Converting non planar quads to nurbs

[setz]

I have an object that is facetted like a diamond but each of the faces is slightly warped so that none are planar.  The object is composed of triangles, quads and n-gons.  I need to convert this object into a nurbs object with each face being curved while retaining the hard edges for export to CNC.  I can't simply triangulate the object because that creates hard creases across the faces which is undesirable.

 

In the past I have simply made the object into a smooth object (by boole unioning a smooth cylinder to a face) and then I delete one face at time and use the object doctor to fill that hole with a smooth, curved face.  That works well, but in the project I am working on currently, there are hundreds of faces and it will take hours to do them one by one.

 

Any suggestions for a quick workflow to do this task?

[Tech]

Hi Setz,

 

Cap with Minimal Surface will also generate a smooth surface, as will NURBS by Boundary Curve (but not sure of those methods will be quicker or easier for your task).  Do either of those help?

[pylon]

Get studio to commission a custom plugin?

[setz]

Hmmm, how complex of a plugin would this be?

[pylon]

Hi Rob,

If you send me a sample input object, and a small example of the desired finish geometry, I will have a look and let you know...

[setz]

I had forgotten about Form Z Patches.  Using the Patch Derive Tool, all the triangles and quads are converted to smooth warped surfaces (smooth but not NURBS) with one click on a whole object.  Ngons are split into quads and tris, but I can easily deal with those manually.