NVil Forum

General Category => Community Help => Topic started by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 01:46:53 am

Title: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 01:46:53 am

Hi guys.
Short question: Is there a loft in NVil?
I need to create a surface between a couple of curves, and doing it manually (by snapping with Poly_Create to spline points) is a pain in the bottom.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: steve on December 09, 2014, 05:28:07 am

Hi rubberDuck,

Not a specific "loft", but you can use "Retopo" (I posted a quick example >here< (http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,1613.msg5359.html#msg5359) a while ago.)

I can post step by step instructions if needed.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 02:55:08 pm

Thanks Steve.
I tried this, but:
1. The loft turned out incomplete. The output surface seems to heavily rely on where I draw the joining curve.
2. Surface vertices don't follow spline vertices. Their position depends on "Retopo->Spline->Sides" and position of the joining curve.
Any suggestions? :-\

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 04:01:34 pm

A test scene.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: steve on December 09, 2014, 04:14:14 pm

Hi rubberDuck,

Retopo is no good for lofting if you need the spline vertex to connect (and not very good for open splines).

For your example, I can only suggest using "Spline surface" [streamline tools > Generic tools > Mixed tools], You will have to use that tool on 2 splines at a time(then weld the surfaces together), not a quick solution, but quicker that manually creating polygons.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 05:00:06 pm

Excellent, that's much faster. Thank you Steve.
Maybe there are chances for IStonia to implement a standard loft function? Spline Surface is very similar to it. It would only require tweaking it to use multiple splines instead of just two.

Oh, I almost forgot. The description of Spline Surface says that I can "activate to create surface from 2 selected splines or 4 selected open splines". However, I am unable to make it work with four open splines selected.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: steve on December 09, 2014, 05:32:33 pm

Hi rubberDuck,

Quote from: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 05:00:06 pm

...........I am unable to make it work with four open splines selected.

It does work.

Please note:- The splines need to have a minimum of 3 vertex(control points) each.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 05:58:17 pm

Steve, have you tried on the example scene I uploaded? Splines that it contains have six control vertices. If I select four curves and apply Spline Surface on them, I get a mangled result.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: steve on December 09, 2014, 07:02:42 pm

Hi rubberDuck,

For a 4 spline "Spline Surface", the 4 splines are a (4 sided)boundary for the created mesh(such as for a coons/patch surface). So the splines need to be placed, for example, in a square shape.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: rubberDuck on December 09, 2014, 07:57:10 pm

This makes sense now, but I would never have guessed. There isn't a word in tool's description about those four splines having to form a boundary.
Thanks.

Title: Re: Loft?
Post by: steve on December 09, 2014, 08:14:24 pm

Hi rubberDuck,

I cannot find anything in the help file. The only info is in the update thread/post when that tool/function was added:-
Spline_Surface tool is improved. 4 open splines can be selected to create Coon's surface. Also, to use control points, scroll segment value down to 0. (http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php/topic,1846.msg5911.html#msg5911)