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stretch a sphere


ray isaacs

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there must be an easy way to do this, but...

how can i stretch a simple sphere into an elongated shape?

(i did it in cinema 4d and imported the 3ds file into vw...kind of awkward to say the least, which gives me a chance here to say: still one of those wishing for direct c4d import into vw. the two compliment each other.)

cheers,

ray

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thanks, mike. i suspected that and tied it. tried it again after your message. i can see that it should work, but i can't find an easy way to get the simple result i'm after: elongating the sphere along its axis. in c4d i simply click the scale button and drag the vertical handle along the axis to the shape/distance i want. is something that straight forward not possible in vw? it probably is, i just haven't discovered it yet.

cheers,

ray

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good thinking, patrick. and it worked. not the bulge function itself, which is good addition, but will take some getting use to. (see attached example of one of the weird things i came up with.) however, converting the sphere to a generic solid, as bcd pointed out.

i'm sure that the bulge function could work with practice, but is a bit clumsy for my unpracticed hands.

and unfortunately you cannot simply convert a sphere to a generic solid using modify>convert objects... that would be simpler and more direct. add to wish list.

another quirk is the direction of height, which is not vertical, but horizontal. (see other attachment.)

now that the 64 bit hurdle is passed, hopefully attention can be put into making operations like this a lot more straight forward.

thanks for all of the input.

ray

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still at it...

with a little more finesse i got the bulge to work better. the result was more of a lozenge shape (see attached). can this be controlled by settings in the deform tool? i didn't see anything.

reading bcd response again and using the suggested the nurbs, asymmetrical scaling, the result is more of an ellipse, which is what i am after. this seems like the best solution given the options. (or do it in c4d.)

cheers,

ray

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You can do it reasonably accurately with loft and one rail:

Method:

- To create the profile curve I drew an ellipse in plan view, converted it to a nurbs curve and then sliced it in half on the long axis with the Split tool.

- To create the rail profile I then switched to a left elevation view and drew a circle of 1 mm radius and then converted this to a nurbs curve.

- Then with the Loft tool set to one rail mode I clicked on the circle rail nurbs curve first and then on the half ellipse profile nurbs curve. Clicking on the check mark on the Tool Bar and then clicking OK in the dialog box which opens completes the modelling of the egg shape.

I always try and model at the origin of the file because it makes it easier. Often I will do that in a separate file and then transfer the result to the file I need the object in.

Edited by mike m oz
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The method I have outlined above has a circular profile at the mid point of the 'egg'.

I tried using an elliptical rail shape to see if it would squash in the other direction but unfortunately it still ends up creating a circular profile at the mid point of the 'egg'.

Therefore if you want that you will need to use the first method I suggested which is to convert a sphere to nurbs and then stretch it using trial and error to get it close to the size you want.

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