Extend your time to guide me on how to make a 14-16 sided dome with defined side edges
You don't provide many details as to the requirements of the dome. E.g., should it from a half sphere-like shape?
A very easy approach but one that does not yield 14 - 16 sides is to use the GeoSphere standard primitive. This will yields more than 16 sides.
You could convert is to an editable poly and delete a row of polygons but you would still may have too many sides (20) and you may want to level off the bottom.
If you want a half-dome with exactly 16 sides then the following is one approach.
Working in the Top view create an NGON of 8 sides of radius 10 centered at 0,0,0, an NGOB of 4 sides of radius 7.071 centered at 0,0,7.071, and a point at 0,0,10.
Turn on snaps with pivot and endpoint set. Working in the top or orthogonal view create closed lines for the triangular panels as shown for one quarter of the dome. Add an Extrude modifer to each. It's best to specify the sequence of the 4 vertices for the closed splines in a counterclockwise direction to assure that their normals will be outward.
Select the 4 panels and group them. Edit the pivot of the group so that it's x and y coordinates are 0. The z coordinate is not relevant.
Using the Array tool create a total of 4 copies of the group taht fill and angle of 360° about the z axis.
Ungroup and you are finished!
You could draw a spline of the profile of that dome shape, then use the Lathe modifier to make it the full dome mass. You can set it to use 16 segments to get the correct number of sides. The result will be smooth, but you can remove the smoothing between segments to get that faceted look.
Chris Medeck
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Draw the profile as @CAMedeck suggested. If the panel are a ruled surface then extrude the profile and add two slice modifiers. Rotate one of the slice gizmos by +11.25° and the other by -11.25° as noted below.
Convert the object to an editable poly and delete the polies beyond the slice plane.
Use the Array tool to make 16 copied that fill 360° about the z axis.
During this construction be careful where you place the pivot. If the profile of one of the 16 segments is not straight then create a curve that defines the shape and use slice to modify as needed. Also consider using the symmetry modifier in the construction of one of the panels. There are many ways to construct the dome.
