Question to people using Rhino3D

[Sheekel]

Could someone who uses rhino3d give a quick run-down of how they prepare their models for exporting and uvmapping? TBH I have no idea whether to weld or smooth or do anything like that to my models. Also, what program would you recommend for uvmapping a model done in rhino?

i know someone must use rhino, flozi or gnome?

another option is to switch to wings for modeling, anyone know of a good wings3d tutorial for TA?

[FLOZi]

Don't worry about welding in Rhino.

I do all my welding and UV mapping in Ultimate Unwrap 3D.

if you're working in NURBS (which you really should if you are using Rhino), make sure to use the mesh reduce tool when needed.

edit: And I've never found the need to use any smoothing tool.

[Warlord Zsinj]

As a seasoned Rhino user: Flee while you still can.

I'm stuck using rhino because it's what I am most comfortable with. It does admittedly have one of the best interfaces of any modelling program I've seen, and integrates well with autocad (useful for my studies).

However, it is in all other regards an anus of a program that will screw up your models and make your life difficult at any given opportunity.

Try one of the better packages while you're still early in your modelling career!

[Sheekel]

problem is im also a seasoned rhino user but i only have used 3DO, which IMO it is great for. ive tried wings but personally i hate the 3D-only view, the rhino interface is fantastic.

ill give wings a try again, i found some tutorials

[rattle]

You can create more than one viewport in wings and set them to top, side or front with x, y, z (hold shift down for the opposite side).



Well I get along using only one viewport and the hotkeys. You should turn the "Force axis aligned Ortho" option on in the preferences if it isn't by default.

[Crampman]

If you want to make 3DO models, then exporting in .lwo is the best solution : it won't screw your model.

If you want to make S3O models, then I think exporting is .obj and then uvmap your model with an extern program will work.

In any cases, never use nurbs. Nurbs seems cool and neat, but you'll have to convert them in polygons before exporting, and it'll screw up the model.

The main problem I saw with Rhino is that it can't uvmap models.
(Don't use Rhino 3, it crashes every 5 mins...Use Rhino 4, it never craches)

[FLOZi]

Always use NURBS. Rhino is a NURBS modeller. If you wan't a poly modeller use a poly modeller.

Turning NURBS into a good mesh isn't hard if you know what you're doing. In general, though, don't use the NURBS primitives, other than boxes. Draw curves and extrude / cap planar holes / create surface from edge curves / loft between curves.

And by 'curves' I actually mean line segments. Though use curves for round things (not circles though, as you will just use a n-sided shape and extrude it) then create a line segment from the curve.

And yes, export to obj and UVmap externally. UU3d is a great program, and inexpensive. Alternatively you can find its predecessor lithunwrap for free.

And btw, I still use good old Rhino 2.0

[Warlord Zsinj]

How do you deal with the retarded mirroring?

[FLOZi]

How do you deal with the retarded mirroring?

I haven't had any problems with that since i started using NURBS surfaces instead of messing around with quads. And if a mesh is inverted it's easy to flip the normals back over in UU. Infact I think there is a tool for it in Rhino but I don't tend to use it.

[Warlord Zsinj]

There is a tool, yeah.

I still use it essentially as a mesh editor, occasionally using nurbs for things that are difficult to do from scratch in mesh, or rhino will screw up if you give it half a chance (ie: making a cylinder has to be done by extruding an x-sided polygon).

I really ought to learn a new program, but I'm just so stuck in my ways with rhino...

[Argh]

I love Rhino, because I use boolean operations all the time. It's a lot more time-consuming to do the same stuff in Wings. Only major problem I have with Rhino 3, which I've heard is fixed up in 4, is that occasionally the mesher screws up when meshing NURBS surfaces that are too complicated for it to figure out, and I've had a few things where I needed to remove a bunch of verts by hand. It's avoidable, though, and only tends to happen if I don't think the modeling process through ahead of time very well.