polygon/points to curve

[kurisutofu]

Hello,

I was wondering if it was possible to convert a serie of points into a curve?

For example, let's say you have a grid with 3 points per side. I'd like to take those 3 points and transform it to bezier curve so I can change the angle and round one side of the grid. Can it be done?

I was trying to model a simple airplane and started with boxes but then, to get the rounded effect of the nose, I guess I can subdivide and move all the points one by one but I thought if we could use curve, I would get a better result faster as the points would all move together according to the angle I choose.

[anim]

you can subdivide and move original(few points) while keeping display/template flag on subdivided Geometry, that way you are tweaking subdivided geo through a few points

you can easily turn few points into a curve with Add SOP (maybe then Convert SOP to bezier) if the curve is what you are after, but that curve will not have any effect on your mesh

[kurisutofu]

you can subdivide and move original(few points) while keeping display/template flag on subdivided Geometry, that way you are tweaking subdivided geo through a few points

you can easily turn few points into a curve with Add SOP (maybe then Convert SOP to bezier) if the curve is what you are after, but that curve will not have any effect on your mesh

I see. That's what I was afraid of. I will go with the subdivide method then. Thank you!

[Adam Ferestad]

Just a quick idea I had. I played with the idea of using a magnet to deform the mesh using your spline as a target for a copy node. Copy the metaballs to the spline points, then you can move the points around to deform the mesh. I am sure you could use some sort of stamp/attribute combination to get the deformation you were looking for. I haven't really gotten to mess with the magnet node enough to give too much, but i do know that it is a way to affect large numbers of points in a relatively controlled fashion.

deformWithSpline-Magnet.hipnc

[anim]

if you really want to deform geometry using curve created from few points of original geo

here is the way by using wiredeform SOP

deform_by_spline.hipnc

[kurisutofu]

Thanks Adam and Anim, I will look at that. I'm new to Houdini so I'm sure your files will teach me a lot!

[kurisutofu]

Adam, I just took a look at your file and while I learned a lot, I find this method difficult to model precisely as the radius of the metaballs and the place of the points are important factors.

But you taught me a good method for building a plane's wing, thank you! (plus working with metaballs and all, you taught me a lot)

Anim, your file is great and exactly what I was looking for!

I didn't know about the magnet node and the wirecapture/deform, thank you both!

[edward]

Another thing I have sometimes done depending on the situation is to mold the shape I want using a NURBS surface. Then I just use a Ray SOP to push the points on my polygons to my NURBS mold.

[kurisutofu]

Another thing I have sometimes done depending on the situation is to mold the shape I want using a NURBS surface. Then I just use a Ray SOP to push the points on my polygons to my NURBS mold.

I will give it a try, to learn ;-)