Two modeling questions

[Pancho]

Coming from Lw  > Modo > XSI I'm used to some modeling techniques. Not quite sure how to do this in H14. So your tips and help will be appreciated.

 

a) I have a mesh which needs to be subdivided in some areas. In a way it looks like half a quadball. I need the borders to maintain the current detail, but need a lot more polygons in the center. Is there a way to apply a subdivide to a group and have nice transitions to the unsubdivided areas (nice=only tris and quads)? I came across this post, but there seems to be no further information.

 

In Modo there is the bridge tool. Select two edges/edgeloops and Modo will fill the space inbetween, connecting both side with each other. You are also able to alter the amount of edgeloops/steps in the transition. The edges don't need to have the same amount of points and you don't need to select pairs. Modo will do this automatically. Is H able to do this?

 

Cheers and thanks for any input!

Tom

 

P.S.: This will all take part in procedural modeling workflows.

[jrockstad]

For your second question, unfortunately Houdini doesn't really have a drop-in replacement for the bridge tools in other poly modeling applications. You may have noticed that there is actually a Bridge SOP, but that's really a different beast altogether and used for NURBS rather than poly modeling. The closest thing to a traditional bridge operation would probably be either the PolyKnit or PolyLoft SOPs, both of which have their own quirks and can be a bit finicky. I'm personally hoping that we get a nice 'PolyBridge' SOP in H15. 

[ChristopherC]

For your first point, I've just had a go at redoing a quick and dirty version of what is seen in the video, that is a recursive subdivision. Check out the attached scene. Some issues will probably show up on other meshes and you'll quickly notice that there isn't nearly as much control but you get the idea.

 

I've also added a version based on the `Remesh` and `Triangulate2D` nodes. I kinda like this one—you throw in some scattered points with an attribute defining the edge length that you're targetting, then you generate a geometry from these points, and you remesh. What you get is a uniform mesh with plenty of details where you like and less density elsewhere, with a transition inbetween. And it looks more organic than the usual grid-like subdivisions.

 

local_refinement.hipnc

[edward]

So why can't the Subdivide SOP be used? I forget which one but one of the modes can be given a primitive group.

[ChristopherC]

I overlooked the `Boundary` parameter from the `Subdivide` SOP, which is what Tom seems to be after!

 

I guess there's no need for the more complex approach in the first example of my scene but for the recursive fun maybe

[Pancho]

Thanks so far! Didn't disect the hip yet, but the boundary tip already made things much easier. I thought connecting two edges would be somehow more simple/possible. That's really something missing. So used to it for years now .... : )