coming surfaces tips and tricks webcast

hey ho all
was wondering about what sort of part files have been already submitted for
the webcast discussion ??maybe I will send something in that is different if
I knew...
I looked at the recent webcast '10 reasons why..' and I was a little taken
aback that flex and deform tools would be seriously used by anyone doing ID
work as was being promoted there.
my experience with these is that they do not produce any desirable
results...that is they produce warps and ripples that completely mess up
shape and continuity... and so I don't use them at all...am I alone in that?
I think most serious surfacers are looking for seriously enhanced patching
and continuity tools to come to SW...alas nothing really in SW2006...so I am
a little sceptical of the whole gee look how good SW surfaces tools are
promo exercise ...still points for senior SW people for getting out and
trying.
my thoughts are that ID surfacing remains labour intensive and of an
'adequate' standard only. I can't see Ed giving up the massaged geometry
just yet.
anyone else have thoughts to share?
maybe we can banter a few ideas around ahead of time in the hopes of a more
focused discussion...
neil

 

I agree with you Niel, some of these tools are nice to have, but they
are not the core ID tools. From my point of view, surfaces are not
really the problem, SW spines are. It is hard to build a robust house
when the foundation wobbles all over the place.

I would also be interested to see what people would submit in advance -
thats a good idea.

Daniel

 

I have used the flex function on occaision for different things, because
it is at least predictable. I've never seen it do any rippling unless I
do something silly with it.

The deform tool is a different issue, though. I would never use it to
actually design a part, although I might use it to do a "looks like"
model for a presentation or illustration.

I don't think either of these tools can replace real modeling. Also,
don't confuse surfacing with "complex shapes". They aren't necessarily
the same. A lot of surfaces are simple, and a lot of complex shapes
are solids.

 

I don't think either of these tools can replace real modeling. Also,

Two pennies worth:

Complex shapes are all made up of simple features, whether created by
"solid" or "surface" tools. The cool thing about surface tools is that you
are only concerned with the surface you are dealing with and it's boundary
conditions. Solid creation features (which are nothing more than surface
creation, boundary rep maintenance macros) often cause the need to consider
what's happening with irrelevant surfaces that will be engulfed by the
boundary rep and are often the reason for feature failures.

I think, to a large extent, that bend, warp, etc., tools are there because
they are (1) relatively easy to program and will (2) WOW the uninitiated.
Reminds me of the SW, IV "shoot out" a few years back where everyone (as
reported in the "trade rags") went bug-eyed over the virtually useless
ability to "stretch" primitives.

Intuitive, robust curve and surface creation, boundary condition (G1, 2)
definition, etc. tools, extend, trim, offset (curves, surfaces and quilts;
maintaning boundary conditions and not just surface normal offsets) that
don't take an entire coffee break on a super-computer to solve along with a
full compliment of analytical tools are the foundations of good surfacing
software. These are things I'd be looking for, for what little it might be
worth.

 

And I'd also be watching to make sure they (surfaces, surface features) are
not being treated as second class citizens; Autodesk style; e.g. can they
be copied, transformed, mirrored, patterned...

 

All,
.... reading the webcast description again I guess it doesn't really say they
want to discuss the limitations of the present tools...discuss challenges
and techniques...time-saving tips...so maybe my initial enthusiasm is
misplaced...slightly disappointing because I think designers are forced by
the tools to do things the long hard way to get the geometric results they
need/desire...does say real world design issues though....perhaps they will
allow some discussion of where designers want to go with new capability.
OK SW is a mid range program so it will probably always limp a bit for ID
work but if continuity didn't matter to us then people wouldn't spend a lot
of time fussing over it...it is relatively easy to construct and trim a
suitable surface but getting it to blend sweetly with adjacent ones is the
hard part....of course no one wants to spend a lot of time smoothing things
out only to have to redo most of that if there is a slight design change to
the overall shape that upsets things.
As Daniel says the program's splines capability would seem to be the
underlying limitation that users are tripping over in their work however
after looking at SW using the deform tool I wonder if the people at the top
have the same understanding about ID work as users.
This webcast should be a good opportunity to promote the issues people have
using SW for ID work as well as to learn how to be more competent with the
basic tools.I hope a lot of people will tune in and maybe have a say...
neil