Learning and working with the surface menu tool bar

Created by Gordon Patterson

Instructor Hudson’s Bay High School                 

July 1, 2008

Rhino Skills: Placing a picture as a background in Rhino, tracing with a curve, split, hide or change layer and turn off. Split a 3d shape with a 3d shape. Rendering with materials and changing the environment.

1. Start a new file, go with default setting. Save as shields.

If you want to choose a different setting, type units and hit enter, the dialog box will open. The Default setting for Model units is Millimeters. This can be changed to other metric units or SI units like inches, feet etc.

If you change to inches it is recommended that you also change Absolute tolerance to .001.

2. Start by looking at some pictures of shields.  Below is an image that I created of a shield that you can use.  Save the image as a bitmap or jpeg to your picture files.

3.  For this tutorial we will make a shield using 3 curves. Start with a rectangle 20 in by 24 in.

Turn on Snap and Osnap, have your end and mid toggles on.

4. Make a line from the midpoint of the bottom of the rectangle, using ortho (shift key) draw the line straight down one foot.

5. Right click on the Arc command go out to Start, End, Direction and make an arc from the end of the vertical one foot line to the left corner of your rectangle.

Note: There has been a change of layers here to help you see the step.

6.  Use Mirror to get the arc symmetrically placed on the opposite side of the vertical line.

7.  Use Explode to explode the rectangle, then delete the top, bottom and middle vertical lines.

Note: the curves have been moved up and off of the X and Y axis here so you can see better.

8.  Final curve for the shield is the top arc. Turn on Planar, use the Arc command go out to Start, End, Direction and make an arc from the left top end of the left vertical line to the right top end of the right vertical line. Here the endpoints used were in the front view port but the actual arc was made in the top view port. So the mouse moves from the front view port into the top view port.

9. Join the left vertical side with the left arc and join the right vertical side with the right arc to create two separate curves.

Note: The curves here are on different layers just to demonstrate that they are joined separately.

10. Copy this set of curves 4 times horizontally.

11.  Working in the Perspective viewport turn on shaded. Right click on Perspective drag the mouse down to shaded and click.

This is an introduction to the surfacing command tool bar.

Before starting Note: The direction and order of curves selected makes a difference as to how Rhino will apply the surface. Also note that each surfacing tool has its own pattern in wireframe mode. In addition some of the surfaces created will not allow the user to turn on control points.

12.  Surface from 2, 3 or 4 edge curves. First the wrong way, select the left side, top then right side. You should see a surface with a crease or dent in it.

13.  Surface from 2, 3 or 4 edge curves. The correct way, select the top first, then go clock wise or counter clock wise. You should see a smooth surface.

Change Layers before starting the next surface.

14.  Sweep two rails, select the two vertical lines then the top. When sweeping two rails, always ask, are there two, some what parallel lines, like train tracks and a line that crosses them. The curves of the shield meet the basic conditions to use this surface command.

15.  Patch, is usually an easy surface command to get to work but it does not always give the best results. You can select curves in any order and it should work.

16.  Surface from Network of Curves. First the wrong way, select the left side, top then right side. You should see a surface with a crease or dent in it.

17.  Surface from Network of  Curves. The correct way, select the sides first, then the top. In this example it is selected the same way as sweep 2 rails. You should see a smooth surface. This is a very powerful and popular surfacing tool.

18. Loft: To create the lofted shield first we must add one additional line vertically down the center.

Before starting hide the other shields.

19.  Start the Curve at the Midpoint of the top arc, hold shift click once about 1 foot up from the bottom of the shield. Make your last click at the bottom endpoint and enter to end curve.

20.  Loft: The wrong way to loft ends up in what is called a bow tie. Looks like something off of Star Trek but will not make a good shield.

21.  The easiest way to use the Loft command is with a crossing window.  When using loft only select parallel lines.

Note once again that only the 3 vertical lines have been selected.

22.  Unhide (show) all the shield and select the one you like best.  Again notice the different patterns in wireframes.

Not all surfaces are equal for instance you can only turn on the surface points of the last three. Notice the way that the surface points look on the last two compared to the patched surface.

23. Select a shield surface you like and design a coat of arms to place on it.

24. For an example of a coat of arms for this Tutorial I have used a popular British design.

After tracing the design Extrude it both ways and drag it over the shield that you want the design on.

Use the split command and place materials on your shield.