I’m looking for some help or guidance, as I’m struggling to build a clean surface for a model I plan on 3d printing. I have successfully 3d printed an earlier version of the current model I’m working on, but I must admit it was not the cleanest surfacing to begin with, and thus ran into issues translating the surfaces into machinable components. When I had done this prior. I kind-of hacked my way through making the surface a solid, for printing. However this time I’d like to get it right from the start.
In effort to avoid downstream issues, I’ve begun rebuilding the surfacing.
I’ve been watching Sky’s YouTube series via ThirtySixVerts, which has been an absolute blessing; however, the point at which I’m having issues is in my patch layout & using the matchsrf tool.
I’ve used Sky’s workflow to create a 4th edge on a 3 sided corner, however, the resulting surface, lies below the surface on the right (of which I’d like to match to). I’ve tried using matchsrf (both on my new surfaces shared edge, along with to the patch) but can’t seem to get my surface from the “3-sided corner” to match with the pre-existing surface’s curvature. it seems like there is a height gap from the 3-sided surface and my patch, which gives me a poor result and ultimately unable to create a watertight surface.
I’ve tried breaking up the surface into multiple sections to utilize low degree curves, along with a 2 part surface which uses higher degree curves, but both yeild the same result. I’ve also tried moving the seam of the “3-sided” surface to different instances within the curves, hoping to find a spot which may land a better transition, but no such luck.
Im sure I’ve missed something simple in my workflow or perhaps Ive made a mistake somewhere that I cant see, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
how did you trim the pink surface ?
the yellow / selection are 2 (!!!) edges.
my recommendation:
do not trim it first, keep it untrimmed
build the nose surface
_matchSrf with the Pull to Surface option
now trim the pink surface against the pulled / matched edge
see onsurface option
You can also press Enter to skip selecting a target curve and only select a target surface.
In that case, the edge to be changed is pulled to the target surface and the pulled curve is used as the target.
3dprints or machined vehicle parts are going to have to be bodyworked no matter what they are printed with or machined on, so I would save a lot of time and not kill yourself with chasing perfect continuity in the model.
fwiw, I simply ran matchsrf on the blue surfaces at g1, then rebuilt the center line curve that makes up the basis for the green surface extrusion, then ran blendsrf to make the pink surface set to g2.
If I was building these parts, knowing they were going to be printed (or machined) and bodyworked, this is as far as I’d go chasing continuity. By the time you get a couple of coats of filler and high build primer on these parts, the highlights will change a bunch anyways depending on who is doing the sanding, and you should always evaluate the real parts with a highlight lamp as you go…
I was taught very early on by some pretty heavy hitting designers, Work very hard…but only up to the point the job is done to the necessary task at hand, and not a second more.
This is the way… Thanks for the words of wisdom, too. I had to do a little bit of rebuilding curves as suggested, but the blendsrf went pretty smoothly after a few attempts/tweaks.
