& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Transcript
00:02
As you create topology, you'll often get uneven layouts or zigzag shapes.
00:08
So I'm gonna use simple NURBS geometry,
00:11
so this for example, is just a flat plane
00:14
to help line up these vertices.
00:19
So I use the SubD Align To Surface tool
00:22
and it says "Pick at least three CVs". So I'll just drag-select this whole row.
00:28
And I am only going to use this middle button which is Align To Surface.
00:32
And then my only decision is which way the vertices will move.
00:35
So Closest would be fine,
00:37
but in this case, I could choose Z as well.
00:41
It then says "Pick the target surface".
00:44
So I'll select that plane and then all the CVs get lined up to it.
00:49
So then if I take off the shading,
00:51
you can see that the subdivision is now green, which means construction history.
00:56
So that means that if I move the plane, the CVs will follow
00:60
or if I rotate it
01:02
and they'll always stay aligned.
01:05
But even more useful is that I can turn off the target geometry layer.
01:09
But still when I move a vertex, it's going to snap back into alignment.
01:14
So I can nudge it along, but it's always gonna stay on that plane
01:18
and that gives a really clean lower edge to that rear bumper.
01:25
Another example where I can use this is on this front wheel arch
01:29
and that's gone out of shape as I've been developing the topology.
01:34
So I've got another NURBS surface here
01:36
and this one's not completely flat, it's got a bit of curvature at the bottom.
01:41
Now, I don't really want to have to pick these vertices one by one.
01:45
So I like to use the Pick Hull tool
01:48
and I've added it here on my marking menu.
01:52
So sometimes it's easier to pick the CVs first
01:56
and then choose the Align To Surface tool.
01:59
And this time I'm gonna want the Y direction instead
02:03
and I'm gonna hit the Align To Surface button
02:06
and pick that
02:08
and the vertices just snap to the surface.
02:12
And with construction history,
02:14
they stay stuck to that surface as I make adjustments.
02:20
So some other examples,
02:23
you could use part of a cylinder to tidy up a wheel arch opening
02:28
or at the front here, I can use a NURBS surface to get a smooth centerline shape
02:32
and a coherent profile along this front edge.
02:39
But I can also just use a NURBS curve.
02:43
So for the top of this front fender, I'm going to create a curve
02:48
and a single span degree 1 will always be a straight line.
02:51
So I could increase that to degree 2.
02:55
And then I've got a middle CV that I can use to give it some shape in the side view
03:01
and then move it out a bit in the top view.
03:05
And the nice thing about degree 2 is that the curve is always planar
03:09
without any waviness.
03:12
And it's this simplicity that we want to make use of.
03:17
So I'll use Pick
03:18
Hull again to select that row of CVs along the top.
03:21
And this time, I'm going to use the Align To Curve tool.
03:25
And again, I'm just going to use this middle button Align To Curve
03:29
and it says to pick the target curve so I'll select that
03:33
and you can see that all the CVs get aligned.
03:37
Now, if I zoom in a bit,
03:38
you can see that the limit surfaces won't match the curve
03:41
exactly because it's the control cage vertices that get aligned.
03:47
And while this is still live, I'm going to have a look from the top
03:50
and show you the Uniform option here.
03:54
And this spaces out the CVs evenly along the curve,
03:58
but I will generally use Closest to maintain the layout that I had to start with.
04:05
And now I can control that whole shape with just this one CV
04:09
and the four interior vertices on the subdivision
04:11
follow that
04:12
and stay in a nice controlled relationship to each other.
04:18
And then finally, I can automatically generate the curve.
04:23
So here I've got quite a good layout, but there are a few wobbles
04:28
so I can take advantage of the work that I've
04:30
done so far by using the Generate Curve button.
04:34
But before I use it, I need to select the degree of the curve that I want to create.
04:39
So it would be degree 1 for a straight line
04:42
or degree 2 for a clean planar curve.
04:46
And degree 3 is probably what I'm going to need
04:48
here to capture this curved shape at the rear.
04:52
So once I've chosen the degree I can say generate the curve
04:56
and that does two things, it creates this curve
04:59
and it aligns the CVs.
05:02
And if I shade that up, you can see that again,
05:04
I have a history relationship where the curve shape is controlling all of those CVs.
05:13
So if I was to delete the construction history on that whole subdivision,
05:17
I would lose all of those history alignments.
05:20
But if I just want to remove one,
05:22
then I could use either the History View or the History Visualizer.
05:28
And here you can find the rear plane
05:31
and the wheel arch surface
05:33
and the fender curve and the side curve.
05:37
So if I wanted to delete the history, just for that one,
05:40
I can pick the associated Align function
05:43
and just do a delete
05:45
and then it's no longer affecting the subdivision.
05:50
Or if you want to keep it simple, you can just pick the target geometry and delete it
05:55
and that will only affect that one alignment
05:58
and leave the others still connected.
Video transcript
00:02
As you create topology, you'll often get uneven layouts or zigzag shapes.
00:08
So I'm gonna use simple NURBS geometry,
00:11
so this for example, is just a flat plane
00:14
to help line up these vertices.
00:19
So I use the SubD Align To Surface tool
00:22
and it says "Pick at least three CVs". So I'll just drag-select this whole row.
00:28
And I am only going to use this middle button which is Align To Surface.
00:32
And then my only decision is which way the vertices will move.
00:35
So Closest would be fine,
00:37
but in this case, I could choose Z as well.
00:41
It then says "Pick the target surface".
00:44
So I'll select that plane and then all the CVs get lined up to it.
00:49
So then if I take off the shading,
00:51
you can see that the subdivision is now green, which means construction history.
00:56
So that means that if I move the plane, the CVs will follow
00:60
or if I rotate it
01:02
and they'll always stay aligned.
01:05
But even more useful is that I can turn off the target geometry layer.
01:09
But still when I move a vertex, it's going to snap back into alignment.
01:14
So I can nudge it along, but it's always gonna stay on that plane
01:18
and that gives a really clean lower edge to that rear bumper.
01:25
Another example where I can use this is on this front wheel arch
01:29
and that's gone out of shape as I've been developing the topology.
01:34
So I've got another NURBS surface here
01:36
and this one's not completely flat, it's got a bit of curvature at the bottom.
01:41
Now, I don't really want to have to pick these vertices one by one.
01:45
So I like to use the Pick Hull tool
01:48
and I've added it here on my marking menu.
01:52
So sometimes it's easier to pick the CVs first
01:56
and then choose the Align To Surface tool.
01:59
And this time I'm gonna want the Y direction instead
02:03
and I'm gonna hit the Align To Surface button
02:06
and pick that
02:08
and the vertices just snap to the surface.
02:12
And with construction history,
02:14
they stay stuck to that surface as I make adjustments.
02:20
So some other examples,
02:23
you could use part of a cylinder to tidy up a wheel arch opening
02:28
or at the front here, I can use a NURBS surface to get a smooth centerline shape
02:32
and a coherent profile along this front edge.
02:39
But I can also just use a NURBS curve.
02:43
So for the top of this front fender, I'm going to create a curve
02:48
and a single span degree 1 will always be a straight line.
02:51
So I could increase that to degree 2.
02:55
And then I've got a middle CV that I can use to give it some shape in the side view
03:01
and then move it out a bit in the top view.
03:05
And the nice thing about degree 2 is that the curve is always planar
03:09
without any waviness.
03:12
And it's this simplicity that we want to make use of.
03:17
So I'll use Pick
03:18
Hull again to select that row of CVs along the top.
03:21
And this time, I'm going to use the Align To Curve tool.
03:25
And again, I'm just going to use this middle button Align To Curve
03:29
and it says to pick the target curve so I'll select that
03:33
and you can see that all the CVs get aligned.
03:37
Now, if I zoom in a bit,
03:38
you can see that the limit surfaces won't match the curve
03:41
exactly because it's the control cage vertices that get aligned.
03:47
And while this is still live, I'm going to have a look from the top
03:50
and show you the Uniform option here.
03:54
And this spaces out the CVs evenly along the curve,
03:58
but I will generally use Closest to maintain the layout that I had to start with.
04:05
And now I can control that whole shape with just this one CV
04:09
and the four interior vertices on the subdivision
04:11
follow that
04:12
and stay in a nice controlled relationship to each other.
04:18
And then finally, I can automatically generate the curve.
04:23
So here I've got quite a good layout, but there are a few wobbles
04:28
so I can take advantage of the work that I've
04:30
done so far by using the Generate Curve button.
04:34
But before I use it, I need to select the degree of the curve that I want to create.
04:39
So it would be degree 1 for a straight line
04:42
or degree 2 for a clean planar curve.
04:46
And degree 3 is probably what I'm going to need
04:48
here to capture this curved shape at the rear.
04:52
So once I've chosen the degree I can say generate the curve
04:56
and that does two things, it creates this curve
04:59
and it aligns the CVs.
05:02
And if I shade that up, you can see that again,
05:04
I have a history relationship where the curve shape is controlling all of those CVs.
05:13
So if I was to delete the construction history on that whole subdivision,
05:17
I would lose all of those history alignments.
05:20
But if I just want to remove one,
05:22
then I could use either the History View or the History Visualizer.
05:28
And here you can find the rear plane
05:31
and the wheel arch surface
05:33
and the fender curve and the side curve.
05:37
So if I wanted to delete the history, just for that one,
05:40
I can pick the associated Align function
05:43
and just do a delete
05:45
and then it's no longer affecting the subdivision.
05:50
Or if you want to keep it simple, you can just pick the target geometry and delete it
05:55
and that will only affect that one alignment
05:58
and leave the others still connected.
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