Modeling in C4D I.L.O. cad

[leoA4D]

I, like Ernest, want to do more modeling in C4D but find work flow pushes me back to cad. A simple example: extrude a moulding, 1/2 round, attach four individual sections around a rectangular solid and miter the corners, apply wood finish. This will be viewed close up.

 

Cad

Create a 1/2 round arc. Extrude. Duplicate three additional sections. Place around a rectangle the same dimensions of final. Select two sections, use knife tool at the intersections and make a 45° cut. Repeat three more times. Deselect then, shift-click overhangs & delete. Export to C4D. Merge in C4D.

 

C4D (so far, time has limited me to one possible solution; there must be others)

Select Circle Spline and resize. Select Rectangle Spline and resize. Select Sweep Nurb and place the circle and rectangle splines within it. Drop a rectangular solid to the centerline of the extrusion to create the 1/2 round. A continuous 1/2 round moulding is the result. What I want are four separate sections so that the sections, with their material, are perceptible. Also, more polygons are probably created using a round, I.L.O. 1/2 round shape.

 

In C4D, I first tried something similar to the Cad. The knife tool took an immense amount of time to delete points, edges and polygons. With a cylinder, at the right radius and some length, splitting was tried. Cutting to finished length, caused the loss of the end cap. Enough of this, you can see the bog. BTW, to paraphrase one of Ernest's posts, IRTFM.

 

This is a process where bells and whistles aren't needed and is repeated constantly in architectural 3D. C4D is great – but, sometimes, when basic processes/tools are needed, they are, if they exist, too time consuming to find or use. "Expletive deleted" learning curve!

[Frosty]

C4D (so far, time has limited me to one possible solution; there must be others)

Select Circle Spline and resize. Select Rectangle Spline and resize. Select Sweep Nurb and place the circle and rectangle splines within it. Drop a rectangular solid to the centerline of the extrusion to create the 1/2 round. A continuous 1/2 round moulding is the result. What I want are four separate sections so that the sections, with their material, are perceptible. Also, more polygons are probably created using a round, I.L.O. 1/2 round shape.

 

I'll try my best here, but I have a feeling that I'm not understanding you correctly. You are trying to create profiled perimeter objects wrapped around some other primary form. This may be baseboards around walls, a cornice, a column capital, the edge of a table or many other such situations. My methodology is to bring in the path for the sweep from my CAD app - it could be drawn in C4D, but I find the 2D drawing tools lacking. I usually draw the profile for the sweep in C4D and as you state, I place both the profile and the path of the sweep inside a "sweep nurbs" object. I set the path spline to "uniform" subdivisions at the appropriate density. This allows materials applied to the sweep nurbs to maintain proportions without stretching as they tile along the nurbs object.

 

I'm not sure why you would need to, but if as you suggest you would like to map the perimeter object on each side independently, I can thing of two simple solutions. Each requires making the sweep nurbs an editable object.

1) create selection sets and map each section as you wish.

2) select polygons and split to create seperate objects. each can be mapped as you wish.

[leoA4D]

You managed my rantings quite well and we both used the similar process to extrude the moulding in C4D.

 

I thank you for the "create selection sets" suggestion and I will followup on that. Your suggestion 2) "select polygons and split to create seperate objects" is where, I believe, I had problems with the knife tool. Does the C4D Knife tool have a feature that let's the user simply whack off what is not wanted or to simply cut a 45°, as I described?

 

It may not sound like it but, I really like C4D and have grown a lot, thanks in a big way to this and other forums.

 

Thanks.

[Frosty]

The knife tool isnt really useful for the methodology that you're describing. Its more useful for sub-dividing surfaces into extra polygons. "Split" will take selected polygong and make a new object with them. Repeating this process four times would isolate each side of a permiter sweep into four components.

 

But, as I stated in the first responce, all of this splitting and extra mapping shouldnt be needed. Unless each side has a totally different material, you should be able to map the nurbs object just fine.

[4DM]

1. Make the section you need with a spline.

2. Use the QuickPipe plug in and type in the dims of your rectangle.

(Or create a rectangle spline object to the req. size and drop both splines into a Sweep nurbs)

3. The section will extrude along the rectangular path.

4. Map the texture with UVW mapping - the texture will follow the path of your mouldings.

5. Copy Rectangle spline and drop into an Extrude Nurbs - extrude by req. thickness of timber.

6. Apply texture to extruded rectangle (UVW,Cubic, or Flat).

 

You may have to play around with tex scales, but then you would anyway.

shouldn't take more than a minute to model. A bit more to texture perhaps.

 

Good luck.

 

Cheers,

 

D.

[leoA4D]

Frosty. I understand about the Knife. Other than boole, is there another way to cut extrusions or editable primitives to angles? Or, do we just extrude/pull on the points, edges & polygons? What about complex profiles like mouldings?

 

Sorry about all these questions, while I have your ear: How do I create a cyma recta/reversa or quirked ovolo/ogee profiled spline for extrusion?

[leoA4D]

D., thanks for your post. You reminded me that I have QuickPipe. I dropped it in the folder but, not sure it works with R9. I will give it a try.

[Ernest Burden III]

while I have your ear: How do I create a cyma recta/reversa or quirked ovolo/ogee profiled spline for extrusion?

 

Have you been using the random letter generator again?

 

Did I miss something by cutting all of architecture school?

 

By the way--while I would always want to trim the cornice or baseboard or whatever to the angle intersections, it isn't really necessary in Cinema. You could just extrude the shape to each wall lenght and let the render engine take it from there (Heresy to Lightscape users)!

[leoA4D]

Random letter generator? Thanks, an hour in the manual looking for that thing... (as my son would add) not. E., you missed great eraser and rubber band fights, learning how to throw push pins into tackboards and lots of lost sleep, weekends and holidays. And, you've done alright!

 

Shortcut the curve in one request. Those shapes have a mix of curves and straight sections which I haven't found a tut for but have this need to know an efficient, yet accurate, way of doing it. Reason: I flounder too much. BTW, I included a moulding in a little rendering and C4D did a smashing job with it. It pops.

 

I agree with your approach but, how do you cut down an extruded weird shape to an angle 90? Boole it?

[Frosty]

Those shapes have a mix of curves and straight sections

 

You need to spend a little time working with C4Ds spline tools - specifically soft and hard interpolation of points and bezier manipulation. With these tools you will be able to create any profile you desire for sweeps. Selection and manipulation of these points is also possible using the move, scale and rotate tools. The object generate by the sweep nurbs can be affected by reposistioning the object axis of the profile.

[leoA4D]

Okay. How is the radius controlled and how is a smooth arc made? Use a circle spline or cylinder, set to the desired radius, as a template?

 

How are extrusions cut at angles?