3dguy Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Hopefully someone can help me out here - I have a basic letter "S" that I created in Adobe Illustrator, and I saved it out as a DXF file to import into FormZ. It imports without problems, but for the life of me, I can't round the edges after extruding the shape no matter what setting I use. Can someone please have a look at the attached files and let me know what I'm doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated!! source_files.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Hi 3dguy, The shapes created in Illustrator have duplicate control points on the corners. You can see this if you Show Controls: And then drag the "corner" control points: The maximum rounding radius will be limited by the distance between these control points, which is basically 0. Redraw the shape in formZ, using the Vector Line tool and the Bezier or Spline tools. Then you should have proper geometry that can be rounded. Does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dguy Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 Thanks for the quick reply. I see the duplicate point issue if I just import the DXF with the default settings, but if I select "Make Smooth Objects" in the DXF options dialog box (when importing), I get the following shape without the duplicate corner points. But I still can't round the corners after I extrude this shape. Please see attached. Honestly, I'd rather not draw these shapes in FormZ. It's just that Illustrators drawing tools are much better and I can create these shapes with much more precision there. s2.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Your shape still has duplicate controls at the CORNERS (upper right corner of the S for example) AND there are not proper points at the corners (no vertical segments, just a very tight curve that "looks" square). You either need to find a better way to draw proper corner points in Illustrator, or with a little practice you should be able to easily draw it in formZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 If this was a font to start... why not do it all in fmz? Change to objects... Modify the type and round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I just took 2 minutes and retraced it in formZ: s3.fmz.zip Or, as Dennis says, you can use the Text tool to generate text from fonts directly if you want... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dguy Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 Thanks - this didn't come from a specific font, so it needs to be built from scratch. This one letter is part of a longer string of text that I need to model, so that's why I was hoping I could just do the line work in Illustrator (where I'm much more proficient). I'll do this all in FormZ then - thanks for the quick help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Bring your "underlay" in via the Reference Plane Parameters if you are tracing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Hi 3Dguy, Yes, as Rob notes if you have an image of the logo, you can view it as an Underlay via the Reference Plane Palette (from the Palette Menu). Were you able to draw the desired shape as you like? There are many ways to do this but my preferred method is to first "tear off" the Shapes tool bar and start with the Vector Line tool, at the beginning of a straight portion of the curve. Then switch to the Pt Spline tool and quickly trace the shapes. Don't worry about getting it exactly correct, but make sure to use the "appropriate number of control points." (Get the Pick tool, right click on my shape, and Show Controls to see what I used.) Switch back and forth between the Pt Spline and the Vector Line as desired, and if you only want a corner point and not a straight line, get the Vector Line tool, "wave it" over the project for a split second, then switch back to the Spline tool. Once you have the shape roughly created, get the Pick took, right click the shape, Show Controls, and adjust as necessary. This may sound like an extra step, but it actually is generally faster than precisely drawing the shape in the first place (at least for me). Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dguy Posted September 4, 2015 Author Share Posted September 4, 2015 Thanks, yes, I was able to build this and the entire string of text perfectly with FormZ and it's vector line tools (using an underlay graphic to trace). The entire string took 3 hours to do, but it turned out great and I had no problem rounding the edges after extrusion. Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Great, glad to help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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