imme Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 hi everyone, This is my first post and I'm very new at Vectorworks. I'm trying to model a knife but I can't figure out how to put the bevel on the knife (the angled flat part of the blade, colored in red in the first picture). I have tried with the chamfer edge tool but this only gives me very short bevels (see second picture). Also is there a way to create that nice rounded ricasso (in the blue circle). Thanks for looking! Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Try modelling the blade in two parts and then use Add Solid to make one object from them. - Make the uniform thickness part as one object. - Then model the knife edge as an extrude along path object. That will allow you to use a tall narrow width triangle as the profile. You may need to model the tapered part longer than needed so you can remove parts at either end to get the shape in those locations correct. Use Subtract Solid or Split as appropriate. You could also look at doing the knife blade with the Subdivision capability. Quote Link to comment
Kevin Allen Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 It's complex modeling, but I would use Sub-Division. You might able to do it with a series of Solid Subtractions, but it would be a challenge. Quote Link to comment
imme Posted December 26, 2018 Author Share Posted December 26, 2018 thank you both for your answer! I will first try the extrude along path method (if I can get my head around it:)) And If I can't get that to work I'll try the subdivision option. Thanks again and I will post the results here. Oh and if somenone should have still another suggestion, please do! Quote Link to comment
AlanW Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 @immeHi, you can use the Taper Face tool. You can also use the subdivision tool and follow the attached video. Good Luck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Wok9M9uVE Quote Link to comment
imme Posted December 29, 2018 Author Share Posted December 29, 2018 Thank you Alan! The taper face tool looks promising! I will try this as soon as I can. And thanks for your video link. Subdivision is still my last resort when all else fails, only because it looks the most difficult to me. I have been trying with extrude along path as suggested by Mike but so far I'm stuck at what you can see below. Still a lot of things wrong with that 🙂 Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 To make it easier to see what is going on I have modelled a 1.5 mm thick blade. Adjust for your required geometry and thickness. The extrude along path curve is half the depth of the bevel off the blade body shape. How to model knife blade v2019.vwx 3 Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Stephan Moenninghoff Posted December 31, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 31, 2018 (edited) Ah, I like a good modelling challenge. Here's another take. Hope it helps! Knife.mp4 Edited December 31, 2018 by Stephan Moenninghoff 2 Quote Link to comment
imme Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 Wow, incredible that you would take the time to do that Mike, thank you! Now, my knife in the initial post (the one you used here) is rather simple in that it has no ricasso and the bevel line is parallel to the knife edge. In the second knife I posted you can see that the line of the bevel and the line of the flat part of the knife don't match up. This is because the bevel line isn't parallel to the knife edge everywhere. The bevel line comes closer to the knife edge as you come towards the tip. Do you think this can be done with extrude along path? Also, is it possible to give the ricasso a curve instead of the 90° hard corner it has now or do you think I will have to go with the subdivision method? Quote Link to comment
imme Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 , now I'm wishing that I had used a more complex knife in my initial post 🙂 That taper face tool definitely looks usable Stephan, thank you for your video! I'm just wondering if it will work when bevel line and edge are not parallel and then the ricasso thing. Well, I'm going to play around with all this. So much to learn! Thanks again for all the help! Quote Link to comment
imme Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 haha apparently I used a forbidden word before the comma? I'll use darn then 🙂 Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 There are four ways to model this knife: 1. Model separate component parts and use Add Solid to create one object. 2. Model one solid and remove parts from it using Subtract Solid. 3. Model it as one object from a Subdivision Primitive (make sure you use the mirror option). 4. Model it using Stefan's method. You may need to combine this with one of the other methods if you are going to do the first knife blade. For all four methods you need to understand the 3D geometry of what you are trying to create so you can create them accurately. Happy modelling. Quote Link to comment
imme Posted January 5, 2019 Author Share Posted January 5, 2019 Thank you Mike. Vectorworks has been rendering an animation of a garden for the past almost 50 hours......😯 Almost at 80% now so I estimate at least another 12 hours to go. About a week from now I'll have to undergo knee surgery after which I'll likely have some time on my hands to experiment with all your suggestions;) Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 62.5 hours to do a render is a very long time. Quote Link to comment
imme Posted January 5, 2019 Author Share Posted January 5, 2019 I'm happy you can confirm this Mike 😁 The animation is 60 seconds long and I chose the highest quality. It has 1125 frames. The saved views were rendered with a renderworksstyle with all fairly high settings. Possibly I'm not following the correct procedures or best settings. We'll see what the results are and learn from it 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Guest Wes Gardner Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Hi All, Another trick that might be obvious, but maybe not be, is to model just HALF the object and then mirror the results. Stephan Moenninghoff alludes to this in his video. I do a lot of NURBS modeling where the knife can easily be built (or just about any object for that matter). Cool project BTW... Good luck! Wes Quote Link to comment
imme Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 thank you for the input Wes! I think so too that the mirror tool will be a part of the process. And nurbs.....that seems to be even more complicated to a noob like me than subdivision 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Guest Wes Gardner Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 @imme, Funny you should mention that...I'm working on a NURBS tutorial as we speak...should be out shortly. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you can "tame" NURBS curves fairly well. Have some fun! Wes Quote Link to comment
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