Chamfer modifier never working properly, can it be fixed or there are alternative ways?

[alexJ682T]

Hello.

I have a model, to which I want to apply chamfer, to create smooth, rounded edges.

It does not work properly, always creating wrinkles and inverted outlines on the some of the edges (picture attached). This happens whenever I select whole object or only one of sides. It is not geometry issue, because say, MeshSmooth modifier to same object works fine, without creating anything extra along these edges.

So is there any way to fix the chamfer operation, or maybe there is another alternative to create smooth, rounded edges of complex geometry models?

Thanks in advance.

[dmitriy.shpilevoy]

How is this not a geometry issue? Looks like you have support loops that create those "walls". 

Without seeing lowpoly I can only guess it was made for subdiv approach. You will have to fix it manually or make geo chamfer-friendly from the start.

[alexJ682T]

You can easily replicate this by yourself on any object.

Draw cylinder, apply chamfer to the top end of it and you will see these "walls" emerging.

P.S. Same model, but chamfered in ArtCam, has zero issues.

Same model, but with MeshSmooth applied instead of chamfer in 3D MAX has zero issues.

So this is definitely chamfer modifier issues.

[dmitriy.shpilevoy]

Works as expected. Same with non-modifier chamfer inside EPoly.

[alexJ682T]

You are applying "small" chamfer, try to increase it's depth so object end is fully rounded, just lake ChamferCyl does.

Here's MeshSmooth modifier applied to the object above. As you can see, it does thing properly, unlike the Chamfer modifier.

[dmitriy.shpilevoy]

I don't get it. You can round cylinder with chamfer. You can also crank it up to overlap.

Don't understand why shown meshsmoothed border is larger than "small" chamfer from my first image. Doesn't look as if it was rounded all the way to the bottom.

Chamfer, meshsmooth and pretty much any other tool will work in some cases and break in other. Chamfer often does weird crap with corners, ngons, stars etc etc, but that vertical wall is not really its fault. It relies on you feeding it topology that allows what you are trying to do.

Even in your first example you can see chamfer rounds the edge well, support loops you have near the border is what causing the wall.

[MartinBeh]

Chamfer works on the polygons whereas something like ArtCAM works on implicit surfaces such as NURBS (I presume), so they have very different starting points.

Having said that you should be able to get good results by slightly revising your modelling approach (a bit hard to tell what you are doing from the screenshot).

This is using a Shape with a Bevel Profile modifier:

The biggest problem are the tight concave corners in the center but adjusting the shape interpolation to get a better subdivision helps.

[alexJ682T]

Yes, I'm trying to achieve similar result, but here the bevel or chamfer is too small. I need it big, as shown in my screenshot above. And when I try to increase it, these issues happen. Which does not happen with meshsmooth modifier, but it does not do rounding.

[MartinBeh]

Sorry, I don't understand. Your first screenshots do not tell me how large you need the chamfer, and your second post with screenshot show a tiny chamfer. Please be a bit more detailed in explaining what you need if you want us to help you.

[dmitriy.shpilevoy]

I suspect this is what's happening here.
Chamfer can't go all the way down obviously, because it can't be wider than smallest cylinder's radius. It will need varying curvature or cylinders ending at different height.