Modeling Bevel Question

MorganRLewis

I've got a question for any other modelers here... when you're beveling (or filleting, or chamfering, etc.) how do you cope with tight corners? It seems that most of the time when I try to bevel a face, if there's a tight corner I wind up with bad geometry -- a lot of overlapping faces (see pictures for a before-and-after). Sometimes I can avoid it by reducing the radius, but that's not always desirable (sometimes I want a larger bevel) and sometimes it doesn't help anyway. Doesn't seem to matter what program I use either; I encounter the same problem with trueSpace (old, but I'm used to it), Hexagon, Blender...

I usually wind up fixing things by hand as best as I can, which is a time-consuming process. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to avoid the problem or to fix it more easily? (And to clarify, though I'm providing example images, I'm looking for a general approach more than ideas for the specific example.)

Mattymanx

You have too much geometry to start with. Instead of manually trying to round the corner before sub division, just have two polys meet and bevel the edge where they meet so that when you sub divide, the software will round it off for you. The less geometry you have to play with when building the model the easier it will be to maniplulate.

Richard Haseltine

modo will do a better job, I think. Admittedly that's rather expensive, and Matty is probably right - even if you do want to round that point you could do it at the same time as you bevel, which should give better results.

mjc1016

Richard Haseltine said:

modo will do a better job, I think. Admittedly that's rather expensive, and Matty is probably right - even if you do want to round that point you could do it at the same time as you bevel, which should give better results.

Agreed. The above two have hit the nail on the head...in this case, less is more.

Mattymanx

To give you a better idea of what I am talking about, here is a basic model in Silo showing what I mean.

Starting with the basic shape, I simply beveled different lines and then subdivided 2 or 3 times.

Mattymanx

More showing the same model with more...

Mattymanx

last few...
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MorganRLewis

This wasn't in prep for subdivision, but your point about the geometry is well-taken. I cleared the area around the cusps, and didn't have the problem, and was able to smooth the point by filleting it afterward instead of before (which may, in turn, get cleaned up a little bit though it's less harmful). Since the object had multiple trouble spots and this worked for all of them, it looks like that was what I was missing all along. (Hazard of being self-taught, after all; every so often you just overlook something that's simple in retrospect.)

Thanks for the help, guys.

Mattymanx

Morgan R. Lewis said:

This wasn't in prep for subdivision, but your point about the geometry is well-taken. I cleared the area around the cusps, and didn't have the problem, and was able to smooth the point by filleting it afterward instead of before (which may, in turn, get cleaned up a little bit though it's less harmful). Since the object had multiple trouble spots and this worked for all of them, it looks like that was what I was missing all along. (Hazard of being self-taught, after all; every so often you just overlook something that's simple in retrospect.)

Thanks for the help, guys.

You're welcome!