Looking for some advice on how to go about smoothing or fairing SubDs. Obviously, I can do control point manipulation on this and use my eye to get close to what I am looking for, but I’m hoping to find some tools to make the process easier.
My current process is: First make a crude shape and start refining the topography as I go to make it do what I want. This tends to be trial and error. I usually have some reference NURBS surfaces that I convert or use to get some edges to sweep. Generally when I get a surface that works the control points are all over the place lacking consistency and organization. What I’ve started doing is using that first SubD as a reference to make a more refined second iteration. I make this version square with all the control points aligning on a grid. Then I use cage-edit to add the curvature that I want to the part. This makes the corners all look rather consistent.
My issue is when I do a cage edit the suraces don’t have a smooth curvature when I’m done. I believe this has to do with the fact that areas that have a corner have more control points than areas that are flat.
I’ve used the smooth command a little, but haven’t had much luck. When I fix borders they have too much of an influence on the shape and when I don’t fix borders it doesn’t work.
The soft transform works a little, but I haven’t had much success with this either. Usually I want to soft edge a point in one direction (Along a U) and not in another (Along a V) In the example in the picture; I would like to be able to move the control points on the back edge (black line with curvature anylisis turned on) to resemble more closely the curvature of blue line. It would be ideal if I didn’t have to do that for every edge loop/ring. Is there a way to do this?
SubD Helm.3dm (107.6 KB)
