Hi there. I’m new to Rhino and can’t quite figure out how to merge the set of surfaces in this file. I’ve tried really hard to create some “clean” surfaces and line everything up. I’m able to MatchSrf to get fairly reasonable continuity between the surfaces, but all attempts to MergeSrf or BooleanUnion or the like either fail or say that the edges aren’t close enough.
The model is just a learning exercise, using photos of a set of AirPods Max to practice surfacing. So I created two surfaces, one for the rear contour and one for the front. It seems to be that matching the front and rear together is the issue; I can match up the mirrored components of the other pieces.
However I also seem to get in a situation where I lose tangency during these operations. Also unsure why that is occurring Any help would be appreciated!
hi, your surfaces are partially overlapping, look along the vertical seam, zoom in close enough. you might want to restart modelling it from scratch and work a bit more precise. i know that is a pain in the beginning but it will make you better.
Hi @Luke_Burton
Welcome to the forum! Please note that those two commands are NOT what you are looking for, when dealing with surfaces that touch “edge to edge” (or at least should be). The command you are looking for is Join, as MergeSrf will try to construct a single surface from the input and BooleanUnion is reserved for overlapping volumes, eg. a box and a sphere that partly overlap. If you haven’t already, it might be a good idea to go through (if not all, then at least some of) the Level 1 and Level 2 training material and also, if you are going to do a lot of surfacing, check out @sgreenawalt’s incredible videos on surfacing in Rhino.
HTH, Jakob
Thanks, I’ve been devouring surfacing videos trying to learn more, so I’ll definitely check that recommendation out. What I saw with Join is that I end up with a polysurface and then I can’t run MatchSrf on the edges any more to get them lined up. But maybe the underlying issue is what @encephalon pointed out which is the edges aren’t lined up properly?
I do suspect my modeling process leading up to this point is the real issue, so I’m hoping to both understand that and also learn tricks for digging myself out of the hole. If this was a far more complicated surface I’d want to avoid having to rework from scratch
I feel like if one or two lines are off here and there, I should be able to salvage things no? Is this a case where I should have history enabled so I can go back and tweak the original curves to make all the surfaces line up?
This is the second time I’ve modeled it so I’m for sure game to keep practicing. I started off trying to import other peoples meshes of the same model and found them to be of such poor quality that I should try to make the surfaces myself to learn
Oh @sgreenawalt is thirtysixverts, yes I have been devouring those videos, lol. His videos are what got me starting from scratch and trying to make the most minimal and clean curves possible! Which is why I was so bummed that things looked pretty good in Emap but nothing joined up properly, haha
Any help would be appreciated!
