Nile Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I'm trying to figure out the best way to model a light tubular steel frame for a 6-facet 3D shape. I modeled the basic solid shape and figured I'd extrude my frame from a 3D path that I created along the edges, but VW does not seem to allow extrudes along any 3D path which has intersecting lines from separate planes. I then tried creating a separate path for each object plane, but as you can see in the attached close up pic, there are issues where the separate extrusions intersect. Am I approaching this wrong? any ideas would be greatly appreciated - I have to do this same process for a number of different shapes! Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 (edited) How do you think the joints will be made in real life? Here's an example of how I would model it. The basic steps - I built a wireframe model of NURBS curves formed from 2d triangles. I created an Extrude Along Path ( EAP ) of one face. I mirrored the EAP in the front view through the ground plane. I then cut through the ground plane using the Knife Tool to make a clean join between the two pieces. I discarded the extra pieces. I joined those two pieces and then switched to Top/Plan. Using some guidelines I trimmed the corner mitres again using the Knife Tool. I discarded all the extra pieces. Using the Rotate Tool in duplicate mode I rotate/copied the two other pieces. Finally I made a Solid Addition of all the pieces and deleted my guides. Kevin Tube_Shapes.vwx Edited March 7, 2018 by Kevin McAllister Added screen shots of joins. Quote Link to comment
Nile Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 Thank you so much, Kevin - great instructions and that image sequence is really helpful too. The steel tubes in the finished product will be welded & ground smooth at the connection points, so using your method I'll be able to produce a model that I can use to illustrate both the overall shape and corner details. Quote Link to comment
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