Define your design with curve networks

00:00

Groove networks are very easy to create in Shapr3D and are super fun to work with. Let me show you how we can create those. In a new and empty file, let's go to top view, make sure snapping is all turned on. Unit system is in millimeters. We create a new sketch, select ellipse, and then we create an ellipse with 12 millimeters by 6 millimeters.

00:28

exit sketch, we go into a 3D view, go to transform, select move, copy, select the ellipse sketch, then activate copy. And we move a copy up by 10 millimeters. Click done. Then we click somewhere else, click the sketch outline one more time. So we go right into editing mode, and then we change the 6 to 8 millimeters.

00:57

click the ellipse and then the 12 to 14 millimeters. Exit the sketch. We will call the Move command one more time, select the second sketch, turn on Copy, move this up a little bit, and then we type in 22 millimeters. We zoom out, click Done. We can also click on the sketch in the Outliner that jumps right into editing mode. We create...

01:27

a circle to six millimeters diameter, right click to drop the circle tool, select the ellipse and hit delete. good. Exit sketch. So now we have a bottom, a mid and a top sketch. What we can do now is as a study, create a loft between these three profiles. This all looks very good.

01:56

Let's hide this for a moment, because now I'm going to show you why the curve network is so useful, because we're going to add the rails. In this case, a side view. So from the front, I will create a new sketch. You see these intersection points and there I can now with the Fit Point Curve, draw.

02:24

a spline from the first intersection to the second, to the third. Right click, and then do this one more time on the other side and right click. You see these splines are now green because this is a FitPoint curve. All the control points are coincident constraint to where the sketch plane intersects with the other three sketch planes we created.

02:54

Exit sketch. Now we will select the profile of the first, second and third sketch. And then we'll shift left mouse button. We also select the two rails and then we call the loft command. Go to your front view and turn on the previous body we created, turn off the last one we created. And there you can see that the initial sketch does not follow.

03:23

the curves. And that's reason why we can create a curve network when we want to force geometry more into a curve network, kind of like a framework. Some of the really fun tools we have now is to move the individual sketches around. So bottom, mid and top, and also edit the rails. Again, because the rails

03:53

are glued onto the intersection points, these sketches will update automatically. So I will go ahead and select my last sketch, click Exit, then I'm in Edit mode. And when I move this around and even rotate it, you see how this all perfectly updates. I can also select the second sketch and rotate this one.

04:21

And you see how this all beautifully updates. When I go into editing the sketch and change the dimensions, you see everything in this case perfectly updates too. So you can make this a little bit wider, for example.

04:46

And with every modification of those elements, the rail curves will follow it. But we also have the handles of the rail curves, which you can see, we can select and continue working with. This gives us then a little bit of extra opportunity to sculpt kind of like the shape we are looking for.

05:16

Let me show you now two more advanced examples. This here is a hairdryer, and you will see that the handle was built by using exactly the same approach. We have a bottom, mid, and a top cross-section sketch, and then the front and the back rail to sculpt kind of like this beautiful flow.

05:41

The handle of this power drill is smoothly sculpted, but as complex as this looks, creating the curve network for this is pretty easy. It follows exactly the same methodology, just with a different step-by-step sequence, which I'm going to explain to you now. So if we take a look at the history, I have the top and then I have the bottom section. These basically define the start and end point.

06:11

of my loft. In step two, I created the rails. So if I go to a side view, here you see the side rails. I used in this case, the control point spline. So I have more ability to sculpt everything into the shape I want. And I also created my front rail. Notice also all these rails have the start and end points.

06:40

equivalent constraint to the first two sketches. With this, basically now I have the ability to define how wide the handle at the center gets. Because I now created top, bottom, and then the four rails, then I was able to put in my transitional sketches. This one is at an angle. Notice also here again, how all the control points

07:10

our coincident constraint onto these rails. So that basically means when one of these sketches is being adjusted.

07:24

The fill profiles will follow it.

07:29

And then selecting all those sketch profiles, selecting then all these rails, and then calling the loft is how you then create this really beautifully and smoothly sculpted handle for a power drill.

07:49

Connecting to what I showed you with the handle for the power drill, the same also applies when you would like to create those organic shapes, which are very common in vessels design. In this case for a soap bottle.

08:05

Here again, in the history, you see, I started with the top and then I built the bottom sketch. Then I put in the rails or front and side, nicely sculpting them. And then I created all these individual sections and pay attention to how they, to the top become very like elliptical because in the end at the top, we have a circle.

08:32

And to the bottom, they become more potato-like because the bottom sketch is, well, kind of like a deformed circle, if you want to call it this way. And then selecting everything together, we can do a loft. And you see, we have a really beautiful transition because of the side rails. These surfaces make a nice transition, linear, and then they bend from

09:02

The front, this is all nice and curvy. And again, here to show you when I go in and start editing a rail, then the cross sections automatically update and the lofted body will follow with it.