Now hide from view all the objects except Bell and we will move on to the Mouthpiece. We will use an extruded tube, a lathed spline, and a torus to create it, and position it at the end of Bell.
1. In the TopView extrude a straight 2" long tube from the center end of Bell and move the true center to (4.05, 0.65, 2.415).
Hint:: Don't forget to check your tool status bar, it remembers it's settings from the last use in your current session!!!
TIP:: Use Ellipse 1 in the Body Folder, it's already in the rite spot.......:)
Screen Dump 25
2. Click Extrude button, then rename the new extrude folder 'MouthPiece', color it, move it out of the Bell folder, and then hide the Bell folder.
Manual Refferrence::4.96/Extrude Tool
NOTE:: Another way of doing this is to position a hollow cylinder, with a radius of .25 and a length of 2, at the small end of Bell by using the Snapping Options. You try it.....They should look the same, either method.
3. Draw a torus in the right view and give it these values:: A=.5, B=.5, C=.075, D=.075, X=6.5, Y=.65, Z=2.415. Then put it into the MouthPiece folder.
Screen Dump 26
In the AngleView, Zoom in and draw a spline shape to fill the area between the tube and the torus. Zoom out, re-display and your windows should look about like this.
Screen Dump 27/27a
NOTE:: You can only draw a spline in the AngledView if you are snapping between two points. Pay attention to the points that you are snapping to, being on the horizontal line within your destination object when it snaps in one view, might not be where you wanted it in the other views, so always check your views to make sure it has snapped to the right spot.
TIP::Choose the Spline tool and use the Vertex Snapping Options. This will help get the ends of the spline lined up to the edges of the two objects it's spanning. If snapping is enabled, and the object hasn't snapped to any points, you will hear the alert sound.
HINT::Since primitives are simplified objects with a minimal amount of vertices, you might not get a spline to snap to the primitive. If you can't snap to the point you want on the primitive, convert it to a Spline Mesh in the Groups/Objects info window, add or delete points, and try again. (In the RightView add a vertical spline to the torus at the 12:00 position.)
Manual Refferrence::4.72/Spline Tool & 4.84/ 3D Primitives
Here's how you adjust the curves and move the points of the spline into position for lathing,
1. Go into the FrontView, hit the "D" key, and select the spline,
2. With the Vertex Tool, the tool will have a '+' at the bottom, add 3 points to the center of the spline.
3. Hit the "D" key, and move the points of the spline, the ones you just created, so that you get a shape similar to this .
Screen Dump 28
4. Name the Spline 'OUTTER SPLINE'
TIP:: Try using the control or shift keys when you grab a handle or vertex.
Now your turn, still in the Frontview, create a spline, hit the "V" key twice and click on the top right corner of the Extruded Mesh ,then click on the Torus just below and to the right so that the new spline ends on the inside lower edge. Select the vertex at the corner of the Extruded Mesh and drag it to (5.4, 0.7, 0), and add 2 points. Drag the new vertices and control handles so that the spline closely approximates the screen capture below. Name it 'INNER SPLINE'. When done it should look about like this..
Screen Dump 29
These, when lathed, will create the outer and inner faces of the bowl of the MouthPiece.
1. So in the FrontView select them both, and lathe them around the X axis. at these coordinates (5.05, .65, 2.415).
2. Name them and put them into MouthPiece folder.
TIP:: If you double click in any working view the presently choosen tool will execute its operation.
Screen Dump 30/30a
Manual Refference::4.94- The Lathe Tool
Last thing is to move MouthPiece into an intermediate position close to where it will finally rest
1. Select 'Move To', and for the true center of the object, enter these values X=4.81, Y=-.65, Z=2.415
Screen Dump 31
2. Click OK
NOTE::Final position for both Bell and MouthPiece will be determined by our next operation where we create the Tubing.
And as a famous preacher once said....."Have you been SAVED !!??!!"......get the hint....:)
THE TUBING SECTION
The Tubing presents the most complex parts of this model. We will extrude along a path to get the smooth curves. We will use the Scissor Tool and Translate command to modify and position them on the Keys and at the ends of Bell and MouthPiece.
Let's start easy and Pathe Extrude the Large and Small Loops. Hide all the objects except for the Loops and the Keys, then re-display
1. Select the circle tool, set the radius to .25, and adjust your Drawing Options.
2. Put the circle in the FrontView out of the way (upper right).
3. Select the Black Arrow Tool, the "S" key, and select the circle
4. Select the Path Extrude Tool, or Shift "P", and select the 'On Path' button
5. Hold down the Option key and click on the Large Loop, it will be the path for our ellipse
Screen Dump 32
6. Click Path Extrude button.
7. Now move the Extruded Path so that its bottom center is at galactic core, and call it 'Lrg.Loop Ext"
Manual Refferrence::4.115/Path Exrude Tool
Your Turn, create another circle in the front window with a radius of .175. Use Small Loop as the path for your extrusion. Extrude the new circle along Small Loop. Call it 'Sml.Loop Ext.' When done, your windows should look like this.
Screen Dump 33
NOTE:: When you want to display only one item in a folder, that item must be checked in the Display Column of the Groups Palette, and also ALL FOLDERS THAT IT IS NESTED IN.
Now to create a round rectangle as a spline path for the third tube, using the Ellipse 3 in Small Loop, Path Extrude it, Scissor it, and use the Transform command to position it on the middle Key, so hide everything except for the Keys.
1. In the TopView we will create a small round rectangle with these dimensions Width=6, Height =.5, and a Radius of .3,
2. Move the bottom center to X=0, Y=0, Z=.5
3. In the FrontView, clone the ellipse used for Small Loop, command"W" after you select it.
4. Path Extrude the clone Ellipse 3 on path using the Round Rectangle you just created as the path.
Screen Dump 34
5. Click the Path Extrude button.
6. Name the folder 'Outter Tube', put the round rectangle and ellipse you just created into it.
Now for the Scissors and the assembling
1. Back in the Zoomed TopView, hide everything except for Outter Tube
2. Select it so that all its vertices are showing, click on it with the White Arrow Tool, the "D"
3. Select the Add Vertex Tool, with the '+' on the bottom, and Zoom out the TopView
4. Where the object crosses the Z axis, on both the upper and lower sections, add a new spline,
Screen Dump 35
TIP :: All the verticies must be showing and you have to be in the object and on a spline when you click.
NOTE:: A spline is just a series of connected vertices, so the click adds a vertex perpendicular to the chosen spline, on each spline, all the way around. This is true for all primitive objects after they have been converted to a spline mesh.
Manual Refferrence::4.58/Vertex Tools
Now to cut the object into pieces, we will make 5 cuts.
1. Still in the zoomed TopView, select the Hand Tool, the "H" key, move the right half of the
object towards the center so that you can see all of it.
2. With all the verticies showing, select the Scissor Tool, or type the letter "K".
3. Go to the spline you just created in the top section of 'Outter Tube', for the sake of
instruction we will refer to this spline as 1, next clockwise will be 2, the next 3, and so on
4. Position the cursor over the spline and inside of the object and click
Screen Dump 36
5. Repeate this on splines 2, 4, 6, and 7 in order
6. Make sure that all the Mesh Cuts are in the Outter Tube folder
Screen Dump 37
NOTE::The previous screen capture has all the cut pieces selected to better illustrate the result.
Manual Refference::4.59/Scissor Tool
Name the meshes as follows, Mesh Cut 1, (the large remaining section)= Outter 4, Mesh Cut 2(the upper rite corner)= Elbow1, Mesh Cut 3= Lwr.Tube 3, Mesh Cut 4(the lower right corner)= Elbow 2, and Path Mesh 3= Upr.Tube 3. If your Cuts aren't the same then use the descriptions in parenthesis to name the parts.
Please move Upr.Tube up the Z axis 0.8, then group it with Lwr.Tube and call the folder 'Inner Tubes', move it out of the Outter folder and hide it from view, we will get back to it in a minute.
TIP:: Use the Transform command, or command"T".
Moving the two elbows into place is a snap, literally, using the Snapping Options
1. In the RightView, select Elbow 1 with the White Arrow Tool, the "D" key with the Option key down.
2. Select the Rotate Tool in the Tools Palette, use object center.
3. Rotate the object 90°s clockwise.
TIP:: If you hold down the Shift key while rotating you will constrain the rotation to increments of 45°, or set that increment in the Tool status bar at the top.
4. Go to the TopView, hit the "D" key to get the Selection Tool back.
5. Double Click the Vertex option in the Snapping Palette, or hit the "V" key twice.
6. Position the cursor over the the top left corner of Elbow, and with the Option key down, select Elbow, do not release the mouse.
7. Now drag it to the top right corner of Outter 4 and release the mouse.
TIP::Remember that you have to be on the object you are snapping to and within 5 pixels of that point. If you have trouble try zooming the view.
Now it's your turn to try this. Select Elbow 2 and rotate it counter clockwise 90°, then snap the bottom left corner of Elbow to the bottom right corner of Outter 4. When you are done the model should look like this.
Okay, let's finish up the operations on Lrg.Loop, make the Finger Ring,(I bet you can guess what we will use to do that), and assemble the rest of the model. We will do the same thing to Lrg.Loop as we did to Outter Tube. In this instance we will cut the loop in two pieces and Transform them (another way would be to rotate them by using the Rotate Tool and status bars). We will name them Bell and MouthPiece Mesh respectively.
1. First display only Lrg.Loop in the TopView
2. Add a spline to the lower section where it crosses the Z axis
3. Again using the clock analogy, and looking at the whole object, make a cut at 6 o'Clock and
another at 1 o'Clock with the Scissor Tool.
4. Name Path Mesh 1(the larger left side piece), Mth.Piece Mesh 1, and name Mesh Cut 5(the smaller lower left side piece), Bell Mesh 1.
5. In the RightView, Transform Bell Mesh with these values:: Rotate Right -15° on Center of (0, 0, .25)
6. Do the same for MouthPiece Mesh except rotate it positively
Display the Keys, and here's what it looks like when you zoom back out.
Screen Dump 41
Now Display MouthPiece and Bell so that we can line them up.
As you can see in both the Right and Top Views our alignment is off. As you might have guessed there are two ways of moving these parts. One is to use the Snapping Pallete and dragging as we did with Outter Tube. The second is to use the Transform or Move To commands. It is apparent that the Mouthpiece object just needs to be moved up the Z axis about .25, we determined this by the way Mouthpiece lined up to Mouthpiece Mesh, this is one of the advantages of using different colors on your objects. The center of Mouthpiece falls at about the bottom edge of the Mouthpiece Mesh in the Top and Right Views, and lines up pefectly on the Y and X axis in the FrontView. We know that the diameter of the small end of Mouthpiece is .5 because that is what the ellipse was we used to extrude Body with. Since the one object falls half way across the middle of the other, we will need half the diameter or .25. It will probably be better to use either of the Operations Menu commands because you won't be able to grab the object's edges cleanly in the Top and/or Right Views to drag, and the FrontView has everything lined up.
So for the Move To command we will need to add that value to the Current Locations Z value and enter that into the Move To feild while just re-enterring the Current Location values for X and Y into their respective Move To feilds. But for the Transform command we would only need that value, .25, to be enterred into the Z field of the Translate area and keep the X and Y values zero. Do the same for Bell if it doesn't line up to Bell Mesh. Using either method, when you are done, the windows should look like this
Screen Dump 42
TIP:: If you want to lock an object so that it can't be editted or moved, select the object and then click the closed padlock icon in the Groups Palette. If you select the folder then all objects in that folder and all sub-folders will be locked too.
Now go ahead and display all the remaining hidden objects, click the shaded button in the AngledView, Zoom out the window, and while holding down the command key click the highlighted Grid button"T", turning it off. Click the Zoom All button, adjust the position of the model using the Hand Tool and viola.
Screen Dump 43
Manual Refferrence::2.21-View Windows
Ahh......You noticed the Finger Ring, well at this point you are a modelling maniac....Go for it !! Also think about trying to fly a camera through the horn. You would have to "punch" some holes in the keys and the tubes where they intersect. Also a spline path that goes through the center of the tubes, this is what your camera(s) will "fly" through on, you can use the spline pathes that were used to create the path extrudes, making sure they extend past the Bell and Mouthpiece. How about some sound, model some notes and have them fly out of the horn, using the same spline path that the camera would use. Here's a modelling tip, use a truetype font that contains musical notes. So, as you can see, the only limit to what you can achieve is your imagination..........and of course, the boss...:)
