Polysurface/solid lines?

Hello there,

So this is a really dumb, newbie question, but what are the lines called that define a solid/polysurface? I’m not talking about the isocurves, but the actual lines which make up the shape. I was also wondering if there is any way you can edit these? For this shape, I started with a side and front curve drawing, extruded them both them did a Boolean intersection. I am following a tutorial and followed almost exactly what the guy was saying, but the lines in my solid are more numerous. Is this because when I was drawing out the curves I used more control points?
Sorry for the rambling question and thanks to anyone who can help :slight_smile:

First, a reminder that in Rhino a polysurface is a collection of individual surfaces which have been joined together so that they behave as a single object. A solid is just a polysurface with no naked (unjoined) edges and no non-manifold edges.

Edges. The displayed curves are the edges of the individual surfaces (and/or separate individual curves). What is displayed in each display mode can be controled using DisplayMode command. Display of edges in Shaded mode can be toggled on and off. Rhinoceros Help
Important - the edges displayed do not “define” the solid/polysurface as in controling the shape. Instead they are just one method of illustrating the shape of the solid/polysurface. The shape of a surface is defined by the control points of the surface, and the shape of a polysurface is defined by the shapes of the individual surfaces which were joined to form the polysurface.

Very limited editing of polysurfaces is available using solid Points which can be turned on using SolidPtOn. PointsOff to turn off solid points.

For more editing of individual surfaces in a polysurface Explode the polysurface or ExtractSrf. Then all the methods for editing individual surfaces are available.

If you are seeing lines/curves away from the edges of interior lines then those are isocurves. The display of isocurves can be toggled on and off using DisplayMode or for individual objects by selecting the object, openning the Properties panel and clicking on the box for Show surface isocurves. The number of control points will affect the number of isocurves seen if the display of isocurves is turned on.

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Wow. Thank you so much for this man. This has answered my question and many many more!

I feel as though I need to learn more about the process and theory of modelling in Rhino.
I was wondering, do you know any good resources specifically for Rhino which cover this sort of thing?

Thanks so much again,
Evie

Start by downloading and going through the User’s Guide. It’s actually a tutorial of the basics of Rhino. Then download and go through at least the relevant to what you plan to do parts of the Level 1 Manual and Level 2 Manual. While these were originally written to accompany the McNeel training classes they can be used stand alone.
https://www.rhino3d.com/tutorials

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The latest version of training manual seems to be available here.

And usersguide is here.

Those are online versions. The links on the page I posted are for downloading PDF versions.

Yes, http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/6/training-level2/en-us/Default.htm is not pdf version.
But url of https://www.rhino3d.com/tutorials links to
https://www.rhino3d.com/download/rhino/5.0/Rhino5Level2Training/ and this is the old version.

Looks like McNeel needs to update the link.

Thanks guys!
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/WWW-951
-wim

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Thank you very much!

Thank you Thank you!