Hi,
What’s the best way in Rhino to model bent metal tubes similar to the reference image?
Are there any plugins that help with this kind of simulation?
Thanks.
just model your pipes first, best you loft them. create a curve in the center with the same amount of control points, or you use RebuildCrvNonUniform on all curves, that will set them equal
create the pipes
now loft with option match
and use the same part for all bent areas
best you set up your geometry straight with the length you want for each section. then create a polyline with the kinks at the center of each bent.
now duplicate that line and deform it as you want i would use the Rotate to rotate the entire curve from the pivot point, that will ensure that you keep the exact length.
lastly enable History and use Flow. now you can rotate the target curves sections and it will update. can can use Subselect (ctrl shift left click) to select the target curve poly line parts you want to rotate for a quick shaping.
have fun!
Wonderful explanation! I will use this method.
Do you know by any chance if real simulation of this kind are availabe with Rhino or GH?
i am sure it could work with kangaroo. but my projects are never big enough to allow myself building up the definitions to play around with it forever when all i need are just a few pipes. should that be something you are facing on bigger projects with hundreds of tubes, then this is what you should rather do.
but i would not know where to start.. maybe @DanielPiker has a suggestion.