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+--- Thread: mini-tutorial: gothic/equilateral Arches made easy (/showthread.php?tid=513)
mini-tutorial: gothic/equilateral Arches made easy - VladD - 12-14-2013
Hi,
Ok, I found a way to make perfect gothic arches in wings3D, with a minimum of operations. Or at least "Perfect" as in standard, "equilateral arch", with its spring arcs fitting an equilateral triangle.
There are more than one way to do it, sure, but I wanted as precise yet fast a way to do it as possible, and combinine wings Absolute Scale + Circularize(M) did the trick.
Anyway, for anyone interested, I made a 1min 30sec video showing the process.
https://vimeo.com/81871469
The key points are simple enough I think, but the video being unedited, without any nice arrows or highlights overlayed, I suggest reading the following (and using pause)...
1 prepare your arcs so as they fit inside an equilateral triangle, obtained in one operation using the Absolute command Scale (right click), with a simple math trick (just reproduce, don't think over it
) in its input box : adjust the height of the triangle to equal its horizontal lenght multiplied by 0.866.2 Divide the side of the triangles in as many segments as you'd like, the more the better looking curve obviously, and the more obvious this method will cut your modeling time over the usual manual connect and push/pull elements. I used 7 in the video.
3 In face mode, enjoy the magic of Tessalete->triangulation to, again, spare your some boring manual reconnections of points.
4 convert the face selection into edges, remove unecessary edges from selection and while you're at it, save this selection... with a hotkey this is pretty fluid.
5 MIDDLE click on the Circularize command. Wings waits for you to specify the plane first, then the center of the affected arc. You can pick almost anywhere you see fit for the former, as long as it's perpendicular to the triangle normal, but the later must be picked at the base of the OTHER arc than the one you're curving. As in the video. Use a 100% arc with the circularize command. If you move the mouse and deviate unintentionally, just hit "TAB" before terminating the command to easily correct this.
Recall your saved edge selection, repeat the process.
I didn't used a virtual mirror method just so I could show this little workflow twice in the video, but you could. If you do, just pick the center points between the bottom base of your arcs and use a 50% circularize instead of a 100, obviously.
That's it.
If you want to make lancet arches, just pick your center outside the arcs, or simpler yet use the RIGHT click circularize command and eyeball it if you're modeling with an image plane reference.
RE: mini-tutorial: gothic/equilateral Arches made easy - Justanother1 - 12-15-2013
Good Work! These type of Simple Tutorials is how I got started. Wings 3d is kinda scary at first to anyone who's not a College Math whiz, but once you get the hang of it ...... Thanks!
RE: mini-tutorial: gothic/equilateral Arches made easy - puzzledpaul - 12-16-2013
Well, there are lots of ways of getting an equilateral triangle without resorting to 'College maths'
A couple that immediately spring to mind is making a 3 sided cylinder and
Doing a shell Extrude off the base of a tetrahedron / 3 section pryamid (assuming want result on xz plane)
pp
RE: mini-tutorial: gothic/equilateral Arches made easy - VladD - 12-16-2013
Thanks guys.
@pp: true, I did use the 3 cylinder as a starting point in my first tests, but these kind of arches are most often modeled into already existing meshes, where it would be less convenient to fit in another model - hence the workflow I opted for, and shown. Unless, perhaps, one is making a medieval game model, since those often have windows as extra meshes just slapped on building walls.