& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Transcript
00:04
Adding cutout details or holes using only the control cage
00:09
means that you've got to add a lot of geometry
00:12
which adds complexity to the subdivision.
00:16
The alternative is to keep the control
00:19
cage simple
00:20
and then create the detail on the limit surfaces using the NURBS trimming tools.
00:26
So I'll go back to my untrimmed subdivision
00:29
and I've created some curves here in this view.
00:33
And I'll start by using the Project tool to create some curves-on-surface.
00:38
And this defaults to the view direction which
00:40
would work as I am in this orthographic view
00:43
or if you prefer to work in perspective, then you can choose the axis.
00:48
So in this case, I'll project along the X direction.
00:52
But the most important option is this Subdiv Select
00:56
because when it's asking me to select the NURBS surfaces,
00:60
I can just click once on the subdivision
01:02
and all the limit surfaces get selected.
01:05
So I'll say Go
01:07
and then it says "Select the curves" and I've got three here.
01:10
So I can box select those and say Project
01:14
and that creates a curve-on-surface which is drawn on to the limit surfaces.
01:21
But also the projection has gone all the way through.
01:23
And I've got one here at the front
01:25
and a bit here too.
01:27
So I can use this Limit Projection option here to reduce that.
01:31
And I don't need to be too accurate. Just make sure that it only covers the area I need.
01:37
So these five limit surfaces have curves-on-surface
01:41
and so the boundaries are shown dotted for these.
01:45
But I've also got these two spare ones,
01:47
which is why the Trim tool also has this Subdiv Select option.
01:52
So again, I can click on the subdivision to activate all the surfaces
01:56
and then select here.
01:58
And I don't want to keep that I'll do a Discard instead
02:02
and that then hides those two spare surfaces and trims these five
02:07
and changes the outline color to yellow.
02:11
And it's got construction history, so if I change the filet radius, for example,
02:16
the trimmed region will update
02:19
and I'll get a more controllable and precise cutout
02:21
shape than I could with just the subdivision vertices,
02:25
and any changes that I make will always update the trim.
02:30
Now with this circle for the badge area, I'm not gonna want to project that in X or Z.
02:37
So in project I can choose the Normal vector option.
02:40
So if I pick the subdiv it's gonna go 90 degrees to the surface. So I'll do a Go
02:47
and pick the curve and do a Project.
02:50
So I'll just hide the curve layer. So you can see the curve-on-surface here.
02:55
And then I can just do the trim,
02:57
pick the subdiv and Discard.
03:02
So I've added detail without adding complexity to the subdivision cage.
03:09
You can also Intersect to create curves-on-surface.
03:13
So let's say I've done a quick exploration of this roof wing
03:17
and I've kept the face layout simple and I haven't yet
03:19
worked out how to combine the two subdivisions along this join.
03:23
So I can intersect the limit surfaces instead.
03:27
And again, it's got the Subdivision Select options.
03:29
So I can just pick one whole subdiv
03:32
and then Go
03:33
and then the other.
03:35
And if I take the shading off, you can see that the curve-on-surface has been created.
03:40
Now for trimming the curve-on-surface has got to go all
03:43
the way to the end and here this one's a bit short,
03:47
but there's an option on Trim called Extend
03:50
and I'll use Selected which displays an arrow here where there's an issue.
03:54
So if I click on that,
03:56
it will delete the construction history, but that's OK.
03:59
So I'm just going to select here and say Keep
04:03
and it will be the same for this one.
04:05
This end is OK.
04:07
But I can see an arrow here as it's a bit short. So I can click on that to extend
04:12
and then pick this region and Keep.
04:17
So that's done a quick tidy up which might be
04:19
useful for a design review or a screen grab.
04:23
Now there isn't an undo with trimming, but we have Untrim instead
04:28
and this Last option will undo step by step.
04:32
So if I click here, it does
04:33
that trim from the intersection
04:35
but not these ones.
04:37
And then if I click again, it'll untrim in sequence.
04:42
Or if I do an Untrim All, then everything is untrimmed here
04:46
and here.
04:48
And it's good practice to delete any curves-on-surface you don't need for trimming.
04:53
And there's a specific Pick tool here
04:56
and I use that a lot, so I've added it to my marking menu as well.
04:59
So I can just box select and delete the curves-on-surface.
05:04
And finally, if you use these tools a lot, it can be useful to add them to your shelf,
05:10
particularly the Project tools in the different directions
05:13
and the Trim and Untrim.
00:04
Adding cutout details or holes using only the control cage
00:09
means that you've got to add a lot of geometry
00:12
which adds complexity to the subdivision.
00:16
The alternative is to keep the control
00:19
cage simple
00:20
and then create the detail on the limit surfaces using the NURBS trimming tools.
00:26
So I'll go back to my untrimmed subdivision
00:29
and I've created some curves here in this view.
00:33
And I'll start by using the Project tool to create some curves-on-surface.
00:38
And this defaults to the view direction which
00:40
would work as I am in this orthographic view
00:43
or if you prefer to work in perspective, then you can choose the axis.
00:48
So in this case, I'll project along the X direction.
00:52
But the most important option is this Subdiv Select
00:56
because when it's asking me to select the NURBS surfaces,
00:60
I can just click once on the subdivision
01:02
and all the limit surfaces get selected.
01:05
So I'll say Go
01:07
and then it says "Select the curves" and I've got three here.
01:10
So I can box select those and say Project
01:14
and that creates a curve-on-surface which is drawn on to the limit surfaces.
01:21
But also the projection has gone all the way through.
01:23
And I've got one here at the front
01:25
and a bit here too.
01:27
So I can use this Limit Projection option here to reduce that.
01:31
And I don't need to be too accurate. Just make sure that it only covers the area I need.
01:37
So these five limit surfaces have curves-on-surface
01:41
and so the boundaries are shown dotted for these.
01:45
But I've also got these two spare ones,
01:47
which is why the Trim tool also has this Subdiv Select option.
01:52
So again, I can click on the subdivision to activate all the surfaces
01:56
and then select here.
01:58
And I don't want to keep that I'll do a Discard instead
02:02
and that then hides those two spare surfaces and trims these five
02:07
and changes the outline color to yellow.
02:11
And it's got construction history, so if I change the filet radius, for example,
02:16
the trimmed region will update
02:19
and I'll get a more controllable and precise cutout
02:21
shape than I could with just the subdivision vertices,
02:25
and any changes that I make will always update the trim.
02:30
Now with this circle for the badge area, I'm not gonna want to project that in X or Z.
02:37
So in project I can choose the Normal vector option.
02:40
So if I pick the subdiv it's gonna go 90 degrees to the surface. So I'll do a Go
02:47
and pick the curve and do a Project.
02:50
So I'll just hide the curve layer. So you can see the curve-on-surface here.
02:55
And then I can just do the trim,
02:57
pick the subdiv and Discard.
03:02
So I've added detail without adding complexity to the subdivision cage.
03:09
You can also Intersect to create curves-on-surface.
03:13
So let's say I've done a quick exploration of this roof wing
03:17
and I've kept the face layout simple and I haven't yet
03:19
worked out how to combine the two subdivisions along this join.
03:23
So I can intersect the limit surfaces instead.
03:27
And again, it's got the Subdivision Select options.
03:29
So I can just pick one whole subdiv
03:32
and then Go
03:33
and then the other.
03:35
And if I take the shading off, you can see that the curve-on-surface has been created.
03:40
Now for trimming the curve-on-surface has got to go all
03:43
the way to the end and here this one's a bit short,
03:47
but there's an option on Trim called Extend
03:50
and I'll use Selected which displays an arrow here where there's an issue.
03:54
So if I click on that,
03:56
it will delete the construction history, but that's OK.
03:59
So I'm just going to select here and say Keep
04:03
and it will be the same for this one.
04:05
This end is OK.
04:07
But I can see an arrow here as it's a bit short. So I can click on that to extend
04:12
and then pick this region and Keep.
04:17
So that's done a quick tidy up which might be
04:19
useful for a design review or a screen grab.
04:23
Now there isn't an undo with trimming, but we have Untrim instead
04:28
and this Last option will undo step by step.
04:32
So if I click here, it does
04:33
that trim from the intersection
04:35
but not these ones.
04:37
And then if I click again, it'll untrim in sequence.
04:42
Or if I do an Untrim All, then everything is untrimmed here
04:46
and here.
04:48
And it's good practice to delete any curves-on-surface you don't need for trimming.
04:53
And there's a specific Pick tool here
04:56
and I use that a lot, so I've added it to my marking menu as well.
04:59
So I can just box select and delete the curves-on-surface.
05:04
And finally, if you use these tools a lot, it can be useful to add them to your shelf,
05:10
particularly the Project tools in the different directions
05:13
and the Trim and Untrim.
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