Quick and Dirty Steps:
- Create a surface in a convenient view, using two lines for fwd and aft extents
- Use the Elevate Surface tool to elevate to 8 control points between centerline and top deck, and 6 control points between bow and stern (notice that control points become visible; similarly, the Rebuild Surface tool will expose the control points; later, I had to elevate to 10 for the keel to top deck and 8 for bow-stern, so that I would have a pre-calculated or approximate location for bending the bow area to y=0)
- Explode edges of the surface for visibility enhancement reasons but then deselect splines as they wil follow the surface's new adjusted positions (note: rebuilding or elevating the surface will destroy associativity between surface and splines/lines; if needed, re-explode the edges, which will then follow the surface's changes; deselect Splines in the Select Mask and just manipulate the control points related to the surface)
- Decide on a location of bending (not with the Bend tool but) with the Gripper, and use the User Positioned option to bend the "plate" of the hull from ground to into the air
- On the Gripper, initiate the bend rotation direction and tab-enter the total angular rotation to 90 from ground to into the air
- Reset the Gripper as desired for further model editing
At this point, I did not figure out how to create an assist curve, for bending the forward area, say at around 15% of the distance from bow to aftward. This is where and why it became necessary to go back and re-elevate the surface, to have a reference point for bending the hull AND to have the initial foc's'le bending constrained to less than 20% of the aft of the bow. (Later, I created a curve to assist transforming the positions of the bow's control points to a new X value.) Also, adding knots to the surface may be useful. 8 may be a useful starting or testing value.
- Used the Gripper to select a point at which you want to bend the forward surface to begin the knife edge to entry angle area of the hull for hydrodynamics reasons
- Select the knife edge/prow control points of the surface and bend or rotate them toward centerline (alternatively, one by one, move them to y=0; this is where it would be helpful to know how in VCP/Shark to rotate/translate points to that all selected points are repositioned to a single y-point, such as y=0; so, this is a commentary to say this is where it would be useful if the Inspector allowed moving a selected group/bunch of control points having no actual spline/line associated with them to a new x, y, or z coordinate; or where it would be useful if the inspector allowed on a data tab the editing of spline points of an elevated surface that is in selection). Individual control points can be edited in the Data Entry strip above the drawing area, but not multiple selected control points. Set y=0 for each knife edge point to be edited
- Using the gripper, click on the Scale cube and pick some arbitrary value such as 0.1 and enter that value into the Scale date entry box.
- Switch to a bow-on view and notice that the points seem to conveniently move to a more desirable y= value. But, unfortunately, that ruins the z= values. Undo.
Explore, in plan view, using Gripper with the User Positioned position at the hull's origin coordinate and use the rotate plane portion of the Gripper to rotate the selected knife edge control points to a value of 90 degrees.
That largely mimics Rhino's movement of the bow points to y=0. However, when moving to the next step -- changing the rake of the bow -- it is not readily apparent/clear what to do next with those control points.
Further, if I skipped the step two paragraphs back (starting with "Explore, in plan view"), and switch to a side view and then performed that action, the control points then pull the keel up toward sky if the User Positioned point is at the top deck/bullnose/pointy end of the ship. That is not desirable in most cases.
- Draw a line representing the angle of the bow you desire to shape
- Set your Snap settings accordingly
- Select and translate the X positions of the control points of the surface
At this point, for those wanting to make sonar domes that are still part of the original, single piece of hull derived from a single surface, it would be nice if a surface could be LOCALLY subdivided without losing
HOWEVER, a possible workaround is this:
-- Add 4 knots to the hull (this increases control points from y=0)
-- Elevate the hull surface (this increases control points from z=0)
Now, there are enough control points to begin experimenting with shaping the sonar dome or a bulbous bow without excessively introducing too many control points into the hull. Be sure to NOT elevate and add knots before moving any original z=0 control points. This is to prevent sloping the hull's keel downward before the sonar dome is even worked on.
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Will be edited later, but I posted here to give Tim some insights into roadblocks...
