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Artwork => Finished Works and Works in Progress => Topic started by: ChristopherT on October 27, 2009, 04:11:56 pm

Title: Tank and hatches?
Post by: ChristopherT on October 27, 2009, 04:11:56 pm

I have a cylinder mesh that's roughly 300 meters long and 100 wide, it's a closed single wall.  The ends are covered in a lathed mesh.  What I'd like to do is make a double walled tank by copying the mesh, reducing it by 95% and importing it into the larger tank.  The tricky part to me is making three 10 meter wide cylinders for hatches and connecting them to the tanks so they stay hollow.  ;D   I'm working on some pods for a Star Trek Ptolemy class tug.  ;)

  Thanks!

         ChristopherT

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: Jehovahenker on October 27, 2009, 05:45:18 pm

Can I haz screenies ::)

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: ChristopherT on October 27, 2009, 06:06:59 pm

There's a screenshot here of the first batch...
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1034   ;D

    ChristopherT

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: Dreadkb on October 28, 2009, 08:30:29 pm

Did you try the shell tool in Anim8or yet? Might save you a bit of time.

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: Pincho on October 28, 2009, 09:52:38 pm

I know how to do it from scratch, but I don't know if I can explain it properly. I'll try...

First make your hole. Cylinder, expand, bodge out holes, fill edges.

Now you need to just make 1 section, and then link them together.

So you have a hole, now you need to turn it into a sort of watch.

Expand the strap in bendable sections, which will be the body of the tanker.

Now make a bend modifier.

Bend it all 360%

Select top faces, and flatten in the Y.

Link sections, make ends.

Or, if you really want to fix your model. Just make a cutting tool template. Just put the end of a cylinder beneath where you want the hole, and the cutting tool will lock to it.

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: ChristopherT on October 29, 2009, 04:14:13 pm

Thanks, Pincho!  What can you tell me about fixing normals using Anim8or?  I'm working on some TMP era ships and one of the models suffers from a blue (bad normals) warp nacelle.  The problem is when I select the nacelle using the drag select tool and use the "flip normals" command, the selected faces don't all switch from blue to yellow.  (is it possible that more areas need to be ungrouped?)

  Fixing normals is one of my last personal frontiers!!  ;D

        Thanks in advance!
        ChristopherT

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: ChristopherT on October 29, 2009, 04:17:10 pm

No Dreadkb, I didn't! That's the one I was probably thinking of initially.  I'll give it a try though.  ;D

   ChristopherT

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: lynn22 on October 29, 2009, 06:27:41 pm

Quote from: ChristopherT on October 29, 2009, 04:14:13 pm

.........one of the models suffers from a blue (bad normals) warp nacelle.  The problem is when I select the nacelle using the drag select tool and use the "flip normals" command, the selected faces don't all switch from blue to yellow...........

Have you tried to run Kubajzz's mesh clean up script which checks for malformed faces ?

It's here : http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=1105.msg7973;topicseen#msg7973

Title: Re: Tank and hatches?
Post by: ChristopherT on October 29, 2009, 07:26:47 pm

Quote from: lynn22 on October 29, 2009, 06:27:41 pm

Quote from: ChristopherT on October 29, 2009, 04:14:13 pm

.........one of the models suffers from a blue (bad normals) warp nacelle.  The problem is when I select the nacelle using the drag select tool and use the "flip normals" command, the selected faces don't all switch from blue to yellow...........

Have you tried to run Kubajzz's mesh clean up script which checks for malformed faces ?

It's here : http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=1105.msg7973;topicseen#msg7973

No, I've never run scripts before.  I've downloaded all the scripts and I'll give them a try!

        Thanks!

      ChristopherT