@unknownuser said:

@Hieru!
I see what you mean! Sorry!

Here there are all images but it's in French!

@rich o brien said:

@david

to view that page use waybackmachine july 2012

Thanks guys

@rich o brien said:

@david

I'm just throwing this out there but you are aware that vertex tools does respect QuadFace convention?

I haven't used it since my initial trial - I was just assuming from the videos that the gizmo distorted everything free-hand. Now I'll have to give it another go!

@unknownuser said:

I see all images without to be logged!

I've tried with IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome and get the same result. A few images show up, but the key ones are missing. I suppose it must be because the thread is so old and the missing images must have been hosted outside the forum.

I'll have a look around elsewhere and see if I can come up with a solution. Thanks for the link though

It's a pity there isn't an option with vertex tools that would only allow you to move geometry to positions where it won't triangulate.....a sort of lock-quads feature (if that makes sense?).

@unknownuser said:

Maybe this can help you

Can you see the images on that thread? Most of them are missing for me, even when I'm logged in.

Maybe some of my examples are more 'intermediate' - part way between basic primitives and complex objects like soft furnishings or vehicles?

I don't want to bloat the thread, so perhaps I should start a new topic just for the examples I've been reinterpreting for SU?

In the mean time, here's a faceted hexagonal form that blends into a cylinder (sort of like a screwdriver handle).

I would have liked to have achieved this with quads only, but I couldn't figure out a solution.

@olishea said:

Yeah you nailed it with CylinderWithHoles-V3. Sometimes you think there is no other possible way of doing it....then you come back to the model and think Ohhhhhh! Great examples and thanks for posting here!

Thanks

@olishea said:

Would be cool if we had a "circularize" plugin for sketchup, you could click on specific rectangles and convert them into squares. Or maybe create an offset square face within the rectangle. Would be nice to be able to specify how many edges so you could even offset a triangle, square, pentagon etc etc....

This would help creating circular holes in peculiar shapes. I use this tool in Wings 3D quite often, maybe I'll ask TIG about it....maybe call it Offset Circle where you can choose the amount of edges the offset circle has.

+1 Definitely sounds like something that would come in handy.

@rich o brien said:

Too many poles. 3 and 5 sided converging quads.

Presumably that makes it difficult for UV mapping?

Edit: I was obviously over-thinking things again...

Last one for today: joining two pipes of the same diameter.

This one is significantly different to the reference as I couldn't figure out how to join the pipes without distorting the bottom pipe and making it non-cylindrical (see circled area).

JoiningPipe.skp

Two versions of a simple cylinder with a bevelled edge. The second version (bottom) is for situations where you can't get away with a 6-sided shape.

Cylinder.skp

Or how about this? Here I've rebuilt the form using 6-sided openings...much more economical!

CylinderWithHoles-V3.skp

@olishea said:

Can you do something about the marked areas?

Is this any better? It generates much neater topology but the poly count goes up.

CylinderWithHoles-V2.skp

@olishea said:

Try using circles with 6 edges instead of 8. When you intersect a 6 sided circle in half with a line you get two halves of quads, if that makes sense.

Good point....that's a great tip

Insets on a curved surface.

CurvedInsets.skp

I was simply copying one of the provided examples, but I'll see if there is a better way of doing it.

Another example. This time a cylinder with holes.

CylinderWithHoles.skp

Had some time to tackle one of the shapes from the topology reference guide. I've changed some of the modelling to make it easier/faster to achieve in Sketchup.

It was certainly a worthwhile exercise as I learnt that n-gons in your proxy can be used to create better topology (see the areas highlighted in red).

Edit: The red areas are quads rather than n-gons. They are however still very important when it comes to creating better topology.

BoltHeadPrimitive.skp

@olishea said:

It doesn't matter how "odd" the quad looks. If it's a quad it's a quad and will perform well.

Lesson learned

I'll certainly never model proxy circular planes any other way from now on. If this shape is typical, there should be a lot to be learnt from the rest of the examples.

Yes you're right - doh! The proxy modelling and end result make much more sense now.

Normally I'd triangulate odd shaped quads in the same way I'd deal with n-gons. Now I know better.

That looks like a really comprehensive contract template Rich . I'll have to go through it and check to see if there is anything missing from my own contracts.

@krisidious said:

I require people to pay in phases. Sketch, Preliminary and the Construction docs. They pay at the beginning of each phase.

That sounds like a good approach - I think I'll have to give it a go some time. Normally I rely on a rock-solid contract and a 50% deposit (if they won't pay that then it's usually a good indicator that you'll have trouble collecting your fees at the end of a project).