Fillet sometimes Doesn't work? Plus Extrude question.

Box8068_31c338ee4b

Thank You In advance for your help.
I am creating objects in the Vertex modeler. ( Images below ) I create a group of Polygons, The extrude them.
Immediately after doing so the Fillet tool seems to work normally. But after some manipulation the ability is lost, and I can't put my finger on
what causes it. I am using 6 pro ( I am about to upgrade this week to 8 ) I noticed this after trying to fillet objects i had created on a earlier day. Is it just a 6 bug or is there something about Polygons I don't understand.
2nd question, when I create these polygon's in the vertex room some are a darker color. When I go to extrude the lighter group extrudes up, and the darker group extrude down. My work around for now is to select link polygon's in the extrude tool box, and add the opposite value ( -1.25 instead of 1.25 ) Pictures below. If any of this is a bug, fine I'm about to get Pro 8, but I have a feeling I am causing this behavior somehow.
Thanks!
8068

3DAGE

Hi 8068 :)

If you're creating each polygon separately,. then select any joining edges, and weld them.
That should unify the normal direction. and create a single polymesh,..

Which is why some parts extrude up and some down. ..and are darker when selected.

perhaps a better approach would be to draw the shape you want, as a single (N-Gon) (multipoint shape), then extrude it.
You can divide the N-gon, into quads using the add vertex tool, and the link tool, or the link option in the Model menu.

Pic example

I can also see that there are a couple of creased edges there. (blue) which you may have added,. and that's fine,...
but,.. in some situations, Carrara will Force an edge to be creased, because,. Two, or more edges are being joined at that point.
so, if you haven't intentionally created any creased edges, ...you should have a close look at why those are creased.

The fillet tools should work as expected, but you have more control with the Fast fillet, .. then you can Drag out the edge as much or as little as you need.

If there are any reversed polygons, and you're using the fillet, or any other edge tools, then they will either Not work, or work in an unexpected way, since they use the Normal direction of the polygons.

Hope it helps :)

Box8068_31c338ee4b

3Dage Thanks!
I'll give this method a try, I tried the shape using the poly line tool before but I always remembering it
attempting to close itself.
What you write does raise some questions though.
1) If I extruded a poly and didn't select crease edges, the edges looked curved on a quick render, rather then
sharp 90 degrees, which I didn't really understand.

2) Why is that Poly darker reversed? I don't recall doing anything different when creating it.
Is there a way to control that behavior.

3) I did buy Pro 8, so hopefully that may help some of this, because these objects did fillet initially, and I did try
smooth edges to reverse the crease, heck I tried a lot to save work I had done and wanted to fillet.

Thank you so much again, I'm not sure I would still be using Carrara if it wasn't for you, and folks like you that help
me through these issues!
Thanks
8068

3DAGE

1) If I extruded a poly and didn’t select crease edges, the edges looked curved on a quick render, rather then
sharp 90 degrees, which I didn’t really understand.

Carrara is a Subdivision modeller,. meaning that you can Add levels of Subdivision "Smoothing" to the model, without increasing the actual Polygon resolution of the object,.

So,. by default,. All edges are smooth,. which is great for creating soft things, and if you want to make Hard edged objects, like metallic shapes, you can select the edges you need to be hard,.. and crease those, while leaving the other edges smoothed.
or you can Crease all the edges,. it depends on that you're modelling. (see pic ) of two cylinders, extruded, one has "Some" edges creased,. the other has all the edges creased,. and you can see the difference that makes.

2) Why is that Poly darker reversed? I don’t recall doing anything different when creating it.
Is there a way to control that behavior.

Whenever you're making a single polygon,. the direction which you draw it, (clockwise or anti clockwise) will create a polygon with normals facing out, or in.

The Darker red when you select it, simply indicates that it's facing away,. and that's a good indicator that something isn't right.

I'm glad you're getting C8,. but I think this specific issue is due to the way you're modelling it,.,.

Unless I'm making a specific shape, I'll generally start by dragging out a rectangle, then fill it, and extrude it up,.

From that basic Box,. I can select and extrude polygons, to produce the shape I need. if I want to join parts of the same mesh together, I'd use the Bridge tool.
If I make a model in different sections,. then I want to join those,. i'd either use the bridge or select the connecting edges of the two parts, and Weld them together.

I think the creased edged in your model, are being caused by the way you've built the parts, ..then selected them,.. and extruded them.
They'll all extrude together,. but those parts aren't connected,. they're just placed together..

so,. if you model further,. using "Link Polygons" in the extrude tool,. you can sometimes join the tops of objects and leave the bottom edges unconnected,. which will cause issues later.

The edges which Carrara is "Forcing" to be creased , can't be smoothed, by simply selecting that option,.. It's forced creased to make it stable geometry,.
So,. you need to get in close to figure out what's not connected, and delete or weld parts which either don't need to be there, or should be connected.

Hope it helps :)

Box8068_31c338ee4b

3Dage
Thanks again. I never would have caught that counter clockwise poly facing issue.
strangely enough I installed 8 at work and tried your method above and it was great.
I got home where I still have 6 installed ( I'll upgrade that tomorrow ) and I couldn't get it to work.
it won't close the curve or create poly from that shape. I guess this is why I
went to the stacking polygons. No trouble 8 seemed fine.
NOW I understand that smoothing control in the model room.
thanks again!
8068

Box8068_31c338ee4b

Just realized I wasn't on the active plane! !
Works in 6 as well.
Some lines can't be seen in the grid, in the model room.
Is there a reason for this?
thanks
B

Garstor

8068 said:

Some lines can't be seen in the grid, in the model room.
Is there a reason for this?

Nope...just a poor interface design in the model room. Very annoying sometimes. If you are not forced into keeping grid snap on, then changing the grid size to a value that is not evenly-divisible by what you are currently using will "show" the lines again.

ds-mail_2e0cb9c256

My advice: get Hexagon and use it for most of your modelling for Carrara.

While the GUI is quite similar, Hex has more capabilities and seems easier to use to me; but similar GUI means the learning curve for 2 programs is NOT 2x the work.

Hex can't render but can model easier/faster with more tools; then export to Carrara.

I use Carrara vertex modeler only when I have to for small jobs.

Roygee

Hex can’t render

Hex can do crude rendering - good enough to get an idea of what your model looks like - even does AO:)