Spline Loft Sculpture

Here's where I am now. I'm at the one lone spline that has no apparent matching spline.
I need to know what to do with this one spline, but I will continue on with the rest.

Orphan fin spline.jpg
 
Unwrapping the fins poses some different problems.

There are no edges in common between the fins as they are
tapered and angled so the method of going section by section,
snapping to the previous section won't work here.

I'm tying to avoid unwrapping all fins at once because there
are so many parts and sorting all the pieces out is a pain.

If I can unwrap smaller groups it would be manageable.
I'm going to try making a control polygon that I can use
as a reference for matching scale between groups.

Fin Group 1.jpg
 
I wish I had thought of this earlier. 🥳

I unwrapped the reference polygon that I merged with the fins and pinned it in the UV editor.
Now if I select that polygon along with any other polygons, and then unwrap
with ABF, the scale will be based on that polygons pinned UV vectors.

First test was a failure unfortunately.

Reference Poly.jpg
 
Last edited:
I've been trying to avoid unwrapping everything at once,
but it's seems like this is necessary in this case.

As you can see the UVs are unorganized and it would be very hard to
match connecting parts without either rearranging or labeling parts.

GangUnwrap.jpg
 
It looks like I've been avoiding the solution.

Sorting out and rearranging is not as tedious as I expected.
I can use Select Group to select an entire element,
and move it off to the side. That makes it easier to rearrange.

GangUnwrap02.jpg
 
That was not too bad and the results look good so far.
I will export the PDF, reopen it with Cheetah
and check some crucial measurements.

GangUnwrap03.jpg
 
It's a good thing I constantly check myself because I seem to have lost the re-scaling I did earlier.

The model should be 291cm long so this time I scaled to 29.1 Cheetah units.
Now I need to recheck thickness of the thin vertical fin.

RescaleAgain.jpg
 
Thanks @Helmut math is my Achilles heel.

I'm so used to imperial measure, I can visualize 0.25, 0.5
or 0.75 inches but in cm, mm or m I'm flying blind.

Plus my research into the materials available are all in inches here.
I wonder what is available in Germany, where the sculpture will be built?
 
* In Europe the metric system is used (almost) exclusively. In the UK Imperial measurements may be used (quite infrequently, as few Britons are still familiar with these), but only as a secondary information.
* The only exception I know is the building trade, where pipes, sanitary fixtures and associated bits are marked as ø 1" (or 3/4" or whatever).
* In building plans / architecture generally, a grid of 30cm, equalling 1 foot, seems to be almost international. Arguably, this is a metric-imperial hybrid which has to suit everybody in a global market. Numerous items, eg panels and beams, come in sizes of 6´, 8´, 12´, labelled as 180cm, etc and not in straight metres of dimension.

* Many years ago when modelling the tracery of vaults of the local Gothic cathedral I was surprised to discover that the original plans from the 12th century are extant and even have been carefully digitised.
* Measurements, of course, are a hotchpotch of medieval ells and feet and yards. Standard reference rods (I think, ells) for masons still exist next to the area where the Gothic craftsmen where chipping away at some block to generate a tricky 3 dimensional mesh which had to fit presicely.

* In any case, stonemasons were the intellectuals of the Middle Ages. They, unlike most, needed to be literate, they needed to be numerate and they needed to have high skills in spatial imagination. They also travelled widely between building sites and possibly had a wider horizon than most of their fellow humans.
:devilish: Not surprisingly, the got a bit arrogant and set up the club (boys only) of Freemasons. On your end the late George Washington, on my end the mildly later W. A. Mozart.
 
What are the standard plywood thicknesses in Germany?

I'm wondering if the thin vertical fin could be one piece of plywood.
If so some of the UVs are not needed.
 
ZooHead said:
Let's see, 291cm = 29.1 so 1.0cm = 0.1

Isn't that correct?
Click to expand...
Correct - but the most unusual unit to use: decimetre
Most common plywood panels thickness´ are 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 mm - stronger boards most likely called Multiplex-board. The mentioned HDF/MDF boards are available in 3, 5, 10, 12, 16mm and stronger - but getting extremely heavy (ca 850kg/m³).
 
Thanks Frank, I vaguely remember learning about the decimeter.
But many of these are new to me.
  • yoctometre (ym=10−24 m)
  • zeptometre (zm)
  • attometre (am)
  • femtometre/fermi (fm)
  • picometre (pm)
  • nanometre (nm=10−9 m)
  • micrometre/micron (μm=10−6 m)
  • millimetre (mm=
    {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{1000}}}
     m)
  • centimetre (cm=
    {\tfrac {1}{100}}
     m)
  • decimetre (dm=
    \tfrac{1}{10}
     m)
  • metre (m)
  • decametre (dam=10 m)
  • hectometre (hm=100 m)
  • kilometre (km=1000 m)
  • megametre (Mm=106 m)
  • gigametre (Gm)
  • terametre (Tm)
  • petametre (Pm)
  • exametre (Em)
  • zettametre (Zm)
  • yottametre (Ym=1024 m)
 
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