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Triangular Meshing in Rhino

I am very new to rhino, but am going to venture into the world of 3d printing for a project this semester. If I were to create a curvilinear surface, how would I go about splitting it into triangular or polygonal facets (to represent glazing or steel sheets). Its a dense program, so I guess I'm just looking to be pointed in the right direction so I can start doing tutorials that might pertain to what I am trying to accomplish. Thanks, and sorry if this has been covered before, I couldn't find anything using search.

 
Sep 13, 08 9:45 pm
MArch n' unemployed

how would you do it? maya

or

check out the paneling plug in
http://blog.rhino3d.com/2008/09/panelingtools-updated.html

but im not sure what this has to do with 3D-printing, you need 'water-tight' surfaces with thickness to 3D print, if this is your first time doing it i wouldn't get to fancy with the representation.

although a faster and easier way of showing detail like that would be to extract the isocurves from the surface, you can then take those curves and edit them as you like. then pipe [use multi-pipe] the curves, essentially giving you a net of your surface [be careful though, if the surface is really big or complex piping it will seriously bog rhino down - consider turning the polysurfaces into meshes when you are done editing]. make sure the centerpoint of the pipes are aligned with the face of the surface, then when the 3D printer reads the surface it will print the 'bumps' of the net, giving you more detail on your surface.

Sep 14, 08 1:13 pm  · 
 · 
PodZilla

When you export to .stl, it automatically triangulates the mesh. Model in NURBS and set the meshing paramaters really high to obtain a smooth surface, and really low for a "triangulated" look.

Sep 14, 08 4:11 pm  · 
 · 
MArch n' unemployed

i don't think that's what he means podzilla

Sep 14, 08 6:49 pm  · 
 · 
Antisthenes

ya a new paneling plug in came out last week

Sep 15, 08 2:17 pm  · 
 · 
Antisthenes
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/PanelingTools.html

new plug-in just dropped


New in this release:
----------------------------
- Added ptManage3dPatterns command to create, edit or delete user-defined 3D
patterns and save to document. These patterns are listed in commands like
ptPanel3D.
- Added "Shift" options to ptOrientToGrid command. Also fixed a bug in this
command that used to flip module direction.
- Fixed I/O bug in ptMange2dPatterns command.
- Added cancel thread when creating panels faces.
- Fixed a bug when paneling polysurfaces. Panels along joints were not
properly calculated.
- Added "Delete" option to ptMange2dPatterns to show next to New and Edit
options.
Sep 15, 08 6:00 pm  · 
 · 
ScottC

If you don't want to try that you could rebuild the curved surfaces with a degree of 1 in both the U and V direction. This doesn't always generate planar surfaces but its usually pretty close. After that you can split the surface by isocurve and use the "unrollsurface" command to flatten it out

Sep 16, 08 12:40 pm  · 
 · 
noci

it's really a shame indeed that tri/quadrangulation control in rhino is nowhere near as sophisticated as maya's.. that would be a cool feature request to have, though. I'll mention it to McNeel.

Sep 17, 08 9:15 am  · 
 · 
rehiggins

Rhino is a NURBS modeler first and foremost, so it's no wonder that its meshing tools aren't as sophisticated as a poly-modeler…

if you model your design and make it "water tight", it should print. Rhino even has some built-in exporters for popular formats, like ZCorp's.

the paneling tool looks promising, though I have yet to find a good tutorial that outlines exactly how the thing works and what each of the functions are…Grasshopper might be of some help as well. Even "Curve from objects--> project" might be of some use, especially if you've developed 2D drawings of your design.

Sep 17, 08 10:12 am  · 
 · 
rehiggins

nevermind about my "complaint" about the lack of documentation of the paneling tool--the link that anti posted has another link to a description of the commands…wish that was around for earlier builds

Sep 17, 08 10:15 am  · 
 · 
ff33º

invisinook,
you should just go to http://designreform.net/ , sit back and watch some videos...

Sep 17, 08 10:28 am  · 
 · 

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