Ride Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 Hi. I am trying to create the MDF panels to clad a skeleton to make this shape. I would like to model each surface with the correct angles and bevels, to communicate that with the joiner who will be doing this on a table saw. I thought the best way might be to extract the inside and outside face, and then extrude one to the other. But not sure how to do that. In the screenshot attached, you can see the overall shape, and also the inside and outside faces of one of the panels. Or is there a better way? Thanks Quote Link to comment
Jeff Prince Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 How did you create the shape originally? What type of VWX object is it? I'm no expert, but here are a few ideas... You could take your extracted surfaces and cap them with Nurbs surfaces. Then use the Model \ 3D Powerpack \ Stitch and Trim Surfaces to create a solid from them. That means you will be drawing about 8 faces and mirroring them to get the pieces you need to start stitching. If it's a solid, you could use the Split tool to dice it up into pieces and then Add the desired ones back together to get your pieces of MDF. I imagine there may be an easier way, but either of those should work. 1 Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 The easiest way would be to draw the missing surfaces. Make sure your plane is set to layer or automatic and you'll get the correct snaps. Then use Stitch and Trim to create solids. Alternately, you could extract all the surface as planar polylines, convert them to NURBS which creates NURBS curves, and then loft between the pairs of NURBS curves to create solids of each piece. Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment
Andrew Pollock Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 couldn't you create the shape as 3d polys then chose them all and create a mesh then use the shell tool? Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 @RideHi the way i did it is create 2 Separate polygons one front one back starting from same spot and go same direction "clockwise or other" Multiple extrude then shell solid, HTH Quote Link to comment
Jeff Prince Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 @AlanW now see if you can answer his question about breaking it down into individual flat panels for building it from MdF. 2 Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Here's an example file of how I would approach it. I've included both VW2023 and VW2022 versions since your signature shows VW2022. The great thing about lofting is you can go from curve pair to curve pair without switching to the selection tool to select the curves you want to work on. KM VW Board Extract.vwx VW Board Extract v2022.vwx 3 Quote Link to comment
Ride Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 Thanks to all for your replies. My original object was a simple extrude, that I lopped off the faceted faces with the split tool. Once I had the outside shape, I used shell solid to give me my 3/4" MDF panel thickness. I think I might have been part of the way there with my inside and outside faces, but I think what I was missing is these needed to be NURBS surfaces before I could loft them together. I will read through all the suggestions a couple times, but @Kevin McAllister, your method above seems like it would get me there. I originally tried rotating the object so the joints would align with an x, or y axis and then split it along the lines, but this is a very cumbersome way of doing things. I will report back once I've tried a few options. Again, thank for the replies thus far. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ride Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 @Kevin McAllister, your example seems perfect for what I'm trying to do. But can't get the loft surface to work. I assume I use 'no rail mode', but it doesn't work for me. Can you walk me through how to create the loft surface? Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 (edited) @RideHi here i converted to 3D polys. Edited February 12, 2023 by AlanW 1 Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 1 hour ago, Ride said: @Kevin McAllister, your example seems perfect for what I'm trying to do. But can't get the loft surface to work. I assume I use 'no rail mode', but it doesn't work for me. Can you walk me through how to create the loft surface? Note that you need to convert the planar (2d) surfaces to NURBS curves, not NURBS surfaces. That's why I extract the planar surfaces rather than just convert the original object to NURBS which results in surfaces. Lofting only works with NURBS curves. Kevin Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 1 hour ago, AlanW said: @RideHi here i converted to 3D polys. Alan, it's great that you're sharing advice, but it would be more helpful if you read the original post carefully and answered the question, not just throw random partly related suggestions into the thread. The original post asks how to break up the object into individual pieces with the appropriately mitred corners to share with a joiner. Kevin Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Ya ok must do next time and will stop wasting everyone's time. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ride Posted February 13, 2023 Author Share Posted February 13, 2023 2 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said: Note that you need to convert the planar (2d) surfaces to NURBS curves, not NURBS surfaces. That's why I extract the planar surfaces rather than just convert the original object to NURBS which results in surfaces. Lofting only works with NURBS curves. Kevin Ok. I got it now. I was actually using your file to practice creating the lofted surfaces, so they were already NURBS curves. But it was a simple order of operations thing. Gotta select things in the right order to get it to work. I think this is the way forward. Appreciate the help! I'll report back once this is a real thing made out of MDF. 1 Quote Link to comment
VIRTUALENVIRONS Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Using the NURBS advice is the only method forward I can see and you are getting some good advice. Have you tried using the outer surfaces and the shell tool. That would also appear to solve your problem. Question, do your inside edges need to be beveled so the joints are flat. Some of your surfaces project outward so a straight loft or shell will cause an intersection of surfaces on the inside. You could use Subtract solids for each of these to get the correct bevel. Quote Link to comment
Ride Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 I used the method as suggested by @Kevin McAllister, and so far it's working out well. We have built one of the walls now, working out any little glitches, and the rest are going into production next week. I bevelled all the cladding edges, except at the top and bottom where I ran the skeleton wall full height. So those top and bottom bevels are left square and trimmed off with a flush trim router bit. I'll post up some photos soon. 2 Quote Link to comment
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