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

Final scene

Since it that time in the year again, some of you might find it useful to learn how to create few Christmas decorations for your tree visualisations

Introduction

Well, basically what we will do here is use solids for basic shapes and cut them how we like it.Simple, eh?

Step 1

In this step we will be creating the simplest decoration.

First Decoration

Go ahead, and create a sphere using Sphere command. Center it in the origin (0,0) and use 10 units as radius. To make this even simpler, you can set your Grid options like I have them. Just run Grid command, and where it says Extents click on it and input 10. That way you will have 10 units in your grid in every direction in the viewport which was active when you run the command. To apply this setting to all viewports, just use ApplyTo setting in Grid command. Click on it so it toggles from ActiveViewport to AllViewports. Now, simply using Snap option in your status bar we will start creating this Sphere.

Image 1

Once you got your Sphere, create another one, using 7 units as radius and position its center on 8,0. That is, 8 on the x axis, and 0 on the y axis.

Image 2

Now, using BooleanDifference make a hole in the bigger Sphere.

Image 3

We need to fillet the edges of this sphere. Using FilletEdge command fillet the edge with 0.2 as radius.

Image 4

Create a Circle from Top viewport with 5.5 as radius.

Image 5

We will Project this Circle onto the Sphere. We need to do this from Top viewport. So make sure it is active, and run the Project command to do the projection of the Circle on the Sphere. You will get 3 projected curves, and we only need the top one, so you can delete other two:

Image 6

Using Split or Trim command, we need to trim the upper part of the Sphere, with projected circle.

Image 7

Next thing we need is another Circle. This time create a Circle with 1.5 units as radius. Create it from top viewport in the origin (0,0). Then you will need to move it up (from either front or right viewport) with Move command by 17 units.

Image 8

Now, using ExtrudeCrv extrude this circle up by 1 unit. Make sure you don’t have Cap set to Yes, or BothSides set to Yes. Those two options need to be set to No.

Image 9

Ok, once you’ve done this, you need to make a surface with smooth transition from the sphere to the extruded circle. You will use BlendSrf command to do just that. As for the BlendSrf options, just leave it at default settings. Meaning AutoChain set to No, and for the Blend Bulge leave it as well at default settings, which are 1,1 and all other options unchecked.

Image 10

Next we will create a cap and a little wire to hang our decoration somewhere. So, using OffsetSrf offset the little cylinder surface outwards by 0.1 units.

Image 11

Now, using ExtendSrf command we will extend the upper edge of the offset surface up by 0.1

Image 12

Using Cap command we will close this surface into solid.

Image 13

Create another Circle, from Top viewport and use 0.5 units as radius. You should get your circle like on the image below:

Image 14

Now, using ExtrudeCrv command set the Cap setting to Yes, and extrude it up by 20 units, just so it goes through the cap:

Image 15

Using BooleanDifference command make a hole with this cylinder in the cap:

Image 16

Using FilletEdge fillet the edges of the tip with 0.1 as radius:

Image 17

Create another Circle with 2 units as radius, and position it like on the image below. Just make sure you create your circle from Front viewport. You can start Circle command, input in the command line when it asks you for the center 0,20 for the center, and then just 2 for the radius. You should get exactly the curve like on the image:

Image 18

We need a Curve starting from the circle. Using InterpCrv command we will create such curve from Front viewport: (you can start using OSnap if you haven’t already – Near would come in handy here)

Image 19

Using Mirror command we need to mirror this curve to the other side.

Image 20

Using Trim command we need to trim the Circle:

Image 21

I have almost perfectly hit the curve direction and smoothness and actually the curve is visually tangent to the circle. In reality that isn’t the case, so we need to fix it. We will match our curve onto the circle with Match command:

Image 22

Here you can see the black curve on the left, this is how the curve will be adjusted to match the tangency. So, now you see I didn’t actually hit the tangency manually. Do this same step for the right curve as well, and join all three into one:

Image 23

If necessary, using PointsOn you can change your curve a bit. But you will see if this is necessary after you make a surface. Using Pipe command we need to create a pipe surface. Use 0.2 as radius:

Image 24

Here you see this needs some adjustments. So, first, try moving it up a bit to see if this can fix it. If not, using PointsOn you will need to adjust the curve itself.

Image 25

For the purposes of this course, just moving this wire will do.

You can download this tutorial in PDF format here.

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

Designing an Earring

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 freeform models for jewelry design.

The best way to read this tutorial about how to model a earring 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. T-Splines for Rhino must also be installed on your computer. Both T-Splines for Rhino and the earring 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 – MESH

Creating the base mesh
To get the general shape of the ear­ring we will start by creating a Mesh­torus, with VerticalFaces=8 and AroundFaces=16.

STEP 2 – T-SPLINE SURFACE

Converting the mesh
Once we have the mesh torus we just need to convert it to a T-Spline surface.

Use tsConvert and select the mesh to perform the conversion. Now we have a T-Spline torus with the same control points as the mesh torus.

STEP 3 – T-SPLINE MODIFICATION

Extruding faces
The earring design is a sun, so we need to create the sun rays. We will include some long rays and some short rays.

We will create the long rays first. To make these, we will extrude some faces with tsExtrude.

1-Extrude selected faces (yellow) as shown.

2-In order to get flat rows of control points for the next extrusions, we need to flatten selected points. Use tsScriptFlattenPoints. Do this with each of the 4 ray tips separately.

3-Extrude the flattened faces again (tsExtrude).

4-Extrude them again.

5-Extrude them twice more (a total of four extru­sions). This will give us sufficient control points to add details to the rays.

STEP 4 – T-SPLINES ADJUSTMENTS

1-Draw the base and target curves for both sides of the sun rays.

2-Use FlowAlongCurve on all the left-side control points.

3-Use FlowAlongCurve on all the right-side control points.

STEP 5 – T-SPLINES ADJUSTMENTS

Modifying front profile
To modify the front profile we are going to do something similar to the previous step, but (for the sake of introducing an alternative workflow) instead of using the flow command we are going to do it manually. Draw some reference curves to provide us with a reference on how we will to transform the surface.

1-Once we have the reference curves, just select the lower row of control points (shown) and use tsManip (scale and move) to match the surface profile to the curves.

2-Repeat this process with the four rows of control points. This manual method can give us a decently accu­rate surface.

3-Now we have the shape that we want on one sun ray.

STEP 6 – T-SPLINES ADJUSTMENTS

Modifying details
Now we need to do some further adjustments to get the desired design. First, use tsManip to scale (+Y) all the center ray control points, this is to give a concave curvature to the sun rays.

Remember to select all the center points of the four rows on each side.

Second, using again de tsManip scale this four tip point, this will give us a more smooth tip.

1-Scale center control points +Y.

2-Scale tip control points -X.

STEP 7 – T-SPLINE ADJUSTMENTS

Copying the rays
We have completed the shape of one sun ray, now we need to shape the others. The design intent is that all four rays should have the same form, so we need to copy our first sun ray shape to the other three rays. Doing this manually would be slow and imperfect. For this rea­son we will use a method that assures us of the exact same shape on all the rays.

1-Select all control points of the shaped ray.

2-Use ExtractPt to make a point from each con­trol point.

3-Draw a Polyline, snapping to each row of po­ints. This represents the control polygon of the ray surface. Connecting the points is not strictly necessary, but is useful to give a visual unders­tanding of the control polygon.

4-Groups of control points from the shaped ray.
5-Copy these control polygons to each ray. Use Rotate (copy on).

6-Now, using snap (points and ends) move each T-Spline control point on each ray to its corresponding control polygon point from the shaped ray.

7-Repeat this with each ray until all four are shaped.

This method of copying shapes by snapping to copied control points might seem a little tricky at first sight, but with re­latively simple T-Splines shapes it is really fast and insures a symmetric shape.

STEP 8 – T-SPLINE MODIFICATION

Extruding small rays
Now we are going to create the shorter rays. For this we will extrude some faces with the tsExtrude command.

All of the modeling steps used to create the shorter rays are similar to those used for the lon­ger rays. Just follow the same workflow.

1-tsExtrude selected faces.

2-Flatten each face’s control po­ints (tsScriptFlattenPoints).

3-tsExtrude the flattened faces.

4-tsExtrude again and again. Four times total, just like the longer rays

STEP 9 – T-SPLINES ADJUSTMENTS

Copying smaller ray shape
Here we are going to use the same method we used on the longer rays, but we’ll save time by just copying and scaling the control polygons used for the longer rays and reusing them for the smaller rays. Just copy the control polygons of the longer rays, rotate them by 45 degrees, and scale them to be smaller. This will allow all rays, both long and short, to have the same shape.

STEP 10 – T-SPLINES ADJUSTMENTS

Modifying the center ring
To get the correct design we need to do some adjustments on the center hole. The intention is to have a bigger hole and a sharper edge on the transition betwen the sun body and the sun rays.

1-Select the control points shown and using scale2D, scale them outwards to give the hole a wider diameter and smooth the inner torus curvature. (The origin of the 2D scale is the center (0,0,0).)

2-Select the control points shown and using scale2D, scale them outwards to create a shar­per edge between the sun body and the sun rays.

STEP 11 – T-SPLINE ADJUSTMENTS

Adding control points
We need to add some more control points using tsInsertPoint for the next step. Adding a con­trol point near a star point (shown) will yield a small explosion of new control points to keep the surface unchanged; this influx of control points is desired in this case.

One more tweak before the next step: we’ll adjust the sun rays pro­portions. Just select the last 3 rows of the big rays and scale2D throught the center:

STEP 12

Creating a crease
Until now we have created a perfectly smooth T-Spline surface, but the design intention is to have a sharp edge on the inner part of the rays. Use tsCrease and select the first segments of each ray (both sides). The crease influence will extend across two isoparms.

STEP 12

Creating the body details
Basically, what we are going to do on this step is generating some strips that will decorate the body.

1-tsExtrude these front faces as shown.

2-Once they are extru­ded, we need to change the angle of the control points on these faces. A good way to do this on all faces at once is to scale2D on the selected points shown.

3-Now that we corrected the faces, it’s time for another tsExtrude.

4-Keep the extruded points selected and use the tsManip to move +Y to get a con­vex body.

5-Now it is time for one last tsExtrude.

6-We need to scale2D these control points that were extruded last, this will give us smaller and closer tips. The center of the scale should be on the center of the earring in order to modify it symmetrically.

7-Now, we want the strips to be deformed in a spiral. To make the deformation more accu­rate, we first need to add more control points. To do this, just use tsInsertPoint near the star point shown. This will generate the needed geometry for the deformation.

8-To make the spiral deformation we will use Maelstrom, one of the UDT tools. First, select all the control points that comprise the sun body strips. Be careful to not select other points.

Second, use the maelstrom tool, where the center is the middle of the earring and the first and second radius are just those necesary for rotating the control points.

The T-Spline surface is done! Now we only need to add the remaining details.

STEP 14 – OTHER PARTS

Creating the center part
For the center piece we will just create the profile of a shape and then use Revolve to gener­ate the geometry. You can use ExtractIsoCurve on the T-Spline surface to extract the curves that will be used for the center piece profile to get a perfect match between the parts.

Creating the hook
This is simple, draw the curve and use Pipe to generate the piece.

Union part
Draw the curve and use Pipe to generate the piece. Then just use BooleanDifference (Delete input=No) with the T-Splines surface.

Move the parts to fit each other.

The result is a perfectly smooth, highly detailed 3D model of an earring ready to be manufac­tured.

Good luck in your modeling!

Write to my e-mail below with any questions.

Juan Santocono,

Industrial Design

jsantocono@fibertel.com.ar

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

Yeah, yeah, I know. You must be thinking “Another rim tutorial”. Well, first of all, I’m pretty sure you will learn even one new command in this tutorial.

Resources

Video tutorial  for modeling car rim.

STEP 1

Insert the first reference image into the background of your Right Viewport. I made it 50 grids wide. You can set the background image to be in color, and remove grid with grid command. Using polyline (or just line) command, make simple straight lines according to the background image.

Trim the parts that aren’t needed, and fillet the intersections with the radius of 2. And offset by 0.4 inside.

After you made a profile for the rim, insert second reference image and using scale background image and move background image commands, position it so it somehow fits your profile curve.

Using Curve: Interpolate points command, create another profile… like on the image below. You can create one polyline in the middle of the rim.

Trim off the parts of curves you don’t need, and on the inner side of your spoke, fillet the straight line and curve with 2.

NOTE: at this point, I have rotated my curves from front view by 90 degree and positioned so the far right end of curve is in origin (0,0)

Using Remove Knot command, remove selected knots. So you end up with uninterrupted curve, so when you try to explode it, it says this: “Cannot explode single curve segments.”