Modeling Help - Curved Structure Element...

[Donald2B]

Hey Mike! Your company does some very impressive work! I remember looking through your website when this job came back. It really is a small world! I met a ton of people out @ Siggraph last week and it was great to put some names to faces.

Yeah, I have been utilizing your methods and tweaked them quite a bit to fit with the small changes. The design is changing quite a bit and I was having a LOT of problems utilizing your methods. The severe stretching and compression of the structure is something they are really trying to get away from, so I am pretty much giving up on the path deform stuff. There are a lot more bends and twists and all kinds of other crazy stuff going on right now and it is constantly changing. The most difficult part is getting a more consistent structure size throughout the entire piece, like some of my earlier reference images. So I was heavily swayed towards trying out Rhino with Grasshopper. I will admit that this is WAY outside of my comfort zone and the learning curve seems to be almost vertical. I have spent a LOT of my personal time trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible. Most of our modeling is pretty boring stuff, so this is a nice change. Just wish I had a little more experience with these programs.

Rhino has been pretty easy to get my head around. I am struggling more with the concepts of Nurbs modeling more than anything. I tend to model myself into a corner because I am thinking Polys/Modifiers, so I seem to be starting over quite a bit, but the more I work with Rhino the more comfortable I have become. We are starting to do a lot more rapid prototyping that things too, so I figure I will have to learn Rhino at some point anyways!

Anyways, your stuff looks great! I hope you didn't have too much of a problem dealing with my files. The back and forth was getting a little confusing.

Cheers!

Troy Buckley

[alias_marks]

Thanks for the kind words Troy! *just realizing your name is not Donald Oops. You guys have some great stuff going on as well. Really wish I could have made it to siggraph this year, I'd love to meet and greet too.

The severe stretching and compression of the structure is something they are really trying to get away from, so I am pretty much giving up on the path deform stuff. There are a lot more bends and twists and all kinds of other crazy stuff going on right now and it is constantly changing. The most difficult part is getting a more consistent structure size throughout the entire piece, like some of my earlier reference images.

Totally agree on the revised modeling methods. The stretching was good to get some concepts out fast, but it was definitely getting to the point where things were going to need to get more exact. I was kinda figuring it would have to be-re-built at some point, but the work flow was working for the earlier stages

You're files came over just fine and that was a neat trick linking the xref to the node... Our original model was out of scale a bit as we were building from raster pdf files and referring the earlier renderings... part of the process sometimes.. It's definitely a great challenging project to work on, best of luck nailing things down.

Looking forward to seeing how things turn out!

All the Best,

Mike

[Donald2B]

Okay, I seem to have run into a MAJOR problem with some of these tools people have recommended. Paneling Tools & Grasshopper only really work on a single surface. Once you have multiple surfaces combined into a polysurface, I am no longer able to use the paneling tools.

Any suggestions?

I am attaching the final-ish shape that I would need to panel similar to the earlier images. I would LOVE to model this shape as one continuous surface, but with my limited knowledge of Rhino, I am failing miserably at that.

Here is the Rhino file:

[alias_marks]

This was one tool I was going to pursue looking at to finish out this particular model. Perhaps you might find it useful...

One approach I was thinking, was make a poly surface similar to the squash and stretch path deform method... but then using this parametric array plugin to space the diamonds evenly.

http://www.torabiarchitect.com/blog/?page_id=190

Edit:
I'm sure a rhino guru might have a better suggestion, but thought I'd just throw this idea into the pool for consideration

Seems something like this is pretty similar - http://www.torabiarchitect.com/blog/?p=56

[flino2004]

Troy send me a PM with your email, I rebuilt your model in Rhino...maybe it works for you.

Fernando

[sjmoir]

Wow, this just keeps getting more complicated! I don't have Rhino, but I opened your model in Deep View to have a look, I can't see how you could make it as a continuous surface. This is a Max model, if useful I could send it to you, but you can see it has to snake around to stay as one surface.

[pg1]

hey thought this might help
http://www.torabiarchitect.com/news/...c_array_1.html

[Donald2B]

@sjmoir: ROFL! I know! Every time I feel like I have the model somewhat nailed down. It changes again. ;P It started off pretty straight forward, once they saw what kind of progress I could make with Rhino, it really started to take off.

@pg1: I am definitely trying to work with that script. Right now I am not having any luck getting it to use the surface once I import the mesh from Rhino into Max. I have the nPower ProNurbs for Max and can import them mesh directly in from Rhino and it will remain a nurbs object. Unfortunately once I start trying to use that surface with the Parametric Array stuff, it just seems to get stuck and I can never get the script to apply anything to the surface. I waited almost 30min earlier today before I had to give up and move on to other things. I am definitely going to look into it a little more.

I have found that this little piece of the project to be the most difficult thing I have ever tried to do in my 15+ years of doing 3D work. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that I am learning Rhino/Grasshopper/Paneling Tools/Parametric Array (For Max) all at the same time, while continuing to make progress on all of the other aspects of the project. My OCD is really starting to kick in! That or the complete lack of sleep is finally catching up to me.

Nothing is more frustrating that being able to do exactly what you need very easily with a "simple" surface, only to then learn that it completely falls apart on the more complex surface. Then I am left wondering at what point did I fail, or am I pushing the respective software beyond what it is capable of doing. I have put in many requests for help from the many software developers I have mentioned earlier to see if they have any advice for me, or at least a better set of "ground rules". What can I and can't I do? Am I able to blend multiple structure surfaces together if I made them separately? So tomorrow should be another good day of learning and discovery! It's kind of exciting learning such a completely different skill set with Rhino and plugins!