Thank Pascal.
The thing is it took me a while to discover this was (one of the reasons) why the models wouldn’t unroll in downstream software.
The model passed all the checks I’m aware of in rhino- it’s “valid”, it has no naked edges, it Gaussian curvature is all “green”.
But because of the way it was constructed, it had properties that made it not play nice with other software that needed to be used to manufacture the part.
So to say one way is the “right” way is clearly not the case, because it depends on what the model’s purpose is to be.
So look, I am just a vagabond, a drifter on the run…I’ll never know all the intricacies and mathematics of how rhino works, let alone solidworks or inventor or autopol that shops and firms use to manipulate my models to hopefully produce the thing I want.
I can drive my hybrid car well enough to get around safely, and I have a broad understanding of how it works, but I couldn’t analyse and fix it’s rare meltdowns, nor would I want to.
I can drive rhino well enough to leverage my brain to extrude concepts, ideas and products into the real world where other people can see and interact with them; and over the years it’s allowed me to live a much enhanced and creative life, but I can’t analyse and fix it’s rare meltdowns beyond a certain point, and nor would I want to.
Nor, without some guidance, can I begin to understand or adjust internal parameters of a model that rhino says is good, but which other software third parties use and whom I need to interact with, won’t accept.
So this forum is one fine form of guidance (cheers!) but another would be some notes in the help file - perhaps a “troubleshooting” section, or an appendix “exporting rhino models to constraint based software” ; but far better still some more robust tools to analyse the model internally.
I’ve read the McNeel white paper re working with solidworks - it’s full of how accurate and versatile rhino is and how it can fix geometry that solidworks can’t, but it’s very quiet on how we might build or adjust models in rhino that will behave in sw.
During this process of tracking down why my models wouldn’t unroll, the shop sent me a .stp model built in sw from a flat pattern I’d sent them ex rhino, both a replica of the 3D part, and it’s unrolled state.
This sw model is very “clean” - it unrolls fast and easy, yet in rhino, from what I can see, it seems identical to my own model.
Where are the tools in rhino I’d need to examine both models to be able to understand the differences that are clearly there?
I can send you both models, and I’m sure you guys will be able to unpick them, but what am I able to do with my vanilla rhino?
I have no access to sw, or that kind of thing, and nor do I want to go there; I just want to be able to analyse my rhino model well enough to solve this kind of issue; for that I think rhino might need some better tools, or at least, better documentation…?
Cheers
rabbit
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