Hi guys, this isn't SWBF related, but I figure you guys would probably know. I'm tracing a logo with curves in an attempt to create a 3-d version. When I extrace a poly mesh from the curve, I can insert polys and put a "face" on the model with no problem. The only issue is poly mesh's don't retain the detail of the curves, whereas surface meshes do. I do not think an "insert poly" tool exists for surface meshes, but I need to somehow connect the front of the letters to make a closed "face". (so the letters don't appear hollow)

Here's a picture if it helps to explain my situation- The extruded part of the C on the left has no "face" (that is what I am calling it at least). The part of the B that is closed is a poly mesh


Thanks guys, I hope you can help me with this

What I do is duplicate polygons and then weld the points.

With a surface mesh I can't select a polygon or weld the points, it would have to be a poly mesh. Problem is, the poly mesh is more blocky than the surface mesh (since it is made of polygons with straight lines rather than the curves on the surface mesh)

EDIT

I may just be asking the impossible. Does anyone know what the Surface Mesh-> create -> four sided does? I googled it and searched the help manual but I couldn't find an answer...

Thanks for the help kinetos

Try converting it to a poly mesh when you think you're done with the NURBS stuff.

computergeek wrote:Does anyone know what the Surface Mesh-> create -> four sided does

http://download.autodesk.com/global/doc ... rSided.htm


I don't know of any way to cap a surface mesh automatically in XSI, you may just have to create multiple surfaces and combine them. ICE in newer versions of Softimage might be capable of doing this, but the native legacy tools seem to be limited in this area.

If you make it a poly mesh with enough subdivisions the difference shouldn't be noticeable, and you could cap it off easily. I don't really know of a way to put a face on it with it being a NURB.

AceMastermind wrote:

computergeek wrote:Does anyone know what the Surface Mesh-> create -> four sided does

http://download.autodesk.com/global/doc ... rSided.htm

Thanks Ace!

JabbaLovesLava wrote:If you make it a poly mesh with enough subdivisions the difference shouldn't be noticeable, and you could cap it off easily. I don't really know of a way to put a face on it with it being a NURB.

I'm thinking I may just stop being so lazy and use a poly mesh with more subdivisions.

Thanks for all the help guys!

...again, why not just create a poly mesh from your NURBS surface mesh? There is literally a tool that converts them - look somewhere under Create>Poly Mesh or Surface Mesh, whichever, just check both - it'll be something along the lines of "...Poly Mesh from selection" or something.

Sorry if it looked like I was ignoring your advice (I wasn't!). When I did that, it looked the same as creating a polymesh from the curve, and didn't retain the curves of the surface mesh

Thanks for the help though!

If you read up on how curves are calculated you'll understand why a polymesh doesn't come out as "smooth" as the curve. The operator you're using uses data from the points that are used to make the curve, not the interpolated curve itself. The NURBS from curve works better because a NURBS hull is calculated similarly to a curve object.

See curves>about and surfaces>about in the help files.