Final model

STEP 1

First things first. Make sure you got your Snap option turned on in the status bar, and your OSnap enabled with some of the most commonly used options like End, Near, Point, Mid and Int.

We’ll start creating this little shovel from top viewport, like we would start tracing an image of some existing shovel imported in Rhinoceros.

With Curve command, create a curve in Top viewport which has its control points exactly like on the image below. This is why Snap (to grid) is handy tool to use here.

Image 1

Then we need another copy of this curve, and for that we will use Mirror command and mirror it across x axis.After that, use Join command to join two curves.

Then we can either use Line command to close these two curves into one closed polyline/polycurve, or use Close command which will do the same thing with less clicks.

Image 2

Now, using Rectangle command we will create a rectangle like on the image below: do not worry about the dimensions, just count the grid boxes and you’ll be fine. I’ve got some dimensions for you in case you get lost

Image 3

With Trim command, we will trim the parts of the two closed polylines which will help us join all curves into one closed:

Image 4

Next thing would be to make the corners smoother. They aren’t normally that sharp, are they? So, using Fillet command we need to fillet the upper and lower corners with 1 unit, and the inner ones with 2 units, and the tip of the shovel with 0.4 units:

Image 5

Now, before we go any further, it is good to check if all these lines and curves are joined all together. Just click anywhere on the line, and if everything is ok then it will be yellow as selected. One more thing to check is if this IS really closed curve with SelClosedCrv command which will select all closed curves.

Next thing we need is a basic shape of our shovel. Since it is curved in two sides, the best basic shape would be an ellipsoid. Using Ellipsoid command create one positioned just like on the image below:

Image 6

Ok, now we will Cut the Ellipsoid with the closed curve we created. From Top viewport, we need to select both Ellipsoid and closed curve, and run Project command. It is important to do this in Front viewport because the viewport is controlling the direction of the projection.

Image 7

Now we got two projected curves. One on the top and one on the bottom of ellipsoid. We don’t need the upper one, and we can delete it by selecting it and hitting Delete key on keyboard.

Using Split command, we will first select the object we want to cut which is in this case ellipsoid, and then the curve which is the object we wish to split with:

Image 8

Now we have finally created something that is actually resembling our shovel. This is one thin surface, and we need some thickness. Using OffsetSrf command we will first offset the surface and create one on top with distance of 0.3 units: (when you start the command, it will display white arrows on your surface, those are normals, and are used to see in which direction the offset will occur. Chances are your arrows point towards bottom, click on the surface and the arrows will change direction)

Image 9

We now have two flat surfaces and we need to connect them somehow. We’ll do that with BlendSrf command which will basically create nice blend surface between two surfaces: (Use AutoConnect option in command line)

Image 10

With Join command join the blend surface with two flat surfaces. You will notice on the part where would handle start there is some weird hole. Never mind that, that part will soon disappear.

Again, we need to create another Ellipsoid. Using Ellipsoid command create one like on the image below. Again, the positioning and size is crucial here.

Image 11

Hint: When you start Ellipsoid command, just follow these steps. Input “10, -3.75″ (that will set the center in the right position), press enter while active Front viewport (click anywhere in the viewport), “6, -3.75″ (that will set one dimension of the ellipsoid – length), press enter while still in Front viewport, “10, -2.25″, press enter while in Front viewport, “10,-1.5″ press enter Top viewport is active. Do not input apostrophe signs.

Using ExtractIsoCurve command, create a extract isocurve from the middle of ellipsoid. You need to hit the Quad point to make sure the circle is in ellipsoid’s center.

Image 12

Using ExtrudeCrv command we will create a cylinder out of this circle. So, start the command, select the circle, make sure the Cap option is set to Yes, and input 15 units in command line as extrusion distance.

Image 13

With BooleanUnion command connect ellipsoid with cylinder:

Image 14

Again, with BooleanUnion command we need to connect the plate and handle part:

Image 15

If you are getting something like on the image below….

Image 16

… then you need to use Dir command on the plate before you use BooleanUnion. Because the normals are pointing towards the inside, while they should point towards outside.

This next part will be a bit tricky, so pay attention. We need to create a variable fillet on the edges that connect the handle part and the shovel plate. The biggest radius will be 1 unit, while all others will be 0.8 units.

So, start FilletEdge command, and set 0.08 as default radius. Select the edges:

Image 17

… press enter, and click on AddHandle option in command line. Add 7 more handles like on the image below:

Image 18

The two big ones show be set to 1 unit, and you do that by clicking on the outer dot (center of an arc) and inputing the values.

Image 19

Final rendered model of our windup clock

When approaching modeling this clock, and any other model, I first try to divide it into parts. Obviously every product has its parts, and naturally you would go model one by one. This is that kind of model where your don’t have to think about which part to model first. This is obvious, first you need a clock body, then you can go about modeling which ever part. Here I first created the body, then the back plate with screws, then the front plate without numbers, bells and hammer, legs, and then in the end made the numbers and handles for the front plate.

STEP 1

Ok, in this step we will be creating the body. Since I lost every clock I had like this, I had to model it from reference images from the internet. So, we don’t have the measures, or technical drawings, but we need to model by eye, looking at the various images and approximate the lengths, distances and so on.

I created a template for my default usage with grid extents set to 10. So, make sure you do the same with Snap command, and clicking on the Extents options and input 10.

Now, we can start modeling. Since we don’t know what the accurate dimensions are, we will need to use our old method of trial and error. We will first create three straight lines with Polyline or Line command.

img1

Next thing would be to connect these lines with curves, and that we will do with BlendCrv command. Make sure you use G1 for both ends, so we get tangency.

img2

Using Join command make sure those lines are all joined together. So, next thing would be to create a surface out of this section curve, and we’ll do that with Revolve command. But, before that, we need to turn on the Record History option, so we can work on the surface by simply editing the curve.

img3

Now, if we select our initial curve, and using PointsOn command turn on the control points and if we move those points, we will automatically update the surface as well. If we used Record History that is.

img4

Ok, next thing would be to adjust the curves a bit so the surface is little more accurate. Try to make something like on the image below:

img5

Using OffsetSrf command, we need to offset this surface to inside by 0.3 units. So, make sure you flip the direction normals when in OffsetSrf command, so they point to inside.

img6

Then, simply, with BlendSrf command blend the gaps and Join the four surfaces.

img7

INTRODUCTION

I really liked modeling this model, it turned out really good, and I must say that it was pretty easy to model it too. However, there is fairly enough playing with Osnap, but then again, when do we not use Osnap frequently? Anyway, to get you started, you first need to download some kind of blueprints I made for you out of this model. You just gotta love that Make2D command!!!

Blueprints reference

STEP 1

First things first, we need to setup our blueprints. Not only import them into Rhino, but also position and scale to fit the dimensions marked on them. First, go to Front viewport. You can expand it by double clicking it. Next, using PictureFrame command browse for blueprints you previously saved to your computer. Now, you don’t need to worry about how to position or how big you should make it. We will fix that in a bit, but just make sure your blueprints are not tilted. For that you can use Snap, or even better Ortho.

PictureFrame

Move from blade tip

Scaled blueprints to fit the line length

Another line

pic

INTRODUCTION

Ok, this is another tutorial on modeling some ID product. I’ve tried to simplify this to the bare bone, and I hope I managed to do it. Actually, this is a method you could use on various other projects too. This is what it all comes down to, all you need is create a set of base curves right, after that it is all just music to the ears.

STEP 1 – creating the curves

In the images in this tutorial, you will notice I have 20×20 grid system. You can take a look at my previous tutorial on setting up and prettifying user experience by changing grid and other settings. That will give you an idea how to change your grid system. Basically it is just grid option Extents that is set to 10.

To start off, we will need 4 points. We will use those 4 points for creating a curve. So, go ahead and maximize your Front viewport and create 4 points with x and y coordinates as set: x=-17, y=1 / x=-5, y=-1 / x=9, y=-2 / x=22, y=-1.

create 4 points

Using Curve command, create a curve between those 4 points. To make it easier to snap to the points, just use Osnap option Point. Next, create a line horizontal with start at -17,2 and end at 22,2. We’ll need one more line with start at 7,3 and ending at 8,4. You can create them with Line command or just PolyLine.

two more lines

Next we will create one polyline and one line from Right viewport. Use PolyLine command and for 4 points of polyline use: -4,-5 / -2,-10 / 2,-10 / 4,-5. For the line use PolyLine or Line command and for the start and end use: -5,-8 / 5,-8.

creating some more lines

Using Trim command, just trim off polyline and line, leaving everything above the line. Once you do that, using PointsOn command, you simply show control points of two tilted lines and move the upper control points up by 1 unit.

trim and move control points

In perspective viewport Move (or Copy) that polyline from Mid of the middle (straight) line, and move it to the end point of the first curve we created (22,-1).

moving polyline

Go to Top viewport, and from there create a curve with Curve command (-4,10 / -10,0 / -4,-10).Note, it would be smart to disable Osnap for a second when you are creating this curve. You might get in trouble at middle point if you have some Osnap options on, so to avoid any possible problem, just disable osnap for this step.

just another curve

Move that curve 6 units left. So it just touches the grid. From front viewport move it up by couple of units i.e. 5. Using Rotate command and clicking on the Copy option in command line we will create one more instance of the curve but rotated by 90 degrees. Then, if you haven’t already, enable Osnap, and using Mid option move that curve to the first point of our first curve (-17,1). Use Osnap option Point to snap to that point. Otherwise if you want to input the coordinates, you would have to do it from the same viewport where you created that point, so from Front viewport.

Rotate & copy, move

Ok, this step might get a little confusing, so pay attention. We need to set that curve to face the curve perpendicular. Check the image to see what curves I’m talking about:

what to do

Now, we need to rotate vertical curve so it is perpendicular to the bottom curve. We’ll do that by first creating a line that is perpendicular to the curve below. So, start your beloved PolyLine command, and hover your mouse over the Osnap options, and while holding down CTRL key, you will reveal some more Osnap options. Click on the second one, PerpFrom. Now, you are asked to select the curve on which you would like to show the tracking, so select the lower curve. Now, you can move the tracker where you want to start your line from, and move it all the way to the left (Point Osnap option might help, or end).

PerpFrom osnap option

Now, we created a line that we will use for a rotation angle.

line

Now, just rotate from Front viewport the curve to fit the line angle.

rotation

Now, repeat this step for the other end of the curve and other section polyline:

repeat for this side as well

Download files.zip because you’ll need it (you have the model from where I started, the texture I applied and some setting you’ll use).

RESOURCES

files.zip

STEP 1 – Settings

First we will load the Settings we are going to use for our studio shot. If you haven’t download Files.zip do it now and load Studio.visopt

To increase or decrese the quality of the render, click the QMC Sampler tab and change the Treshold. For less treshold more quality and viceversa. I used 0.005 for my final render, but I use .05 for a very fast render in some sections and 0.01 or 0.02 for others.

STEP 2 – Illumination

Now we are going to set up the plane, the lights and the camera for our scene. These can be changed later but we need something to work with.

First, draw a Curve like I do on my image. This is done so that we don’t see the separation between the floor and the wall.

Now ExtrudeCrv that Curve selection BothSides. This is going to be our plain

Now we are going to set up the camera for our shot. This will probably change a little bit later on.
So, in the perspective view position the camera on how you want the shot. After that, we are going to save that view, so if we move in the perspective view we can always go back to that perpective we want for our shot.
Save your view with whatever name you want.

Now we will make our lights. We will make 2 _RectangularLight for our scene this time. When making this lights, you have to keep in mind that the size of the light, the distance from the object, and the multiplier will change your scene drastically. Here’s how I set up the 2 lights.

We will change the color lights too. Go to Object Properties (F3), select one of your lights and click on Light in the Properties. Both light need to have No Decay unchecked. If you don’t do this, Vray won’t pay attention to where your light is. There you can change the color of the light, the intensity and stuff. In my scene, the big light has a multiplier of 4, and the little one a multiplier of 2 (that’s the intensity). For the colors, I have R:251 G:247 B:237 for the big one, and R:237 G:243 B:251 for the little one. Keep in mind that the multiplier will depend on how far is your light from the object and how big it is

STEP 3 – Materials

Now the fun part. There are a couple of things you need to know about materials. We’ll have only reflective materials here so that’s what I’m going to explain

Each material has an Index Of Refraction (IOR) which could be find googling it. When that number is bigger, then the material will have more reflections. For a very reflective material you could apply an IOR of 16, while for a very unreflective material 1.4 for example.
The other value to keep in mind is the Reflection Glossiness. That will determine how sharp is your reflection. For a higher value you’ll get a more sharp reflection, and for a lower value you’ll get a more blurred reflection. These are some images from Vray Manual that you should download from their website

For the steel material, we’ll just import one. So import “steel_blurry.vismat” to the scene.

Then select the objects you want the material into, and right click on steel_blurry and apply to object

For the plastic, we’ll import one too but we’ll tweak it. Import “matte_plastic.vismat” and change it’s name for something you want. After applying to object and rendering, I found that it was too reflective, even if it said matte.
These are the settings I used, but you can make your own . Select that “matte_plastic” material or whatever you named it, and in the diffuse tab change it’s color. I used R:38 G:52 B:123 . I also changed the reflection. Next to Reflection there’s an M, click it and change the Fresnel IOR to whatever you think (i used 1.5). Remember, larger the number, more reflective it is. Also, change the Highligth Glossiness and the Reflection Glossiness to .65 to get more blurred reflections. These 2 values should be the same.

Now Duplicate that material and we’ll make the black plastic.
Change the Diffuse color as you changed to blue to something near black. I used R:10 G:10 B:10 for mine, and change the Glossiness (both values) to 0.7

Duplicate that last material and we’ll use it for our button. Change Glossiness to 0.8

STEP 4 – Texturing

Now it’s time to texture the button. There are many ways of doing this, I’ll show you the one I think it’s best for this type of situation. While in the perspective view, orient your camera to the button’s surface.

Print the screen so you can work with it in Illustrator, Photoshop or the program of you choice. Then open that image on that program. Make the circle and the line in black, and crop the image approximately to the edges of the purple button. Then make a white rectangle and position it below the circle and the line. Export this image as a .bmp. The reason why the image is black and white is because we are going to use this as a mask in Rhino.

Back to rhino, select the button and apply to it the material we made before. In diffuse color, in transparency we need to load our texture image and make a new diffuse layer.

To do this click the “M” besides transparency, put Bitmap as type and browse for the file. Click on Invert too because when we made our mask we did it the other way around, what’s black should have been white and what’s white should have been black. Or you can leave it this way and invert the Diffuse colors (you’ll see what I mean).
Add a Diffuse layer like on the image and use some the color you want the texture to be. I used a very bright gray, almost white.

Ok, now we need to position our texture. Select the button and slick F3 to see his properties. Click on texture mapping, show advanced UI, a put planar as the type of projection. Then click on show mapping.

Rotate the mapping widget until you align it to the button. We are going to planar project on the mapping widget our texture for it to project it to the button.

You can make also a material for the floor if you want to, i made an almost white diffuse color with no reflections in my scene.

STEP 5 – Rendering

Go to Named Views and look for that perspective we’ve saved in the begining of step 1 or save the one you are now so you can easily come back to the exact position.

Check the Treshold settings are low (0.01 or 0.005) and define the size you want in the Output tab.

Click Render and It’s done!

Any questions or things you think should be changed, post them In the forum and I’ll look for it. I’m not a pro in this stuff so if you know a better way of doing things let me know

You can download this tutorial in PDF format here.

Organic Modeling for Jewelry Design with T-Splines and Rhino® 4

Designing a Ring

Juan Santocono

Industrial Design

Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentine

Matt Sederberg

T-Splines, Inc.

© Copyright 2008 T-Splines, Inc.

Designing freeform objects can be difficult when working with traditional CAD software. T-Splines and Rhino 4 offer an easy way to create smooth, gap-free organic models for jewelry design.

The best way to read this tutorial about how to model a ring using T-Splines is by looking at the 3D model at the same time. You can follow the model’s progress by selecting the differ­ents layers in the file. The model can be downloaded at www.tsplines.com.

In this tutorial, anything in Blue is a Rhino command, while anything in Red is a T-Splines command. Type these commands in the command line of Rhino to run them.

STEP 1 – WIREFRAME

Ring Profile
First, draw the main profile of the ring using Curve. For me, the best way to get the right pro­file is by designing it undeveloped.

This particular design consists of two hearts connected by the body of the ring. The idea is to have a smooth transition between the body and the hearts, with no sharp edges.

STEP 2 – WIREFRAME

Control Polygon
Use ExtractControlPolygon to extract the control polygons of the curves.

In step 5, we will use this control poly­gon to generate a T-Splines surface with the same profile of the native curves.

STEP 3 – WIREFRAME

Inner Lines
Once we have the control polygon profile, we need to connect the points.Remember that the ideal thing is to have rectangular regions (keep that rule of thumb in mind when you draw the curves.)

Each line intersection will determine where the control points will be on the surface.

STEP 4 – WIREFRAME

Extrude Lines
Now we need to extrude these lines with tsScriptExtrudeControlPolygon (Thanks JB and T-Splines for this amazing tool!) in order to get a 3D control polygon.

Remember to delete all the internal lines after extruding. These inner lines are not necessary for the tsControlPolygonToSrf command (next step).

STEP5 – T-SPLINES SURFACE

Transform to T-Splines Surface
Before generating the T-Splines sur­face, we need to be sure that we only have the lines we need; for this, I usu­ally use: first, ungroup all, then split selected curves against each other (tsSplitCurves), select duplicate curves (SelDup) and Delete them.

Now the curves are ready to be trans­formed to a T-Splines surface.

Select all lines and enter the tsControl­PolygonToSrf command.

Check the preview option to ensure the surface is correct. Now we have a T-Splines surface.

STEP 6 – T-SPLINES MODIFICATION

Body Profile
To get the desired body profile, we need to make some changes by moving control points of the T-Spline surface using tsManip.

First, scale -X (in the negative “X” direction) the twelve selected points shown on the screen­shot. Scaling points is a way of moving them symmetrically.

Second, move these same points -Z in order to get a smoother curvature on the outside part of the ring body.

STEP 7 – T-SPLINES MODIFICATION

Face Extrude
For the ring design we need a flat face on the inner part of the ring body that will touch the finger.

One way to do it is by extruding faces. With tsExtrude, select the faces to be extruded, in this case all the ones that comprise the inner body. Do not select faces that touch a star point, this will result in the addition of control points that we don’t want right now.

The extrusion must be very small to get a small radius transition to a flat surface. In this case, 0.3 mm.

After we extrude these faces and exit the command, points associated with the extruded faces will remain selected. Scale these points to get the flat surface closer to the ends of the hearts in a smoother transition.

It’s important to pay a lot of attention to how the T-Splines surface react to these control points movements in order to understand it and use it on future projects.

STEP 8 – T-SPLINES MODIFICATION

Heart Modification
The idea of the design is that the two hearts are thinner on the interior tip and thicker on the body. To achieve this we just need to select the control points on the parts of the hearts shown and scale them -Z. (Scale the points of both hearts at once to ensure a symmetrical scaling).

Next, unselect the outermost loop of con­trol points and repeat the -Z scale. Do this with every loop of points (shown below).

Now we have the final shape of the un­folded ring.

STEP 9 – ADJUSTMENTS

Curvature Analysis
One way to know if our surface has the correct curvature and smoothness is with the CurvatureAnalysis tool.

For example, here I used the Gaussian Style to see clearly which surfaces have a negative (blue) and positive (red) radius.

I detected a surface area where the curva­ture changes from negative to positive in an unintended location, which breaks the smoothness.

I selected the control points that affect that area and scaled them (-X) to smooth the surface.

Notice that you can manipulate the surface while keeping the analysis on, this gives immediate feedback.

Once the curvature is fixed, the T-Splines surface is done

STEP 10 – SURFACE CONVERSION

Set Smoothness
Once we are satisfied with our design, we transform our T-Splines surface to NURBS surfaces. We need to do this because for the next steps we will use some Rhino tools that only work on NURBS, not T-Splines.

Before converting to NURBS, use the tsSetStarSmoothness command to smooth the surface at star points. I used a smoothing value of 5.

Transform
Next, use the tsConvertToRhinosurf command to turn the T-Spline into a NURBS surface.

STEP 11 – BODY INSCRIPTION

Preparing Surfaces
You can add some inscriptions on the ob­ject in many different ways (e.g. Boolean operations). In this case I prefer to do it by managing surfaces instead of “solids.” This way I have more control at each part of the procces, and also have less geometry to manage, which results in faster opera­tions.

First, Explode the NURBS surface and Hide all the surfaces except the one we need (see the screenshot).

Follow this process:

1-Create a solid TextObject.

2-Fillet the text.

3-Scale the text to fit it on the surface (tsManip).

4-Trim the letters’ surfaces and then Join them all together.

5-Fillet the text with the ring.

6-Ones we have all the letters filleted, Unhide and Join all the surfaces together to yield a closed polysurface, like we had before the inscriptions.

STEP 12 – FINAL TRANSFORMATION

Flow Along Surface
Finally, we need to deform the undeveloped ring surface to get a circular ring. For this, we will use the UDT Rhino tool FlowAlongSurface.

First, draw an arc that represents the side ring profile, extrude it using ExtrudeCrv (the distance will be the width of the ring) and finally unroll it (UnrollSrf) to get the base surface needed for the UDT operation.

Now that we have got all the sur­faces needed, just use the FlowAlong Surface tool using the unrolled sur­face as the Base surface and the arc extrude as the Target surface.

The result is a perfectly smooth, high detail 3D model of a ring ready to be manufactured.

Good luck in your modeling!

Any questions, write to my e-mail below.

Juan Santocono,

Industrial Design

jsantocono@fibertel.com.ar

A free trial of T-Splines for Rhino may be downloaded at www.tsplines.com.

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