Y-branches when not using pipe command

[Anonymous]

Can someone perhaps tell me whether there is a best way to get a surface when having 3 profiles and 3 rails?

I have seen a few videos on Youtube (1, 2, 3), but I want to get more control over the rails and profiles than pipes give me. I also tried something, but the selected edges are not as good and the rails are not respected as much as possible...

So, I guess things can be done better... Can someone perhaps give me a short intermediate (beginner) tutorial here?

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Is this more like what your after?

[JDMather]

Maybe something like this?

Or were you looking for a strictly T-Splines approach?

[Anonymous]

Thank you, @JDMather. Yes, for the most part I really want to know, how things need to be done when using T-Splines...

I cannot say whether there could be a better surface for these curves, but to me this looks like what I failed to create, @PhilProcarioJr. Can you tell me how you did this?

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

I'm making a screencast now and I will post it as soon as it's uploaded.

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

See if this helps:

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot, @PhilProcarioJr, they both look really good to me.

But I have a question. You created two different versions. The 1st has 1 degree 6 vertex, while the 2nd has 3 degree 5 vertices and 1 degree 3 vertex. (Graph Theory terminology, not correct here, I know...)

I get that the second in general is probably (much) better, but the curvature analysis to me looks pretty much the same at that critical vertex. So, would it in this situation still make a difference, whether I use the first or second topology??

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

It depends on the accuracy you need on the 3 ends. In the first picture the ends are completely accurate to your sketches, in the second there is a little variation.

I didn't fit the edges to the sketches on the first one so it is less accurate. I wasn't sure if that's what you were after, but once you said it was I took the time to do it right and accurately.

Also there are a bunch of ways to do this in T-Splines, in the video I tried to show a way to do it with the least amount of work. The sample file I gave you before the video was more work so I tried to simplify it for the video. Another thing is you have to be careful with star points, in the first picture there are 6 lines converging in the center, the second only has 3 which is a better solution, especially when you want to avoid conversion errors.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @PhilProcarioJr!