they are all facing the same direction. Otherwise "extrude by distance" will extrude the surface by an exact value in the direction of the surface normal. This is probably what you want if you're looking for precise values. You can toggle normal display on and off on the 3D menu to know which direction the surface will be extruded. The normals are the little pink hairs that appear when display normal is on. They show which way the surface faces. The extrude button is the third button on the top row in the sidebar. If you click that, your other extrude options should show up in the panel below. On a side note: Don't get this confused with the "sculpty extrude" button, I know there was some mix-up about that earlier. Sculpty extrude is a Second Life thing, as SL has some particular constraints beyond what the built-in extrude does. The standard extrude is much more powerful. |
4th February 2009, 10:15 AM | #6 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Great stuff again, thanks! I'll give that a try.
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6th February 2009, 07:25 PM | #7 |
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Re: Defining surfaces and other new questions....
Now I feel like I've seen the answer to this before but I forget where.....
Suppose I draw a square using a 4 point polyline, then I guess I would use the "create ordered surface" method to fill it in, how can I then take that area and bow it in or out, making it either convex or concave? And if I want to do that to a long rectangular area....anything else I should know? Thanks! Wes |
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