Any idea how to model air inflated ETFE air cushions on a dome shaped object?

[Morne]

Hi all

Well like the title says. My cushions are diamond shaped on a dome like kind of structure (not excactly a dome, but closest way to describe it)

To model the diamonds is nothing. But how do I inflate them?

[Morne]

I Can't do this:
So far a plane with edit poly to make the diamond, then an FFD3X3 modifier to make the bubble. Any easier or more streamline way of doing it?
Because the diamond is curved over the "dome" object

So FFD3X3 doesn't work!

I need the sides of the diamond to stay put, but the middle to be inflated

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Use modifier soft selection, customize it to select only polys u need and then use ffd ?

[Morne]

can't use ffd in any way. I have only the polys selected of the diamond (which is the whole diamond) which is curved as explained. FFD changes the whole object even if I only use the middle control point of the ffd.

[Morne]

I've hit a blank mind. Please help!

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Humh I got a hard time imaging it... can u post an image mb ? + some draw guide what u wana make... ?

[Morne]

Like so:
http://aplust.net/imagenes_blog/A8U...-allianz07R.jpg
and so
http://www.vector-foiltec.com/image...s/technical.jpg
and also so
http://www.canadianarchitect.com/as...tfe_cushion.jpg

But mine should be inflated more (and are shaped like the 1st image). Mine are off center to the dome steel underneath, so towards the end on some parts I have triangles instead of diamonds

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

umh thats quite easy... or I'm too tired

Anyway

Quad wire diamond
sides chamfered
middle bit pushed outwards simply edit poly select and go...
and then just copy it as many times as u need/ merge/ 3 select edges / convert to vertex/ weld...

Should be that hard to do

squeze ts/smooth on to smoth things out and u done

[val2]

Or, you can just use splines. a diamond base and an arc from corner to corner at each corner then give it a surface. super easy. From there you can convert it to a poly or a mesh if you like. spline building in max is really pretty good.

[val2]

Or,... if you wanted to keep a bit of the arc from the sphere you could use shape merge on a large sphere and the shape being a diamond. even faster.

[Neilg]

I've done one before which had to be incredibly high detailed and modeled it flat before bending it into shape.

The polycount was too high to do it normally, so I had to merge all of one type of object, the lower structure, all the frames into edit poly objects then copy & paste a stack of bend modifiers over them. I did the stack of modifiers on a much simpler object to get them all right first while I could actually see what I was doing.

[trick]

Doing this with clothFX (planes horizontally, edges static), trying different fabrics could save you a lot of time...
I think PowerNurbs has special settings on how surfaces can be bulged, which would make this a one click operation...but that's not cheap and you'll have to check this !
Very recently a very cheap smooth modeling plugin (Polygon Creator) has been released: check out ScriptSpot !

[Neilg]

Has anyone made a good parametric modeling tool for max yet?

I remember at one point 2 people on this forum were working on one, then I think they both stopped around about the same time.

edit: $40, just use this - http://www.torabiarchitect.com/news/...c_array_1.html

[plastic_]

Has anyone made a good parametric modeling tool for max yet?

I remember at one point 2 people on this forum were working on one, then I think they both stopped around about the same time.

edit: $40, just use this - http://www.torabiarchitect.com/news/...c_array_1.html

I didn't exactly stop, but it turned into a monster, then I started again, had no time to work on it for a while, etc, etc.
I have something in my sleeve, but I learned my lession when talking about release dates.
Let's say I'm most likely coming up with a working beta before Vray 2.0 ships.

Only thing i can show right now are this teasers:

[dellis]

Very cool!