Hi guys, i’m trying to make the model of the Airpods Max (just to enhance my 3D modelling skill, nothing linked with jobs or stuff like that) and i have faced some problems during the modelling of the marked part. I have tried different ways to create that type of connection but everytime it comes out like shit 
. Do you have some suggest?
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subd multipipe all day.
or this oldie but goodie-
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I been tryna find a thread on blending 3 circles though, and can’t find it. 
I know it’s somewhere… 
This is kinda close:
another similar thing but not the one I’m looking for:
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Meh I’d just make it the simplest way possible–pipe all the way around the bottom with a “fillet” sorta blend to the vertical section. With some hand-tweaking of both objects, that’s probably how it was actually done, brute-force point-tweaking for hours until it’s perfect.
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here’s my crack at it.
not 100% perfect, but the layout may inspire you to try a few things-
fiddling with where you trim the edge of the transition makes a huge difference. (there is only one trimmed edge here, the rest are split at an isoparm.
when you get it “right” the model should more or less fall together and the continuities will more or less work out. If you find yourself fighting it, back up and try again with your trim higher or lower.
ybranch.3dm (7.3 MB)
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there are many y branch topics if you look them up, just enter y branch into the search function. the disadvantage of nurbs that these kind of geometries though simple in its idea are usually rather difficult to create was a reason for tsplines to step in. though i never used them they seemed to have been (maybe still are somewhere) similar to subdivision surfaces.
the downside of SubD is that you can only approximate circles and precise NURBS shapes. the fork you are showing here seems rather circular, to get that done with SubD you have to subdvide rather intensively making it again rather heavy to work with. and since all these methods were so involving i started experimenting a bit around many years back and found a solution which is maybe quite alright, i actually wanted to post that long ago but i never got around to do so.
maybe it does not work everywhere but for some parts it might be a good and fast alternative. the key is that you have to trim at a good spot to make it work well. you might have to try once or twice. you can of course also use a pipe instead of the blend between the upper branches.
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^^ that is a very nice solution as well.
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played with this more out of curiosity and was surprised how well filletsrf worked set to a g2 blend
super easy, depending on to what level of continuity flow you are looking for this is a two click solution.
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Oh, i’m sorry i didn’t see any useful post when i searched but probably i used wrong words to search the problem. Apart from that, your solutions seems so obvious but honestly i have never thought about it, and it sounds a perfect advice. I will try it both the way you and Kyle have suggested me, so really thank you!
I think I’ve never used filletsrf (or maybe i just don’t remember) so it’s always good to know new commands. Thank you so much, you nailed it
My thesis is that most “impossible” situations can be expressed as nothing more complex than fillets on top of fillets.
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I learned from watching you Jim… 
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