Rhinoceros Modelling Tutorial ‐ Furniture ‐ Onur Ozkaya ‐2009
This tutorial illustrates how to create a 3d model from a 2d profile drawing by using Curves, Surfaces and Solids modification tools. 1 – Open a new Rhino file with mm units and maximize “the right view” by clicking Right mouse button , in order to work on a 2d plane.
2- Draw a polyline by selecting Under Curve/Polyline/Polyline menu.
3 – After clicking a starting point anywhere you want, in the 2d space, specify the next point of the polyline by typing a dimension. In this example we will use “50” each time, in order to create a Silhouette of a chair. ( in order to draw orthogonal lines, you need to activate “ortho” button, on the bottom menu of the drawing window.
4 – Repeat the same action for 4 times with different directions in order to achieve the reversed S shape in the illustration on the left.
5 – After having finished the Profile shape, the hard edges will be filleted with fillet edge command with a specific radius dimension again.
6 - As its seen on the left image, chose the fillet edge command under the Curve menu .
7 – After having choosing fillet edge command, there will be some settings on the command line as its seen on the left image. Specify the radius value from that settings by clicking on in and make sure that Join option should be activated as well.
8 – having setting up these options, by selecting the first and second lines, the filleted edge should be created as its seen on the left image. Repeat the same action for the rest of the edges in order to achieve a smooth profile now.
9 – Having finished all the edges, the desired profile should look like the image on the left now.
10 - By using right mouse button click on the right view screen, activate to perspective view in order to see the profile in 3 dimension.
11 – In Perspective view, the profile can be seen from any desired angle again by holding right mouse button and moving the mouse.
12 - Select the profile and chose extrude curve/straight option under Surface menu in the rhino screen.
13 – In Perspective view, the profile can be seen from any desired angle again by holding right mouse button and moving the mouse. 14 - Select the profile and chose extrude curve/straight option under Surface menu in the rhino screen.
15 – Type 50 again, in the command line and press “enter”. This would extrude the profile curve as a surface with 50 mm dimensions. You should have a similar surface like the one illustrated on the left image.
16 – Select the surface you just created now and go to Surface menu again from the top Rhino Windows. Chose “Offset Surface” command from there now.
17 – After having selected offset command, you should be having the settings from your command menu again. Specify the offset distance as “2” and activate the “solidify” as well. After this, you can hit enter key and this would give you a solidified version of your previous surface.
18 – Having created a solid object now, you might need to filled the sharp edges of the furniture.
19 – Go to Solid menu from the rhino window again and chose fillet edge option from there.
20 – After having selected fillet edges option, select all the outer edges of the Solid furniture one by one. After having finished selecting these edges, press enter again and this would smooth all the sharp edges of your solid object now, as you can see from the image on the left.
21 – By zooming in and out you can observe the detailing you created by using filleting option.
22 – Go to view (Perspective) text on the left upper corner of your model window and click right mouse button to activate Front view of the object.
23 – You should have a similar 2d view from your object now like the illustrated image on the left. 24 – Go to Curve menu from Rhino window and select Circle / Centre, Radius option this time. Draw a circle profile close to the left upper corner of the 3d object. (make sure that you are not snapping any of the edges or corners of the 3d object)
25 – After creating Circle profile( you can decide the radius, 2 mm can be preferable), go to solid menu and chose extrude planar curve / Straight Option this time, in order to solidify the new circular Profile.
26 – After having selected extrusion option, make sure that you activate the “both directions” option from the settings on the command line, this would allow you to extrude on both axis directions.
27 – After having created a this new solid, copy it on the same axis on several times in order to cover the whole back face of the furniture model.
28 – repeat the same copying action now this time, on the other axis to create more element on y axis.(you can adjust the views from Perspective to front, this would allow you copy on y axis much more easily)
29- Once you finished copying the new solid elements, go to solid menu now and chose “Difference” option. This tool will allow you to make holes on the back side of your furniture by subtracting the new copied tubular solids.
30- After you selected difference option, first select the furniture object and hit enter button. Afterwards, as second set of surfaces chose the tubular new solids and hit enter again.
31 – After this Boolean operation, you should have a similar 3d object now as illustrated on the left image. IF you have not, Undo this operation try with different order or be careful when you are selecting your set of surfaces, make sure that everything has been selected in order.
32 – Now go to Solid men u again and select fillet edge option, this time you will select all the outer sharp edges of the new holes have been created, in order to make them much more smooth.
33 – After selecting all the outer edges of the circular holes, hit enter. (this might take a bit time, and make sure that your filleting radius is a decent value as well, which can be 0.5 or 1 mm in this situation.)
34 – After this operation, you should have a similar model like the illustrated image on the left, all the outer edges much more smooth with a decent radius.
35 – You can render this 3d object now from Render menu, on the upper rhino window by changing the rendering settings as well, which offering pretty simple and robust options.
36 – Alternatively, you can modify this object now by copying it several times. Go to Transform Menu and chose copy this time,
37 –Try to copy the same 3d object now on the same axis, several times ( make sure that they are all copied from one side to other so that, they are adjusted to each other side to side) 38 – After having finished copying operation, this time go to Transform menu again and choose “bend” option from there by selecting all the new objects now.
39 – After enabling this command, specify some reference points to bend your objects, in order to define a desired shape.(this can be repeated again on different views, like front or tops in order to operate the bending axis much more easily.)
40 – Having finished the bending operation, you should be having a similar shape like the one illustrated on the left. 41 – Alternatively, you can now go to view menu and from there view options, create a better perspective angles by changing the perspective angles and options from orthogonal to perspective in order to get a better visual images from the model. 42 – IN order to 3dprint this model now, select all objects in the window and export the file as *.stl format. By choosing this, a dialog box will pop up and asks you about the meshing properties of the model, keep the meshing level always in the middle so that you will not lose any geometric data, once its being converted to *.stl format.
(for 3d printing, the minimum thickness of the solids should be at least 2 mm, in this case this model has been modelled with proper dimensions as well in order to be printed easily)
Voila!!
Onur Ozkaya AUCB 2009
