Plasticity Quick Start | How To Model With Curves And Surfaces Using Plasticity | How To | Beginner
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- In this video we are going to dive into a few key areas of working with curves and surfaces in Plasticity. If you want to check plasticity out or buy a license make sure to check out the website www.plasticity... I have no affiliation with Plasticity or any benefit from you buying a license, but I do encourage anyone interested to give the 30 day trial a shot.
In this video we will go over how to import blueprints or reference images, how to create curves in 2D and project them as well as build them in 3D. We will also learn how to create some basic surfaces or sheets as they are called in Plasticity, how to join them together, break them apart, fillet and blend them.
If you want to follow along make sure you find a blueprint or reference image that you want to use.
Great tutorial, great voice, great audio, no silly background music, and you don't sound like you just woke up. Love how you explained the hotkeys as you went. Super good!
Awesome! Thank you! I film a lot of these at night ;)
Thank you, plasticity needs proper tutorials like yours.
Glad you like them!
I've been working daily in Ansys SpaceClaim for the last about 10 years and I need to change software before I have a stroke! I design model car kits and mostly work by surface shapes, and though dimensions matter, they don't necessarily drive the designs that I need a parametric cad. The most important tool for me is the 3d spline and being able to draw in 3d, and it looks like the spline tool here may be close enough. Thanks for the speed of the videos, for moving slowly, and not just showing off what you can do like many creators do!
Thanks! You might want to check out the car modeling playlist I did. It was just before the current version was released so there are some minor differences. the biggest being xNurbs if you have a studio license.
czcams.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXXglEZA2MGsn-U8z2pNCPny.html
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign will do, I've watched more videos since last night and the more I see, the more I like about it! You have no idea what a load off my shoulders this will be if it works out!
I used this video as a reference when I first bought plasticity. It was very easy to understand and helpful. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful! We have a full car modeling series on here if you are looking for more curves/sheets tutorials. czcams.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXXglEZA2MGsn-U8z2pNCPny.html
More surfacing tutorials would be awesome. This was extremely easy to follow.
Sounds good, ill try to make the next one a surfacing tutorial
Plasticity is bar far the easiest and fastest 3D software I've used to date. It combines some of the ease of Blender with the precision of CAD (Rhino) and it seems to do things effortlessly! A tremendous program!
A big thankyou from the UK bro!!!
I only found out last week about Plasticity and been looking at tutorials, I find blender a bit overwhelming so never really gave it a go, but this right here is allot easier to grasp IMO and the way you break it down and explain it is amazing,...makes the icing on the cake...straight subbed!!!
💙💙✌🏾✌🏾
Great to hear! Plasticity is built to be familiar to Blender users, so if use Plasticity a lot you might find you pick up Blender a little easier as well! I did start a beginners intro to Blender because the tutorials i was finding weren't helping me either. If you want to check that out you can here. czcams.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXU0m-0xVwrbQFTiGR2wfyKZ.html
Thanks for the sub!
plasticity needs proper tutorials like yours.good~
thank you!
Very great! Plasticity now with Surfaces and Background Images, these things are new.
Yeah they showed up before the production version and I am very glad. Only can get better from here!
Fantastic tutorial! Thank you for making these :)
Glad it was helpful!
Great tutorial. Great voice, pace and explanation
Thank you kindly!
Awesome instructor, thank you for your time and efforts in teaching this cool software.
Glad you like it!
You are on fire - Great job. I think that I was tripping myself up trying to joining edges to curves. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next. I would definitely love to see more of the more advanced (sheets and curves) techniques - perhaps joining sheets at funky angles?! But whatever it is I’m sure I’ll be smashing the like button. Have a great day.
Thanks for the kind words!
This is great! As a newbie to CAD I’ve tried most other programs and plasticity just clicks with me,
it is very well designed and intuitive and will only get better. The surface stuff is fairly new still so I look for updates in the coming months to really elevate it.
Thank you - I think those type of comments about lofting for an corner gives a better looking edge than a fillet does is very important - I'd better look in depth at your other video's for surfacing advice. LEAD is a very informative place...
Question, A spline manipulated in side and top view - compared to derived spline from two pulled /extruded surfaces - are they equally valid/ have the same properties etc- also, is it better to learn spline manipulating in the long run to improve knowledge and understanding, thus leading to more complex surfaces? I think the answer must be yes.
Thank you! Some of it is a bit of user preference. I find it easier to visualize and teach curves in 2d and project them, but this is a longer process. I think you can just as easily draw them in 2D and pull them out to their correct position. For example on the side view draw a curve, then move the entire curve out to its approximate location and use G to just move individual points from the front and top views until you are happy. A curve network for this type of modeling is no quick or easy task. just takes time.
Great video on how to use curves for modeling. I just started learn Plasticity and I LOVE it so far. I'm currently redoing an engineering prototype that was made in Modo and migrating it towards a CAD based workflow, which will be much easier to design and visualize. I was having some challenges in regards to drawing the shell for my project (tracing on a 3D scan of a head that I have to convert into a workable solid using Rhino), but this video helped me a lot. Thanks again.
Sounds like a cool project! Currently in Plasticity you can't reference the mesh(directly), but you can insert it as a visual reference. If you take your 3d scan of the head and convert that to a "dumb solid" or even if its a quad mesh Fusion 360 could make it a solid through the forms workspace, you could directly manipulate it in Plasticity. Hopefully in the future there will be tools to directly snap to or reference the mesh.
While Fusion isn't the perfect tool I do have a series showing how to reverse engineer some prismatic and more complex parts from scans that were done recently. Not to sway you away from Plasticity but if you need to say pull curves off a mesh, you just can't do that in plasticity yet.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign that is totally understandable. Bit I'm glad it worked VERY well
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesignhave you had issues with trying to snap to the control points when lofting? I've had issues where the sheet would disappear
@@KRGraphicsCG hmm I haven't had a sheet disappear before! I am still trying to work out all the snapping options.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign i think it's because the points aren't touching
Thank you very much. Now the thing I would be superinterested in: How do you manipulate the sheets later in the process?
Thanks, and you can't really. I mean you can split them up, delete parts of them/trim them, and build new ones but there is no direct manipulation at this time.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thank you for your swift reply. I hope they will add this in the future. I love to design in 3d, but that also means adjustments ...
Nice tutorial. keep them coming.
More to come!
So much good info, and great workflow. Thanks.
Very welcome!
Thank you so much, incredible tutorial!
You're very welcome!
Very informative. This is a very good workflow for also creating weapon stocks/grips.
Thanks!
At 5:10 I renamed the images to "Top - 7" and "Side - 3". So numb key 7 takes you to top view and 3 takes you to side. doesnt need to, but easier to remember. dobbel tap the name of image to rename
Cool tip, thanks for sharing!
TAB key has changed ? @ 1:31, I'm using 1.1.0 and this now cycles through measurement input.
Yup it looks like it did change. Now there are dimensions on the rectangle. If you hit C it will change from corner to center rectangle. S to make it square. Thanks for pointing that out.
I‘m trying to make my own rc car from star to finish. And especially die body modelling and thickening is one issue i faced with blender. The polymodelling approach seems to be right there but fitting it with functional parts from fusion for example is an other aspect. Bu my question is, after modelling the complex surface of a car, how successful is the thickening in plasticity. Because in blender its really tedious. And the the surfaceing approach in fusion360 is not easier. And i am willing to pay the 99$ and learning the tool if its good.
I think the surface quality in Plasticity right now is good, but modeling something like that would be tricky. There are 2 main paths I would probably push you down.
1. Forms modeling in Fusion for the majority of the shape. I have helped a few people who use Fusion for RC car bodies with success. In order to thicken you just need to watch your shape/creases/curvature.
2. Model the shape in Blender as a quad mesh, import it into Fusion and convert it to a surface. This only works if its a quad mesh, but if you are able to model the thing you want in blender but run into issues at the Solidify stage, bringing it into Fusion might help. When working in Forms you can thicken there, or convert it to a NURBS surface and thicken the surface.
I think in the future Plasticity would be a great tool for this, but right now there are some work arounds with lofting surfaces that I hope v 1.20 will fix with driving tangency or the ability to mix/match edges and curves for profiles and guides.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thank you for the dedicated work. It‘s really great. I will try both approaches. Modelling something like a skyline r34 but seems a little frightening in fusion. But maybe by using your advice in combination with more than one part to form th hole model might easen up an lead to a successful solution.
Thanks
@@erdemkoc169 Thats a great one to model! Just give it a shot and ask questions!
Thanks for making this. I do a lot of vehicle modeling on f360 and was wondering if this could replace it. While it looks pretty intuitive, I don't think I can give up the detail provided with forms. Seems like a fantastic program for someone just getting started and wants more than tinkercad. Cant wait to see how it developes, lots of potential.
Thanks for the comment. I don't think this would replace freeform modeling in Fusion, or surfacing in fusion just yet even though i am very open about the surface issues with Fusion right now, there are some things that are still easier to do. Things like edge conditions when lofting from a surface. Also true constraints between endpoints if you are building a curve network. Being able to create and drive tangency on curves after creation isn't really possible with Plasticity at the moment.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign bummer. without continuity control, I just wouldn't be abler to use this for product design work. Looks great for games and animations though.
@@TomCAT_Character_Art I'm sure it will be in there at some point. right now you have things like tangent snaps and you can drive intersections, parallel lines etc. but its all during creation and not so much allowing you to tweak it after.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yeah. I'm actually looking for a program to replace catia, but can't find something with a parent/child operation tree that's as good. Fusion only has a history tree and it's not very useful at going back in history to find an operation. SW looks like it only has a history tree, and creo looks like it has a parent/child graph but the ME's that use it really struggle with surfacing. Do you know if any program that has a good parent/child chart that you can use to navigate to operations/parts/surfaces?
@@TomCAT_Character_Art Yeah parent/child can be extremely useful. Fusion does expose this and I did a video on it czcams.com/video/GAuLpGX75do/video.html but if I am honest Solidworks does this much better. Solidworks does have the "Feature Manager Design Tree" but also has some on screen arrows that point to where the sketches are shared or what features reference. The browser/timeline in Fusion takes some getting used to and coming from a traditional feature tree means looking at things in a different way.
thx..for you great turorials, showcases...
questions me...
...would a t spline implementation offer a new way of working with organic shaped surfaces ..
So we could see the surface fillet all the time....
Thanks. I don't think you will see a Tspline integration since Autodesk owns that technology. Not sure if there will be any SubD modeling that goes into Plasticity. At least not in the near future since there is still more to do with surfacing but who is to say. The creator, Nick, has done so much with it already that I wouldn't be shocked to see it in the future.
Thanks for the video! Were you able to figure out how to maintain the width of a fillet between surfaces? At the moment it seems like you can make a constant width fillet only if the angle between surfaces is constant all along as well.
There is a variable fillet option but no i don't think you can control it by width. You could split the surfaces up with 2 parallel lines and loft between them.
damn, I hotkey is new to me!! thank you for this video.
Welcome! I had a lot of requests so I do have a 5.5hr car modeling series in Plasticity here czcams.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXXglEZA2MGsn-U8z2pNCPny.html
Awesome!!!
Quick question, is there a way to repeat the last command with a single key/action or combination like in other programs like SolidWorks (e.g. pressing Enter)?
Thanks!!!
Yup. Shift + R is the default key binding for repeat last command.
WONDERINGGG - any way to creat a cordal or constant-width blend/fillet?
you can have a conic fillet or G2, and you can have a variable width, but you don't currently have a way to drive it based on a cordal width no.
hi, wonder why loft straight up doesn't work to connect the two sheets' edges at 17:28? Is this a version difference? I'm using 1.2.1 currently, thanks
yeah there have been a lot of updates in the 1.2 release from this one. I will be putting together a new video on 1.2 soon, but the last plasticity video i did with the beta version which was basically 1.2 i talk about the differences. czcams.com/video/1rQdlOgFFyk/video.html
Thanks for the tutorial! How can I cut/trim a surface by a curve or another surface?
There are a few ways you can do this. Q (Boolean) works, you can also use Cut and/or imprint, unjoint (alt+J) and delete what you don't want. Boolean is usually the first option to try.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thank you buddy! I will try it!
Thank you! 🎉
You’re welcome 😊
More please.
More to come
I come from catia... And to be honest, deleting curves on wich a surfaces depends is for me A: Counterintuitive and B: Bad Practice. Please create a folder throw all of the curves that you used in and "forget" about them, so if you need to change sth, you have them. But deleting them is shooting yourselve in your own foot.
I kind of agree. Yes its bad practice especially when in the mindset of the surface is based on the curve. And you can group them together and just keep them just in case. BUT you can re-extract them from surfaces.
can always shift-D to create new curves from the sheets or solid.
How should one save an image so it imports to size? Everything I import is 10 x scale.
Your drawing seemed like what you were expecting. Of course there seemed to be no regard for scale since you were just eyeballing it to fit.
That poses another issue. Let's say I have a shape 7.374 in wide and I want to make it exactly 9.5 in. Is it really necessary to do the math and then input 1.2883 three times?
what I would do is make a box in the units/size you want. So if you are working in inches start by changing your units, then draw a rectangle the size you want, extrude it the width. Then you can have your size reference. Then I would make sure the images you have are the same size. Either the true length across the bottom of the image is 9.5in or some scale of this that is easy for you to scale up.
Since this video was made, the version 1.2 that is out now shows some on screen dimensions that you can TAB to when drawing a rectangle which should help. But yeah there is no measure or strict dimension scheme, mostly eyeball past the initial creation. What I have done is to create reference lines at times and use those for visual reference as well. Lets say i know the length of an object is 1250mm, ill set my units to MM then draw a line that long so visually i have that reference and/or snap point if needed.
Can you make a tutorial focused on construction planes? im having a hard time with complex surfaces...
Thanks in advance!
is there somethin specific you are trying to model? Construction planes at the moment are based on view or based on a selected face. So there isn't a way to say make an offset plane. Starting with curves in 2d and moving them into 3d is probably the easiest way at the moment. or make a big cube like i did in this video.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yes sir, I'm trying to model a custom AR-15 handle, very curvy. I've tried with almost every approach possible but, I fail a lot 🤣
@@Fasimedes There are two videos (not by me) that might be helpful
czcams.com/video/lCQi5Q9sGfU/video.html
czcams.com/video/0cYRcq6pVYY/video.html
Might just help to see someones workflow
Hitting Tab just selects the measurements...was that a recent change?
Yeah sadly from 1.1 to 1.2 that changed. If you look in the bottom right when you are modeling and the tool is active i believe "C" now switches from a center to one sided extrude.
Can a curve point of a spline be changed to an angled point and vice verse?
Also: I've created a face with multiple curves and angles. When I try to move a corner, I can only select and move one of the two points and the face disappears and the points will not rejoin. They won't snap together and J does not join them. Please advise. Thank you.
A few things I will try to touch on here.
1. As far as I know you can't convert back and forth between splines and lines with sharp intersections. You can split a spline up using split segment, then if you move some of the surrounding split points it will be "sharp"
2. if you are moving the end of a curve with "G", you can use the Freestyle option "F" which lets you pick the point you want to move, then the point you want it to go. This is probably the easiest way to get them to snap back.
3. if you box select the intersection point rather than clicking on it, that should get you both of those corner points. Note that if there was some sort of tangency when they were created you will break that.
4. For Join you can join curves together, but not end points. The curves must intersect at their ends though, it isn't a fix if there is a gap, meaning it won't snap them together. Try #2 with the freestyle move.
Can you bring in reference geometry. We do a lot of modeling off of scan or photogrammetry data.
Yes, but currently there isn't a way to snap to it. I believe that is on the roadmap for future releases but right now you can import an OBJ file but i think they are still considered "Empty" so it would be a visual reference.
Trying to get to grips with this but I can't get past first base. In drawing a rectangle, as soon as I hit the TAB key, all that happens is that two boxes appear with measurements of the sides. The box remains obstinately in place. Any ideas, anyone?
yeah depending on which install you have, 1.10 is the most current and tab now jumps to dimensions. i think if you look in the bottom right corner when drawing the rectangle that C is center now instead of tab.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Bingo! That works, thank you so much. I was tearing my hair out as I knew there had to be a simple explanation!
How do you rotate around an object using a MacBook and no mouse?
Since I don't use a MacBook I am not entirely sure, but I would suggest looking through the user run Wiki. There is info on keybinding there and likely some info around that problem. nullpointerecho.notion.site/nullpointerecho/Plasticity-Wiki-364945653983489ba3e4ad2fc9d0527e
Hi, I'm trying to design a custom air rifle stock for fairly niche target shooting discipline. I'm using Fusion 360 currently and am struggling with curved surfaces. What software do you think is ideal for something with complex flowing curves like this? I love Fusion for modeling practical use items but I'm not yet sure if this software is ideal for this project. It's my first attempt at doing surface modeling and I probably picked a very difficult thing to model.
Should I persevere with Fusion or try something else?
Hi Patrick, at the current time I would probably stick with Fusion 360 and explore the forms tools. I have loads of playlists on my channel about freeform modeling. I think something like this can certainly be done with Plasticity, but if you are already using Fusion for other things it would make sense to stick there.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks for your reply, and thanks for your high quality tutorials. I've learnt a lot already from your channel, and it's become my main resource for learning 3D modeling.
@@Patrick-857 Thanks! I have been working on a Plasticity car modeling video/series but life has been too busy. That should be the next video I release.
Can you model a product with more complex curves like a Norelco electric shaver?
Yup. Are you asking if i can do it in a video, or just if its possible?
17:28 Try to repeat the same and have en error :( It works on;y with G0 and the surface is flat :( If I select G1 it writes me "T at terminator of curve"
did your fillet leave a gap at the front edge? or was the front edge still connected? If it is still connected that might be the issue.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign created two surfaces using loft, -> joined them J, added fillet distance between -> unjoined 3 surfaces Alt+J -> deleted fillet surface -> selected two edges of the two surfaces -> L loft -> get the error "Select guides to loft along"
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I recorded the process
czcams.com/video/dNoFEXR_Cn0/video.html
@@user-so8br5kg5n not sure. if you like you can send me the file support@caducator.com and ill try and take a look.
Literally lost me at square one.
When I click the center and drag away to show a rectangle then hit Tab, it doesn’t go into center mode.
I haven’t clicked the second point of the rectangle when I hit tab.
All it does when I hit tab, is toggle between the rectangles dimension text fields.
So far I’m not seeing any compelling reasons to switch to Plasticity from Shapr3D.
yeah so between this video in the most current release that TAB changed to C. TAB now toggles dimensions on the screen. When you do any operation in Plasticity you can see the hotkeys in the bottom right.
is tangency between surfaces/ curves supported in Plasticity ?
If you loft or patch a surface/sheet yes you get continuity options for G0, G1, and G2. The current thing missing is the ability to loft between the edge of a surface and a curve. Right now you can loft edge to edge with a curve as a guide, or you can loft curve to curve, but you can't loft edge to curve. I believe that is in the works though.
Do you know if it’s possible to convert an edge to a curve in plasticity? Many thanks in advance
If you have the edge of a solid or sheet/surface selected you can use Shift+D to duplicate it. there are 2 other commands you can use. ALT+1 which is subdivide curve. and there is also a rebuild curve that doesn't have a hotkey. Quick side note. if you draw a box and double click on the corner point you will get a curve.
Thank you!
Is there a way to convert edge to curve?
I you have an edge selected you can use Shift + D to duplicate it and you will get a curve. Same thing with a face. Note that if you pull the edge off something like a complex shape, you might also want to use Rebuild and then you will have a curve with control points.
Is there any tools for text and text extrudes?
I don't believe that is currently in the software but I do know it has been requested as a feature so likely in a future update you will see it.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks for the super fast response!!
Are you suggesting blender may be a better option then Fusion for complicated curvy things? I have been watching your fusion videos and am reluctant to learn another program.
well that really depends on your end goal. For me Fusion is good if your end goal is to make something. Blender is good if you just need to see it on the screen. What I mean by that is the surfaces from Fusion can be machined for example. Creating toolpaths for a mesh is not fun.
So if you were modeling a car only for renders, animations, game asset, that sort of thing, and you are more comfortable in Blender by all means do that. I have several videos showing how to go between the two programs. You can export the control frame from a fusion form to blender and you can export a quad mesh from blender and make a freeform from it. So there is a way to go both directions if needed but it isn't always perfect.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thank you for the quick response. I frequently tell people Fusion 360 is "Strict" because someone could make something where if it fails someone dies. I thought most of the CAM programs mesh what the CAD programs feed it? Tolerance in Fusion is essentially setting the size of the mesh. Though even if I made something in Blender I would want to/need to bring it back into Fusion because that is what I am using for toolpathing. Thank you for the information, your videos go MUCH deeper into content then most. There are things one learns in professional practice that you are showing us hobby users.
@@rpatrick2 yeah so one interesting note for example speaking of toolpaths. If you use Fusion Additive to slice your models for a 3d printer. Fusion has the ability to make G2/G3 arc movements because you are working with precise curves. When you send a file to a cura/prusa/creality slicer you are sending a mesh which means your arc is now a bunch of little straight lines. CAD programs use mesh/tesselation for rendering but generally when you are creating toolpaths you are doing this with curve/edge selection for 2.5x stuff or with 3x it is "model aware" looking at the geometry. You could do a 3d toolpath off a mesh but it gets messy because of all the interpolation. At the end of the day the output to a CNC machine is generally a bunch of little straight lines or if it can a true arc, or else you get data starvation pushing too many moves to a controller.
It is possible that I am off base with my understanding. I can't claim to know it all :)
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I'm pretty sure it's a model with tessellations for 3D also for most of the toolpaths. Robert Lockwood who is also on YT and goes deep into CAM talks a bit about this. Fusion (and some of the more advanced CAM programs can use some of the surfaces done directly) Flow and Blend and possibly some of the ones in the machining extension. 5 axis with the machine swooping around and trying to stay normal to the surface....sounds like my multivariable calculus class.
Though I'm old enough to remember when SGI was exceptional because it had vector math native to it's processors and now we all have tensor/vector processors in our procs on in the GPU. So numerically integrating those surfaces from points on a mesh is not too nasty. I'm grateful to be alive in a time where the average person is getting access to things that in my lifetime were the domain of industry, trade/tech education, or the only most epic of hobby users with 7 figure day jobs.
Cool stuff but way out of my league. You are right about data starvation, and overall it's respecting and learning to use the machines I have access too and not too much drooling over Titan's very nice industrial grade and will keep micron accuracy equipment.
@@rpatrick2 yes to the tessellations but to the best of my knowledge they happen during toolpath creation though as an interpretation of the surface, I don't think the model gets converted to mesh in CAM(other than the stock preview from toolpath simulation). Same way a 3d print slicer breaks it down into straight movements in XY. For Fusion you work with the NURBS geometry rather than exporting a mesh. You can control it through some of the tolerance settings to determine how long or short those straight sections are, or use G2/G3 arc movements if they are true arcs or for things like lead in/lead out movements. I used to make the content for Mastercam for a few years and do a lot of CAM content up to 5x stuff, I just don't cover it on this channel as I wasn't intending to get into CAM here. If you have CAM questions I am happy to try and answer them. I know lots of other channels cover that and I cover it in official Autodesk content on their site. That is a big focus for them and doing that so much there means I don't really want to do it here ;)
Rob Lockwood knows his stuff for sure but i haven't seen any of his YT content. Just know him through Autodesk.
How to combine two vertex?
if you have curves you can select one of them, hit G (to move) F (for freestyle), select your point again and then where you want it to go. Once the curves share an endpoint you can use J (to join) when both curves are selected.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign but how do I merge two points of a curve into one?
@@rothauspils123 Can you give me an example when you would do this? With curves you can rebuild them, but the points aren't on the curve itself, its a control frame. You can't merge control points of a spline together if that is what you are trying to do. You can select one and delete it, you can try to rebuild the curve with fewer points as well, but the internal points on a curve can't be merged as far as I am aware. The end points of 2 different curves can be snapped together using the G and F method. then you can use Join to merge the 2 curves into 1.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign For example when I fillet a corner but the new points are very close to some old ones, it would make sense to merge the points to get better topology.
@@rothauspils123 With nurbs modeling you don't really have to worry about topology in the same way with poly modeling. But after you add a fillet the points should only be at the start and end. there shouldn't be any extra points. If you draw 2 lines that intersect and you hit B it will add a fillet. If you rebuild the curve it should still just have those same points.
I guess the takeaway is that there isn't a way to merge verts like you would in say blender with M, but it isn't needed in plasticity. You can joint curves together, but the verts can be added/deleted but not merge to the best of my knowledge.
Compared with Maya, 3ds max etc Plasticity is really clunky when it comes to this method of modeling; especially with the image set ups and its complete lack of view ports. Apart from that it's a very good modeller, but the surface modeling interface needs a lot more development before it hits the mark surface modellers using splines expect.
I will say it is getting better. version 1.4 has seen some improvements. Surface modeling wasn't even in the beta version of the software :) I will also say that these are NURBS surfaces not mesh. To the best of my knowledge there is no STEP output from maya or 3ds max correct?
Hardware requirements?
That is a great question. I don't specifically know if there are any requirement. A lot of people are using it on old laptops and workstations without issue. I'm told it doesn't require a super powerful computer but no specific processor, ram or gcard specs.
Just so everyone knows, plasticity is no longer opensource or free to use
True, the link in the description of the vid will take you to the website. It is not a subscription model though so you pay once and own it.
After you have finished your mode, Is there anyway to get dimensions of the shape?
Have you guys seen how it exports as OBJ? LoL....oh dear, it s 20 years behind.
whats wrong with how it exports OBJs? It has options for Tris, Quads or Ngons, desnsity and all the usual settings.
Wow definitely not as easy as in a proper CAD sofware :0
i would tend to agree with you. Version 1.2 has some updates that help but it still is missing a curve constraint system that you would typically use in a CAD program.
Closing and editing curves is absolutly idiotic.
it is a bit better since this video was made. there is a blend curve tool that helps. I think once the software has some sort of constrain system to drive tangency that will go a long way. rather than just at the time of creation.