Odd Shape Modelling

[MrMeeb]

Looking for some guidance/suggestions on how to model the Z shape joint from the crew tunnel to the Spacelab. I'm not entirely sure on the best way to do it, so I thought I'd ask some more experienced people. Here's an orthographic and actual photo. Judging by the real photo, the vertical part is actually wider than the rest of the tunnel, to add a slight curve-ball to the situation.

Thanks for any help

 

[nli2work]

slice a tube at 45 degrees. duplicate it and rotate 180 so the 2 sliced faces match up, bridge the 2 sliced faces. detach the new vertical section, scale it up a bit, bridge the 3 section back together

Edited July 24, 2016 by nli2work

[cxg2827]

1 hour ago, MrMeeb said:

the vertical part is actually wider than the rest of the tunnel, to add a slight curve-ball to the situation.

To add another curve-ball to the situation, looks like the vertical section also has a curve at the top

(I'll see myself out...)

 

edit: also from the second picture in the album where the sections are colored blue, i think that is just the shape of the internal pressurized section of spacelab.

Edited July 24, 2016 by cxg2827

[MrMeeb]

24 minutes ago, cxg2827 said:

To add another curve-ball

[nli2work]

you mean the structural reinforcements the struts attach to? they look simple enough, chamfer the seams where the tubes join and extrude out. or make a tube and place at the center of the 45 degree edge loops. without detailed cad drawings you have to guesstimate what's under all that fabric.

Edited July 24, 2016 by nli2work

[MrMeeb]

53 minutes ago, nli2work said:

chamfer the seams

wat? I'm very new to this part of town  

My way of modeling at the moment is that if I need a new shape, I add it (in edit mode) and line it up. I don't do some fancy thing where I make the whole model out of one original mesh. That just sounds terrifyingly daunting

[nli2work]

"Chamfer" is CAD/Max/Maya jargon, comes from engineering/manufacturing I think. depending on what modeling software you're using it maybe be called "bevel". basically splits an edge and create a new face matching the original edge's normal. Sorry that's probably even worse than ebfore.

imagine that edge was an entire loop around a cylinder, you end up with a ring of new faces, which you can then extrude out from the center of the ring. making what looks like a ridge around the cylinder

Edited July 24, 2016 by nli2work

[Randazzo]

7 minutes ago, nli2work said:

"Chamfer" is CAD/Max/Maya jargon, comes from engineering/manufacturing I think. depending on what modeling software you're using it maybe be called "bevel". basically splits an edge and create a new face along the original edge's normal. Sorry that's probably even worse than ebfore.

Learned something new! Spiffy.

Perhaps this will help as well, combined with the above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tue4dh7icFY

 

[MrMeeb]

8 hours ago, nli2work said:

"Chamfer" is CAD/Max/Maya jargon, comes from engineering/manufacturing I think. depending on what modeling software you're using it maybe be called "bevel". basically splits an edge and create a new face matching the original edge's normal. Sorry that's probably even worse than ebfore.

imagine that edge was an entire loop around a cylinder, you end up with a ring of new faces, which you can then extrude out from the center of the ring. making what looks like a ridge around the cylinder

 

8 hours ago, Randazzo said:

Learned something new! Spiffy.

Perhaps this will help as well, combined with the above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tue4dh7icFY

 

Ah, bevelling! I learnt about that earlier yesterday  thanks for the help peeps

[fusioncore]

depending on the modelling program you're using, this can be as simple as thickening lines, rather than slicing models or bevel tricks. 

 

example:  

[DracoSilverpath]

On 7/24/2016 at 2:47 PM, MrMeeb said:

wat? I'm very new to this part of town  

My way of modeling at the moment is that if I need a new shape, I add it (in edit mode) and line it up. I don't do some fancy thing where I make the whole model out of one original mesh. That just sounds terrifyingly daunting

Its not bad at all actually, once you learn how to do so  You quickly learn the extrude tool is your friend for getting your shapes into wel..the right shape! then its a matter of beveling, chanfering, smoothing normals, etc.

Every modeller has their own workflow in the end, and there's no right answer really, so what I'd suggest is watching up on some tutorials on all the basic tool for your chosen 3d program and figur eout how to best utilize them

[Ruedii]

As fusioncore stated, you can simply use thickened lines, or line guides for your extrusion.  Many will auto-handle joint angles on these.

However, Z-bends are usually done with multiple bevel-cut extrusion-rod (e.g. cylinders) sub-components.

Depending on the modeling program, you may be able to use an intersect cut function instead of a bevel cut.  This makes a cleaner model and allows for easier editing.  Using joining guide-plane as intersect bevel-cut point works particular well here.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Ruedii
More detail.