Manual surface deformation

Hello,

I am trying to model these insulation blankets shown in the photo and am looking to get an opinion before I spend a bunch of time on this as Rhino is not my primary CAD program. My research suggests that cage edit might have some possibilities for this. I have also been looking at Zbrush which seems to be the best for this kind of modeling, it is just that I would like to avoid the learning curve and cost of pursuing Zbrush just to do this one project.

I have modeled a non specific shape in SolidEdge as something to start with, but perhaps it would be better to start with modeling in Rhino instead, I do not know. Again the surface does not need to conform to any dimensions and only needs to be representative.

Thank You,

Hello - I think just manipulating the points on a simple surface ought to work OK - then Offset the surface. You’ll need to decide what a reasonable approximation of sheet material deformation is, though - that might be hard, there are no material constraints on a Nurbs surface (e.g. constant surface area) . It may be that using Grasshopper and Kangaroo might make a more realistic looking deformation, I’m not sure.

I realize the insulation is not quite fabric in the usual sense but the constraints may be of a similar type.

-Pascal

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