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Anyone have a source for techniques to trick Rhino into doing complex fillets? IMO the fillets I'm trying to do aren't all that complex, they just break Rhino's rules for filleting.

I usually try smaller and smaller sizes until it works, just to show that it is a radius fit type issue first. Surface complexity, especially where there is shrinkage like in the cutaway horn area, has been my most frequent problem. Sometimes a variable radius fillet, going smaller radius around impossible areas helps and isn't visible. Generally, I've found the fillet failure to be a diagnostic of something I need to go back and fix with the number of curve points or smoothness and then surfaces. IIRC a fillet is just a sweep of a tangent arc to both surfaces of the specified radius and a trim. If that sized arc won't fit into an area its going to fail to complete.

A couple of resources (I'm sure there are lots more):
https://vimeo.com/20574446
http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/advancedfilleting

Might not be exactly what you're looking for, but the t-splines plugin for Rhino is great for smooth transitions between complex surfaces.


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Found another interesting plugin that includes complex fillets: http://www.npowersoftware.com/rhino/proverview.htm

Haven't tried it myself yet. If anyone else does then please share your experiences.

Leo


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Thanks guys. I'll take another look at t-splines. It looked promising a while back but I can't remember why I decided against it. npower looks interesting too. One of my filleting problems stems from fillets that self-intersect.

You might post a picture of what's being a pain. The experts on the McNeel forum would certainly help if you uploaded an example file (nothing proprietary) there.

I don't see T-splines as being helpful to make a fillet of a nurbs model. T-splines are cool for making shapes, although you can make a surface and not just a solid, but are generally not well suited for things needing mechanical precision and the edges cannot be attached to nurbs edges. They can be converted to nurbs and then trimmed up and made a part of a mechanical model. They released a new version 4 this year but never fixed some serious bugs in it and it seems to be unsupported while they focus on the T-splines functionality that is part of Autodesk Fusion 360. If you really want to use T-splines, consider Fusion instead of buying what might be a dead-end plug-in.

Hi Sheldon,
I'm still learning and watch everything I can about Rhino. I just noticed this. He talks a little about a
"force" fillet.
Maybe there is something here for you.
https://youtu.be/uVyt3oGFRIQ

Still learning here too ! Cool video, I'll try to find time to watch the series. So he forced the fillet by sweeping an arc. He uses a better method of constructing the arc.

Wow, that guy works fast! I'm going to need to watch this a few times. Thanks Saul

You're welcome!

Yeah, me too! Need to watch again. Lot's of ideas to process. Always new tricks to be learned. That's the thing about Rhino, there are many ways to get the same result.

http://www.rhino3d.com/support
"unlimited support is included with all McNeel products"

You can upload a file to them with real work and they will email back to you. Confidential. Somebody like Pascal who is a Rhino expert and experienced industrial designer will help. Then again maybe you found a bug they'd like to hear about.

So much sanding.... so little time.... Good luck

I've just discovered two new to me commands.

VariableBlendSrf
http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/variableblendsrf.htm

VariableFilletSr
http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/help/en-us/commands/variablefilletsrf.htm

Which look like they may prove pretty useful

The newsgroup or directly contacting support are great ways to go. I got some amazing tips when I was getting started with Rhino (XX,XXX hours ago...) from newsgroup help with models I was making that pushed me far ahead of what I'd have learned on my own.

The 'force fillet' thing he did is a good trick. I've done something pretty similar, but I didn't know of the pipe command which really speeds up the trimming process, so always something new to learn!

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services