Title is potentially a little ambiguous but some new capabilities that I would like to see in the Sculpt Environment relating to T-Splines (shapes & planes) is the ability to:
- further define the shape of the object (particularly planes i.e. circular plane, triangular plane, etc.) – good for quick modelling and dividing geometries with complex shapes/faces
- the shape of the T-Spline subdivision i.e. non-rectangular (triangular, hexagonal, pentagonal, etc. – or a combination where required)
- the number of lines meeting at any given T-Spline junction (i.e. T Intersection or Star Point) – sort of relates to the previous point but if junction requires minimum of 5 lines for instance then this would/could drive the shape of the T-Spline sub-divisions as well
- define the orientation of the T-Splines on the object or a source point
The reason for this is the ability to create more exotic T-Spline shapes and planes (whether they are watertight or not) and to be able to explore this functionality further. A good example of this is to create a quadball with hexagonal panels (i.e. a soccer ball) or a circular Plane to quickly model ripples. Reasons for this is due to the efficiency of T-Splines in creating these shapes with the barest number of junctions/faces (which I am not actually complaining about as it works beautifully) is that you lose out on some of the flexibility or intended complexity that you would like to incorporate.
Currently I know that you can perform a Revolution in Sketch from a rectangular sketch to create a cylindrical object which you could create ripple effect from but this is a convoluted step. It’s also not as straightforward when dealing with existing geometry such as cubes where you wish to impart a rippled effect to a face as the only option that is returned is a rectangular division. The image attached shows a rectangular sketch revolved about the axis to create in effect a cylinder with more T-Spline definitions on the top surface than would be provided from creating a Cylinder in Sketch and patching or closing the openings at either end, it is my quick attempt to show what I would like to see in creating a Circular Plane. Where the "Rectangular Type" option is shown this could give further options for shapes of subdivision i.e. hexagonal (healed or unhealed), triangular (uniform or non-uniform) and so forth.
I can elaborate on this further and other potential use cases or try and illustrate or map out the proposed menu options of how I would envision all of this if it will help. Let me know as I think this feature(s) would add some pretty interesting capabilities to an already capable system.
