Boolean problems in C4D 10.5

[Brian Jones]

maybe increase the subdivisions of the Lathe particularly the horizontal one *but* the real fix is to reduce the angle in the phong tags (particularly on the Lathes) – it’s really a shadow problem, I think. None of this is going to make the shadows where the two pipes join perfect as it should really be one object.

[Brett Thayer]

Your right its a shading problem as much as anything.

Is there a method for converting NURBS to polys and then doing a boolean?

I dont need to animate this. Its a static object except for camera angles.

[Brian Jones]

you can just make the Lathes editable (C key) and use copies of the objects to cut holes from the other. If you set the subdivisions of the lathes to be the same amount the points will align and make things cleaner later.
For the best results you really want to cut the inner wall with the inner and the outer wall with the outer if you know what I mean as they will connect properly that way.

Kind of like this excepting I could have cleaned it better.

[Brett Thayer]

Umm that all sounds great..and looks great too but You lost me right after you said “use copies of the objects to cut holes from the others.”

Being new at this I’m more than a little slow.

It sounds like you seperated the inner and outter walls into different objects and cut holes through each then joined the 2 outer walls to form a single object..then the two inner walls. I understand the final result but not the process.

If you have time please give me a bit more step by step please.

Thanks
Brett

[Brett Thayer]

I thought about your suggestion overnight and think I’m on the track you suggested…

I remodeled the T pipe creating inner walls, outter walls and end caps seperately.
This was done for both the vertical section and horizontal section.
All of the lathe subdivisions were set to 48 so that they have an equal number of working sections. Should I go higher? Say 96?

Now I copy the section parts I need to remove and create new booleans to remove the unneeded sections?

I still think I’m missing something.

Please look at the new file if you can:

http://www.pixelspowerandlight.com/newpipe.c4d.zip

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Brett

[Brian Jones]

[Brett Thayer] “Should I go higher? Say 96? “

The higher you go the smoother but more work to connect the bits later. I would try going lower and let subD surfaces (HyperNurbs) smooth it later – assuming that gives enough control. HyperNurbs are very flexible though and there is more than one way to get smooth bits and sharp bits in the same object. In the example I sent the edges are relatively sharp as I bevelled them to increase the geometry and sharpen the nurb – you have to have a basic understanding of how hypernurbs works to know what to expect.

[Brett Thayer] “Now I copy the section parts I need to remove and create new booleans to remove the unneeded sections? “

yeah, if you want things to fit together and you need holes to connect to there is nothing better to cut the hole than with the object to connect with. The geometry matches perfectly and connecting later will be easier.

Booles make extra triangles (they have to) wherever possible clean that up before connection, some tri polys can be turned back into quads, some places points can be Welded.

Part of the problem with the first example was that the rims of the pipes touch if that has to be ah well, but if not it’s a lot cleaner to just join pipes.

I’ll take a look at the next one in a bit

[Brett Thayer]

I tried one other approach that seems to be really clean although I may run into some other pitfall later on I’m not sure.

Take a look at this file:

http://www.pixelspowerandlight.com/neuTpipe2.c4d.zip

Now All I’d need to do is model the end pieces but at least the intersection is done and clean.

See any problems with this approach?

[Brian Jones]

Nice! There’s always more than one way, that looks like a good intersection. What material are the pipes made of?

[Brett Thayer]

Its just standard black PVc but for the demonstration / animation I will making them transparent.

Any suggestions on that as there are inner and outer surfaces?

[Brian Jones]

What kind of transparency? All transparent-ish or see through the front wall but not the back?

With transparency the joins need to be perfect or you see them. Check out this way to build, I can post the method later but it’s related to this Arches tute I did after seeing Mark Simpson’s Arches tute here on the Cow – which is why they look similar but it gave me an idea and the method is different and not bad for doing pipe joins it turns out.