Making Surface from curve network

Ehm… This shape can’t be done as single surface .
If you won’t use a subd the only way is to divide the shape in quadrangular portion along the vertical curves.

how can I create a subd from these curves?

I tried to create a sample surface network with G2 continuity and it doesn’t seem to me that the surfaces are connected with G2.
Network-Surface.gh (15.3 KB)

It doesn’t matter, if the structure is a subd or surfaces. At the end I want to export a brep with wall thickness.

Look for @theoutside YouTube official tutorial.

all kidding aside, you need to go thru your network and make sure it ends up all 4 sided regions to avoid ngons.

the problem with y branching stuff is it almost always requires a star point to break up an ngon.
Sadly my lack of gh skill is well documented, I’d have to tap in @pascal or @BrianJ to take a look.

does it have to be nurbs, or can it be subd, then convert to nurbs?

in subd, branching stuff is super easy.

Hello- is there some reason this needs to be done in GH? It looks like your curves are existing geometry and not generated by GH. At any rate, SubD seems to me to be a good candidate here, as Kyle says, branching is not hard from SubD, but I have a feeling getting this shape directly from curves may be a challenge… @theoutside ?

-Pascal

Classic @pascal stoic understatement.

when he says this will “be a challenge” the rest of us will likely be like this.

On the other hand though, starting with the basic branching layout it should be possible to maneuver the SubD to conform to the curves after the fact - in effect using the curves as refernce and not as direct input. I think that’s how I’d approach it.

-Pascal

agreed… I like that approach.

Hi Pascal,

thank you for your reply. Actually, all of these curves were made in Gh. I didn’t want to give whole gh script in order to simplify my question.

i can use subd and then change to brep. But, i need a sample or some tipp, how i can do that. because i didn’t work with subd before

curve network —> surface —> mesh —> subd. Is it the right workflow? or do you have any other idea, maybe any plugin suggestion apart from multipipe?

dear @Mertcan_Kaya
is this a geometry you only have to solve ones ?
(a single modelling will do it?)

whats the adaptive / parametric part of your geometry?
will the numbers always be 3 legs → 1 hip
is it always 3x / polar symmetry ?

there might be solutions with better typologies - less exposed star-points…
to represent a circle with a hexagon mit not be precise enough…

but hopefully this points in a good direction.

3legs_1hip.3dm (4.0 MB)

if you manage to create different curves, representing the later sub-D Typology, then the workflow is quite simple:

_meshFromLines
_ToSubD (controlpoint as option)

in my file, from left to right:
(1)
fast attempt in subD starting with
_subDCylinder
_bridge
_stitch
_fill
_radiate

(2)
the lines (that your grasshopper definition should generate ?)

(3)
_meshFromLines

(4)
_toSubD

hope this helps - kind regards -tom

3 Likes

…i was not so happy about the starpoints / typology in my first post.

and also multipipe does not do the greatest job regarding typology.
as the multipipe “pipes” consist of 4 faces - there is a hard job to treat those 3 neighbours each branch / leg has…

starting with 4 equale “pipes”, again using 6 Faces arround.
this seams more like a solution for the SubD-school-book…

3legs_1hip_02_tp.3dm (337.9 KB)

@pascal

very poetic ;-D
but maybe also sounds like a phrase from a dictation test in school

3 Likes

and … another approach if you do not care about the number of “around” Face.
starting with 6 around faces for the hip.
continue with 4 around faces for each leg.

as one rule of thumb says, to use 8 around-faces to approximate a circle,
you may double 12 - 8 - 8 - 8 these numerbs (_subDivide)



3legs_1hip_03_tp.3dm (192.2 KB)

3 Likes

Hello Tom,

thank you for your reply and effort to inform me :slight_smile:
I wasn’t in office last days, sorry for late answer. I’m trying to automate whole system. Therefore, I will create the structures with grasshopper, if possible. I think, I understood the idea of creating subd. I will inform you, if I make some progress.

Hello Tom,

I couldn’t get the subd’s in grasshopper. Actually, I prepared the data tree in gh good. But, I couldn’t get the subd from curve network with grasshopper tools. It should be the same tools, what you used in Rhino. I created a new topic.

basically create a mesh with the tools in grasshopper or via c# / phyton.
this will become the later control-polygon for the subd.
then converting vom mesh to subd is easy. (see screeenshot above)

if you need creases and corners, there is also a
SubD from Mesh component

Actually, I tried to do it, as you suggested here. First to make a mesh than transform it to subd. But, I couldn’t create even a mesh with the curve network.

as an update for the people, who have maybe the same problem:

  • First, I created surface network from curves and I converted it to mesh using quadremeshing and then subd.

  • As a second approach, I created voxel model using dendro. Then, I converted it to mesh, then subd. It works also well.

Both of them are manufacturable with PBF-LB/M. The voxel approach is really easy, but you lose some important information about boundaries. it can be important for CFD simulations for example. However, it is also possible to define this kind of infos in CFD easier.