Topics

1

Ask for help / How to set up commands on middle mouse button?

« on: June 07, 2011, 07:15:51 PM »

In class, we were shown a trick I am trying to repeat, but I can't seem to make it happen.  If you click the middle mouse button (or the roller) a little popup menu appears at the cursor point. 

On the popup menu are a few handy icons, maybe 6 commands.  The idea is to save waste motion by putting your most commonly used commands in a quickly accessible cluster. 

The instructor had a trick for loading other useful command icons onto this little popup menu.  For example, he had put the mirror command in there.  But how did he do it?

If you right click on the top of the popup menu, it will give you some options, including "Add a button," and I tried this.  The button is blank. 

In short, how do you copy command icons into this little "middle click" popup menu? 

Thank you for your insights.

John

2

Ask for help / How do you make nuts and bolts, worm drives, screw threads...?

« on: January 12, 2011, 07:58:32 AM »

Cutting threads is a common problem but it is difficult to search for solutions, since the word "thread" is such a common term of art on the internet.  I found four links about it, here, but I confess I can't make much sense out of them:

http://www.rhino3dhelp.com/forum/index.php?topic=433.msg1451#msg1451

http://offbroadway.blogspot.com/2007/01/internal-screw-thread.html

http://offbroadway.blogspot.com/2007/01/screw-thread-tutorial.html

http://offbroadway.blogspot.com/2006/12/screw-thread-tutorial-1-draw-shape-of.html

Is there a Rhino3D plug-in that draws nuts and bolts and screw threads? 

So far, using RailRevolve and a simple thread profile, I have been able to draw a helical thing that looks like a thread.  However it does not have a proper beginning and end, and I cannot seem to integrate it with a cylinder representing a bolt. 

Many thanks for your insights or links.

John

3

Ask for help / Lost my template files...

« on: June 09, 2009, 04:56:31 PM »

When you open a "New" file, Rhino asks you to name a template.  The names are on the order of "Large object, feet" or "small object, millimeters."

For some reason my template files disappeared today.  I make regular file backups, so they are still on my system, but I don't know the filenames.  They are all just .3dm suffix files, I think. 

Don't know how I did this.  I have just installed a demo of a raster to vector program, and I did some uninstalls along the way, so maybe I inadvertently uninstalled the templates, tho this seems unlikely.

Does anyone happen to know the full names of the template files? Or the directory in which they are kept?

Many thanks for your insights,


John

4

Ask for help / frustration with Fillet Surface command

« on: May 12, 2009, 09:19:20 AM »

On a model I am working on, the Fillet Surface command keeps producing unpredictable results. In order to familiarize myself with the command, I made a simple system with two extruded circles.  The circles are each a single closed curve, so there there should be no surprises in the curve itself, nor the surfaces. 

I tried to simplify the situation by using each surface to trim the other, so that the intersecting surfaces are well defined -- not ambiguous.

Here is an example of the results I get.  Check the screen grabs.

The front fillet is okay, nicely made, and a continuous surface that forms a fillet all the way around the circumference of the tube. 

The back fillet is somehow segmented -- not into half fillets, as sometimes happens.  There is one half-fillet, plus two quarter-fillets.  One of the quarter fillets is selected. 

The fillets appear okay in the Shaded or Ghosted view.  But when I go to Render, the surface disintegrates into holes and islands.  A very odd business.

Bear in mind that the curves  I used to extrude the original surfaces were just circles.  Pure, closed, 1-curve, unexplodable circles. 

Is Fillet Surface just a cranky command? Or have I somehow set it up wrong?  I have Trim set to Yes, and Extend set to No. How do you set yours? 

Many thanks for your insights.


 

5

Rapid prototyping and CAM / CNC machining of plastic

« on: May 11, 2009, 02:50:21 PM »

There is a service at

www.firstcut.com

that will machine parts from plastic using CNC.  The company is part of ProtoMold.

They will quote in a day, nominally, but they seem to be most at home in Solidworks. 

I sent them a component in a ACIS file (suffix is .sat) exported from a Rhino 3dm file. 

They reported back that it is an "assembly" of parts.  In fact it is one single part, but it is made up of several objects. 

Has anyone encounterd this?  In other words: How would I make my "assembly" look like one part -- which it is -- to their system?

Or.  Is there a CNC vendor that knows Rhino and works from Rhino files directly? I really like the idea of working with machined parts.

Many thanks for your insights.

John

6

Ask for help / Mystery menu. Where is it?

« on: April 21, 2009, 12:44:53 PM »

Here is a puzzle. The menu shown here is extracted from the third panel in this helpful tutorial:

http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/rhinoceros/rhino_ashtray_04.htm

The idea is to Render a shaded object, and the menu shows two pushbuttons: one for "Metallic," the other for "Plastic." 

I think this is a great choice, and I would like to use it.  I am working on a project with both metal and plastic parts.  However, I cannot find this menu in Rhino 4.0.  It is possibly a Rhino 3 menu?  Is it in Flamingo?

Whether the menu is there or not in 4.0, how would I set up RhinoRender to produce 1) plastic or 2) metal?

Many thanks for your insights.

John
 

7

Ask for help / Odd little bowtie pattern

« on: April 14, 2009, 06:48:42 PM »

This is a frame made by extruding a curve on both sides, and capping.  The curve was simplified with SimplifyCrv before extruding.

At two of the bends, this curious bowtie pattern appears. The curve should be a simple (not compound curved or kinked) surface. How would I get rid of these bow tie pattern? 

Thank you for your insights.

John

ps.  The second shot shows the Zebra analysis.  Strange that one line, extruded both ways from the centerline, could impart this variation in shaping to an extruded surface.

8

Ask for help / How do I declare a dimension?

« on: March 07, 2009, 06:12:00 PM »

Beginner 101 type problem.

I have traced from a .jpg the pattern of a model airplane rib. The bottom is flat. From the original plan I know the rib is 4 5/16 in length. 

What I want to do is declare to Rhino that the line along the bottom of the rib is precisely 4-5/16 in length, and that this line should establish the scale, units, etc. for the model.   

I fiddled with the scale command, but this just made the line shorter. What I am trying to change is the scale of the coordinate system, not that of the line.

It seems to me that this is another way to ask the question already raised re architectural drawing by dvalley.

It would be possible to work around the problem. 1) trace the rib 2) draw a line 4-5/16 in length and 3) shrink the finished rib to the size of the line. But re-scaling the whole coordinate system would be quicker. It seems to me there was a command for this in ACAD. Maybe there is one in Rhino as well.   

Many thanks for your insights.

9

Ask for help / "Edges are too far apart to merge"

« on: December 01, 2008, 02:51:23 PM »

Working on a wingtip.*  The surfaces are formed in two sections.  As I understand it, I should run MatchSrf, followed by MergeSrf in order to unite the two surfaces.

However, after I run MatchSrf, the MergeSrf fails.  It reports that the "Edges are too far apart to merge."

I checked to make sure the surfaces are flipped in the same direction, but this did not help.

Thank you for your insights on why this is happening.  I would think the MatchSrf step would bring the edges into alignment. But apparently it doesn't.   

*very simllar to the propellor tip we have discussed here, following the same techniques.
http://www.rhino3dhelp.com/forum/index.php?topic=27

10

Ask for help / How can I rotate a bitmap image?

« on: November 12, 2008, 11:46:44 AM »

The bitmap is a scan of a ship model plan.  The problem is to move and rotate the bitmap image very slightly, so that the ship's waterline aligns perfectly with the x-axis. 

After multiple attempts at this using the "align" command for bitmaps, no luck. I wonder if someone could give me a step by step procedure for this.  I must be missing or skipping something obvious. 

Thank you for your insights.

11

Ask for help / Is there a limit to the number of layers?

« on: October 11, 2008, 01:00:38 PM »

Is there any limit to the number of layers you can create in Rhino? 

12

Ask for help / Can you load more than one raster image at a time?

« on: October 11, 2008, 09:59:25 AM »

Trying to work with more than one background bitmap in the FRONT view.  The first one loads fine. The second one loads nicely too -- but makes the first bitmap disappear. 

Maybe it is possible to toggle between the two bitmaps? 

The probem is, I need to align one image with points and lines on the other image.

Is it possible to load more than one background bitmap into a single viewport, and display both simultaneously?

Many thanks for your insights.

13

Ask for help / Drawing knots -- real knots, like 2 half hitches, square knots, etc.

« on: August 11, 2008, 06:15:25 PM »

Not talking about "knots" as control points.  I mean real, hand tied surgical knots.

Is it possible, maybe with a plug-in, to draw basic knots like square knots, half hitches, bowlines, etc.?  I can get a certain way with Interpolated curve, circle around that curve, and then 1-rail.  But as the line wraps over and around itself, things get too complicated.  Ideally, I need a program or library called "Clip art knots for Rhino."

Thank you for your insights.

John

14

Ask for help / Video card for Rhino 3D

« on: May 28, 2008, 11:49:24 AM »

In the process of equipping a new system from Dell.  I notice on the ATI site some graphics cards that are designed for CAD.  Is this a good idea? The Dell came with an nVidia 8800 GT.  I guess it is okay. 

However, in a side by side comparison with my antique Dell equipped with an old ATI 9800 card (still under the desk) the typography on the brand new computer is not sharp. In Rhino, there are some curious, snow-pelted surface effects. 

Any recommendations for graphics cards?

Thank you for your insights.

15

Ask for help / Rounded corners from rebuilding surface?

« on: May 17, 2008, 05:10:41 PM »

The command, rebuild surface, seems to create rounded corners of the type shown here in the pylon/wing mount project.  It is a problem that has come up several times. "Rebuild surface" makes a much nicer surface, but it distorts the edges of the object I am trying to draw.

In this specific case problem is, when I mirror the two halves of the pylon, they don't mate up. Is there a way to force the surface out to the sharply defined edge lines formed by the original curves? These curves are still there, but floating in space.

Thank you for your insights on this.