I have been looking into SubD as an option for CAD modelling, but it is a subject that I do not know much about and as such I am not well placed to make comparisons between the available options. Inventor has T-Splines, Creo has Freestyle, and for SolidWorks there is the third-party add-in, Power Surfacing. Rhino itself has a SubD tool in development. Since I am not yet well practiced in SubD modelling, I do not know if these solutions are comparable for a digital artist. Certainly the toolkits look sparser than those in Blender and Modo, but maybe the modelling tools are all there.
I have found very little information on the quality of the NURBS surfaces produced. For example, whether or not any of the SubD-NURBS tools that exist today can be used to produce surfaces with G3 or better curvature continuity throughout. Some sources say that the quality of surfaces created with T-Splines will often be inferior to geometry created with native features. I am not entirely sure if this is only due to triangular patches, or if there are other reasons.
Given that some of the tools are marketed as “quick concept” tools, rather than tools for building high-quality products, I am erring on the side of caution.
I thought that I might find some expertise here on the Rhino forums. If anyone would like to write anything related to the topics described here, please do so. The more the better. Thanks.
