Bas Vellekoop Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) On the thread: 'Modeling a pyramid shape' https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=221003#Post221003 where so many great reactions that I thought lets ask for some help as well about 3d modeling. I`m designing a a table top. At the moment I do this by drawing the path and a profile and use the EAP command. After that I extract curves from the EAP to create the top and bottom. EAP is not my favorite command because of the sometimes unexpected results, and it doesn't seem to be flawless. Are there other ways to create a relative simple table top in a non destructive way? Important is that the corners have radius. ((It would be great if there was a way to draw these in a non destructive way and as a part of editing history. (side note/wish: Maybe there should be an option to have Loft surface command with an editing history and a path and profile of planar object that can be changed?)) Edited December 18, 2015 by Bas Vellekoop Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Bas I would do it this way: - Draw the table top shape and copy it. - Do a tapered extrude with a negative height to get the lower tapering part. - Paste in place and do an extrude for the upper part. - Add solids the two parts together to create one object. - Apply the fillets. Once you have modelled the rest of it you can either make it an Autohybrid object or turn it into a hybrid symbol. To do the latter in Plan view draw you required 2D appearance on top of the 3D in Screen Plane linework. Then select all of the 2D and 3D and create the hybrid symbol. Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 I like the way your currently doing it - however I'd make the subtraction for the mounts afterwards so you at least have that history. Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 I would start with three oval nurbs curves and loft it to get the blank. I agree, it's a shame that loft surfaces can't be edited. After that I agree with bcd. First fillet the curves. Then subtract solid for the hardware. That way you can change the hardware without losing the fillets. mk Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted December 18, 2015 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 18, 2015 A note for SORT of keeping history that some people are not aware of: Fillet and Chamfer objects can be Modify > Ungrouped in order to recover the original geometry. It isn't as convenient as the double-click history from something like a solid addition, but I have come across many users that did not know it was possible to get the original back. Quote Link to comment
Bas Vellekoop Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) Al you guys thanks for the input! 2 things I found: 1: I thought to make it a bit more simple by not filleting object (and losing/ungrouping this every time you want to edit the shape), but give the profile of the EAP on the corners a radius. If I do so I get this message: Why doesn't this work? 2: giving a radius doesn't work, so back to fileting the object. Now it would very handy is if you just had to select the 3 edges and not every separate part of it. But this doesn't work even with 'select tangent entities' on. Why is that? (to be honest getting a bit sad about how hard it is to work with the EAP in a easy and fluent way, so many 'ifs ' and 'buts') Edited December 21, 2015 by Bas Vellekoop Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted December 21, 2015 Share Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) It has to do with the position of the profile in relationship to the path object. I've attached an image showing what I mean. The red version doesn't work but the green version does. In this case if you move the profile so it starts at the origin point (axis lines) the filletted profile will work fine. But then you have to adjust your path accordingly. Whether you start at the origin and go right or start at the origin and go left depends on the direction of the path object. This is why EAPs shouldn't centre the profile object or at least allow the user to choose the origin of the profile object during creation. Kevin Edited December 21, 2015 by Kevin McAllister Quote Link to comment
Bas Vellekoop Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 But with the same profile but a different path it does work. See attached file Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 That path is much simpler than the first one. My experience is to always build EAPs so the profile starts at the origin point works out. You will have a lot fewer failures if you use this workflow. Kevin Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) This seems a complicated way to do this. Why not simply create an oval, extrude and then use taper face from 3d tool set to taper the bottom to get the splay. then use push pull to get the vertical thickness above the taper. Also once you have the taper you can fillet the corners or add more tapers. See Tapers and radius see; Also if you want to cap the table after you extrude along path this video shows one simple way to do it. HTH Edited January 8, 2016 by Alan Woodwell Quote Link to comment
Phil hunt Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Watched your videos. Brilliant. Quote Link to comment
Bas Vellekoop Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 Ha Alan, Thanks for all the tips! 1 comment only to capping the table: if you extract the curve then make a nurbs surface of it and then stich and trim command: then you have a real solid Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Ok, Nice, will try that. So many bits to VW that we don't play with but the more we know the more choices we have when confronted with a problem. Quote Link to comment
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