The 3D-dragger presentation video: How was the resulting shade sculpture actually achieved?

[Kaare Baekgaard]

https://res.cloudinary.com/vectorworks/video/upload/q_90/vc_vp9/w_1920/c_limit/pages/launch/2024/vwx24-3d-dragger-improvements-230815.webm

 

The video appears redacted to suggest, that the Surface Array tool could actually easily produce the resulting shade sculpture with nurbs precision.

 

In my experience it could not.

 

Have I missed a feature or a method/procedure, that I should know?

 

If the video is indeed a nice fantasy, how was the end result actually modeled? 

 

The approximation that I could think of uses a mesh cube as the array item – with a 3D locus included to create the gaps.

 

 

[Kaare Baekgaard]

 

After further experiments, I am happy to discover, that I have seriously underestimated the capabilities of Surface Arrays. The array item of this example is a single, rectangular nurbs surface – with a U degree of 25 and a V degree of 1. The surface is duplicated 3 times at 90° angles to form a box and the ends of the box are closed with square nurbs surfaces.  The resulting shape can be grouped and scaled, but not add-solid'ed within the array item. I have added a 3D locus to function as a spacer, but there may be a smarter way to achieve this.

 

When the repetition mode Y of the surface array is set to 1, the nurbs surfaces in the array item will stretch and bend to follow the base surface. If the U degree number is reduced, the curves should become less pliable.

 

Now I get a perfectly smooth result similar to the video. The individual staves of the array are not solid, but I suppose the array can be ungrouped and the staves add-solid'ed individually.

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Kaare Baekgaard

[Tony Kostreski]

Hi @Kaare Baekgaard,

Yes NURBS objects within Surface Arrays are quite flexible. I'm glad you've discovered adjusting U/V degrees.

 

For anyone interested in seeing how the Shade Sculpture was created, I've attached the file used to create the video. Make use of the saved views to see it develops 😉 .
 

 

In my example, I used 6 NURBS surfaces to form a cube as my "Array Item". You can certainly use one NURBS surface the way you described, ungroup the Surface Array and add an extrusion to the resulting surfaces.

 

Hope this helps!

Tony

2024-Shade Sculpture.vwx