Guitar Neck & Heel Contour Help

[oldtbone55]

I know I'm bringing up a topic that has been posted but I'm having difficulty grasping the t-spline/surface modeling aspect of Fusion in order to contour and blend the surfaces of guitar neck at the headstock and heel portion. I've reviewed the screencasts that have been made but I feel it's a bit to advanced for my understanding. If someone could give me some pointers on where to start with what I've already done it would be greatly appreciated. The usual suspects are invited to chime in and I've attached my file.

@Anonymous 

@Anonymous

@Anonymous

[oldtbone55]

Thanks Phil. I guess I didn't zoom in far enough to see that. Fixed it and all is well know. I guess I need new glasses.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

You might need to increase the gap between the neck and the head stock, and you will need to sketch the bottom of the head stock. Other then that your on the right path.

[oldtbone55]

If I do that is it going to affect the actual measurements of the length of the neck or of the head stock or is it just needed to join the two pieces? Also, in your second video where you're joining the edges of the adjoining t-splines near the top of the headstock, can you explain why this needs to be done? I don't want to just  follow along without understanding why it needs to be done.

Thanks very much.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

"If I do that is it going to affect the actual measurements of the length of the neck or of the head stock or is it just needed to join the two pieces?"

Its just needed to join the two pieces. You can keep what you have just make one with a little larger gap so the T-Splines don't kink up on you.

"Also, in your second video where you're joining the edges of the adjoining t-splines near the top of the headstock, can you explain why this needs to be done?"

This just gives you all the surfaces you need to create a solid later. That could be done with the patch tools but you said you wanted to do it in T-Splines. 😉

[oldtbone55]

Thanks for the explanations......and yes, I did say I wanted to learn how to do this using T-splines. Is it possible to use both patch and T-splines or are they mutually exclusive?

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

"Is it possible to use both patch and T-splines or are they mutually exclusive?"

Yes it is possible to use T-Splines, patch, and solid modeling environment together. One thing you should know though is that is a lot steeper learning curve then just using one environment.

Also I highly suggest against using the timeline for anything that has T-Spline work in it. This is just my personal recommendation, others will argue, but I have been burned enough times by things getting screwed up switching to and from the timeline that I wont do that again. Also you loose a lot of functionality in Fusion with T-Splines when the timeline is on.

Cheers

Phil

[oldtbone55]

Hello once again Phil. I've been a busy little beaver but now I'm stuck and don't why. I finished doing the headstock in T-splines. Thanks for the screencasts, they were awesome. I've been trying in vain to do the t-splines on the neck portion so I can bridge the neck and headstock together but I can't seem to get it work like you did in your sceencasts. I was trying to perform the loft function in the sculpt environment between the end of the neck that meets the headstock to where the 12th fret would be approximately. At first I encountered an issue where the loft was not only giving me the neck profile but it was also including the top face sketch flat portion of the neck. I didn't want it to do this because I want to do the top using the bridge function so I can enter a separate number of faces (3) to match the headstock. I finally figured out this was happening because the profile sketches I did for the curvature of the neck were enclosed and was connected to the sketch I did for the top of the neck. Problem is, I'm trying to use the sides of this sketch for rails and I'm getting errors. If I just do the loft function for the neck curvature it seems to look okay especially when increase the number of faces along the length. I compared the t-splines outside edges to the top sketch edges and they seem to line up very well. Maybe I'm overthinking this but I wanted to do it the way you did in your screencast of the neck because I'm probably going to have to use rails for the heel transition. If you have a chance it would be greatly appreciated if you took a look at my file.

Thanks.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

I didn't use the loft tool, I used the bridge tool for that area.

[oldtbone55]

Yes, I saw that you used the bridge tool for the flat top to join the two outside edges. I've used loft to join the front neck profile to the last neck profile before the neck transitions into the heel. Then I used bridge to join both sides so I now have a hollow neck. What I was trying to figure out was why I couldn't use the edge line of the flat top as a rail? Here's my latest file with the neck in t-spline form. 

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

"What I was trying to figure out was why I couldn't use the edge line of the flat top as a rail?"

Because the dev team didn't code it to work that way. I know your probably thinking why not....I have asked myself these same questions for over a year......

T-Splines are lacking A LOT of functionality.....sadly not much worth talking about is being worked on with T-Splines.

You don't even have a point to point snapping tool for the T-Spline edit form command.

I could write a book about all the missing functionality in T-Splines.

This is why you hear a bunch of us saying we use other polygon modeling apps to edit the T-Spline control cages.

With Fusion you just have to learn all the work arounds or use other apps.....sad fact but it's true.

There is just not enough people pushing for T-Spline development....

 I didn't see any T-Splines in that latest file.

[oldtbone55]

Sorry Phil, I attached the wrong file.

[oldtbone55]

Hi Phil, I'm getting an error message when I'm trying to merge the t-spline edges at the top of the headstock that meet in the middle. This on the underside of the headstock. I've attached a screenshot as well as my file. I didn't get this message when I merged the other t-splines edges. I haven't been able to figure out what's causing it.

[oldtbone55]

@PhilProcarioJr

Well I've been working on the file some more and figured out why I was getting the error message. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm stuck on trying to create a loft for the underside of the headstock on the curved portion that will transition to the neck. No matter what I do I can't create a loft between the two curves to be able to then bridge this section to the flat portion of the headstock. I also have a question. When you go from sculpt to model and then back, you loose the t-splines. If you haven't finished working on a portion of the model, in my case, the bottom of the headstock, can you get back your original t-splines that were created or do you have to use the conversion to turn it back into t-splines and then re-work the t-splines until you have the number of faces you need to bridge the areas together?

Thanks.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

You can't use the loft tool for that part, you have to use the create faces tool....I haven't gotten time to make the video for that part yet....

PS: all the problems you have with editing previous T-Splines is yet another reason I don't use the Timeline with my T-Spline work....

Timeline and T-Splines is completely pointless.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@oldtbone55

I will try to finish your video this weekend.

[oldtbone55]

Thanks very kindly Phil.

Best Regards.

[oldtbone55]

@Anonymous

Hello Jeff, I've been reviewing the great screencast you provided and have a question about rails. I ran into the infamous "rails do not intersect" error. I know from your screencast that the rail points must intersect each of the profiles but am wondering how exactly did you do that? Did it work for you because you created the neck profile sketches first and then joined each of their end points together with a line sketch?

Thanks.

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@oldtbone55

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@oldtbone55

[oldtbone55]

@PhilProcarioJr

Thanks so much for the fantastic screencasts Phil. You've really helped me learn about t-splines and their functionality. I can see why you prefer working with them. I've been working on my drawing in several different ways trying to create the transition shape at the headstock and heel and using t-splines really does produce the best results. I'm not finished yet but do have a question at this time about how the gap between the end of the neck and headstock gets bridged without affecting the original dimensions. Also, when you use edit-form to extend the end of the neck to meet up with the end of the headstock in your video, only the top portion of the neck gets extended without affecting the curved portion. When I use the edit-form command to move the edges the vertical edges are also affected and the curved portion of the neck gets pulled along as well so I don't get the same result as you. I've attached my file for your reference.

Thanks ever so much again for all your help. Molto Grazie!