Need a plugin to do this

pbacot · 25 Feb 2018, 02:58

How about Toposhaper. It will put a grid on a flat surface or edges as well as contours

pilou · 25 Feb 2018, 03:18

Else it's not a big deal to make a grid with any orientation and size as you want and make intersection with your surface!

JonFar · 25 Feb 2018, 04:18

thanks guys, I'll try those plugins

the intersect grid with surface solution would be ideal, but when I do that some faces dont get properly created and then this happens:

strange, right?

pbacot · 25 Feb 2018, 06:55

I've never found intersect faces to be reliable with edges that lie on a face. When the FACES actually intersect is when it works best, so it is called.....

Actually I wonder what Pilou is doing in that gif because I can't repeat it.

If I were doing it manually, I'd use a smoothed grid, overlay the shape then while smooth remove the unwanted part, while it is smooth--pretty fast. But you say you have a LOT to do so I am not questioning you want it to be as simple as possible. You could make a super grid, all smooth and place ALL your shapes on it at once and select and delete the negative space at once.

cotty · 25 Feb 2018, 09:00

A fast way would be the intersection with such a "grid" component...

pilou · 25 Feb 2018, 11:18

@unknownuser said:

Actually I wonder what Pilou is doing in that gif because I can't repeat it.

like this!

Surface = Group "Surface"
Grid = any Grid : Group "Lines" (Grid = A line: Move / Copy, An alone "line" : Move / Copy) = the secret : lines are automatically "themselves intersected" so segments!
Select Group "Lines" : Intersection with Model
Select Group "Lines" : Kill it
Select Group "Surface" : Explode it
Select All : Intersection with Selection : many times if some edges stay "doubled" (second secret)
et voilà

Maybe all in 3 seconds with little training!

Use the OutLiner for easy selection of Groups

jolran · 25 Feb 2018, 16:40

Are you going to apply this to a flat/2d face first, and then smoove ? Then Hatchfaces plugin with crosshatching and using a material should create the pattern. I think (?) anyway....

sdmitch · 25 Feb 2018, 18:02

@jonfar said:

thanks guys, I'll try those plugins

the intersect grid with surface solution would be ideal, but when I do that some faces dont get properly created and then this happens:

strange, right?

A common problem when trying to sub-divide a face using edges. You might give my Mesh Maker plugin on my blog page a try. Or better yet Fredo6's ner Face Triangulator!