Week 7-Continuing to Model the Steam Engine

My task this week as allocated during the meeting in week 6 was to continue to model my part of the steam engine. To begin I decided it would be best to create the pipe which leads up to the pressure gauge.

The first thing I did was to go to the create panel and draw out a cylinder. For this I set the radius to 11.364cm as I felt this was proportional to the rest of the machine. Also, I set the height to 3.133cm as in the photographs it appeared a similar height to the areas I had extruded on other parts of the machine, but for this I added a little additional height so that there was no gap between this and the main part when I aligned the two. I also made alterations to the number of segments on the shape, setting the height segments to 1 and the cap segments to 2.

I felt this level of segmentation was all I needed and so made the cylinder into an editable poly. I then went into polygon mode and selected all the polygons in the middle section on top of the cylinder. I selected the extrude tool and increased the height of the central area to a point which I believed was realistic.

Next I transferred to vertex mode and selected the top row of vertexes in the extruded area. Then with the scale tool I narrowed this section. To do this I made the alteration in the top viewport so I could assure that the shape remained circular and in the centre of this part.

I was pleased with the shape so far and so went on to create the protrusion. To do this I went into polygon mode and selected a row of polygons at the side of the new shape. I then opened the extrude window and applied this at 2.993cm. I then repeated this to create a second row of polygons, once again to this extrude amount. Lastly I selected the row of vertexes of the second extruded part and with the scale tool aligned them.

I then went on to the area above this where I noticed that the shape was very similar to that of the one I had just modelled, so I cloned a copy of this and positioned it above the original. The bottom wider part (the original cylindrical shape) was not needed on the clone and so I deleted this and recreated the original height by going into edge mode and selecting the bottom edge, choosing the move tool and dragging out new polygons by holding down the shift key. Finally I moved to border mode, selected the bottom edge and selected cap from the menu.

The extruded section was also not necessary on this part and so I removed this also. Then I went back into edge mode, selected all the edges at the top of the gap and dragged out new ones whilst holding the shift key.

I then turned on the snap tool with it set as ‘snap to vertex’ and joined the new vertexes with that of the bottom of the hole. To finish this task I selected the vertexes I had just joined with the paint selection marquee and opened the weld window to merge the overlapping vertexes into one.

I was now happy with this shape and so went on to produce the shapes either side of this piece. Firstly I drew out a cylinder with a radius of 9.854cm and a height of 3.816cm as I felt this looked proportional to parts I had already modelled. I set the number of height segments to 1 and cap segments to 2. I then positioned this next to the first cylindrical shape.

Next I created a box which would go the opposite side to the cylinder. For this I set the height to 19.284cm, width to 24.057cm and length to 4.371cm. I then aligned it with the post and cylinder I had just created.

At this point I compared the model to the photograph I was working from and noticed that this part was not realistic in size. My initial thought was that the cylinder and box were too large, but I later realised that it was actually the pipe in the centre that was too short. To resolve this I went into vertex mode and with the top two rows of vertexes selected moved them upwards with the move tool until I felt their height was correct. I then highlighted all the vertexes in the middle of this object and used the scale tool to space these out more evenly.

I thought this part now was in proportion to the rest of the machine and so I decided to go on and create the pipe up to the pressure gauge. To start I went into polygon mode and selected the polygons on the top of the edited cylinder. Then I opened the extrude window and applied an extrude amount of 3.373cm. I chose this value as when I referred to the image I noticed that it was slightly taller than other areas I had extruded.

In the photo I spotted that the pipe became narrower at this point so to do this I went into edge mode and selected the edges on the inside of the circle at the top. I then opened the connect edges window and set it to add 1 ring of segment. Also, I set the slide value to 10 so that the outer ring of segments was larger than the central ring as this was the proportions in the photo.

Following this I created the pipe by extruding the central area of segments of the cylinder. To do this I referred to the most suitable of my photos as a guide to the length of each part. With this I was able to apply the height I required in the extrude window, making it proportional to the rest of the model.

Using this technique I was able to gradually build up the pipe. Each time I chose an extrusion height which I felt was most realistic.

I felt I had gained the full height by extrusion, but some sections would not be able to be worked with due to a lack of vertexes. So, I went into edge mode and selected one of the vertical edges in the top section of the pipe. I then selected ring and opened the connect edges window where I selected the segment value of 5.

The next step was to create the bolts along the pipe. To do this I selected the vertexes at the top and bottom of the segments where the bolt needed to be. I then used the scale tool to make this part wider than the rest of the pipe in the top viewport so I could assure it remained circular.

After this I needed to transform it into a hexagonal shape rather than a circular one. To do this I divided the number of vertexes in one ring by 6, giving me the result of 3. I then selected every third vertex around the circle and with the scale tool made these points wider than the others, gaining the shape I wanted for the bolt. I was careful how far I scaled these vertexes out as I did not want to over or under work this and not get the correct shape.

Next I created the ‘T’ join on the pipe. Once again I went into edge mode and selected one of the vertical edges in the section I next wanted to work on. I then clicked on the ring button in the edge rollout menu before opening the connect window. Here I set the segment value to 4 and applied a pinch value of 65 to separate the rows of vertexes I was creating, resulting in 3 rows of vertexes at the top and another 3 at the bottom. However, I did find I needed to make further changes to the position of the rows with the move tool to get them as close together as I needed them to be. Then I selected the middle of each of these 3 rows and made these parts slightly wider with the scale tool.

The following task was to create the bolts and other joining areas along the remainder of the pipe. To do this I repeated the processes I used previously, this being the scaling out of every third vertex to create a bolt and where extra vertexes were necessary I created these with the connect edges tool. In the cases of the bolts I found it easier to scale these sections out much larger than necessary to begin with as it made it easier to select the vertexes which need scaling out further.

At this point I decided it would be a good time to create the pressure gauge. To begin I studied the photographs I had taken during the visit and from the shape in the image felt that a sphere would be the best shape to start with to create the sides of the dial. Once the sphere was drawn I used the rotate tool to position the areas where there are several joins of vertexes at the front and back of the dial. I then converted the shape into an editable poly and selected the polygons at the front and back of the gauge with the paint selection marquee before deleting them.

So far the shape was OK, but a ridge in the middle of this section still needed to be created. To do this I selected two horizontal edges which were in the middle of the edited sphere and in the editable poly edge rollout menu selected the ring button to highlight all the parallel edges.

I then opened the connect edges window and with this added 1 extra column of segments to each column.

Now the extra vertexes had been created I selected each row in turn and with the move tool positioned both further away from the central row of vertexes. From here I tried to create the shape of the protruding area in the centre, but found this was not possible with the number of segments I had so far. So, I repeated the edge selection and connect edges techniques whilst still in editable poly mode to create 2 more columns of vertexes.

Next I selected the middle 3 columns of vertexes on the sphere and with the scale tool drew them out evenly, creating the ridged.

I felt this had gone well so far, but I did feel the dials side was too curved in relation to the photo I was working from. I decided the best way to solve this would be to reposition some of the vertexes where most of the curve was present, these being the two next to the ridged area. To finish this part of the pressure gauge I selected the outer rings of vertexes and used the scale tool to bring them closer to previous rows, creating a slightly curved edge.

After this I went into edge mode and selected all the edges on the front outer rim. Then with the move tool I dragged out new polygons through the hole in the sphere while holding down the shift key as this would prevent the inside being visible. When doing this I dragged the new polygons further than necessary as I felt this would make it easier to identify which were joined and which were not when I snap them to the outer rim at the back.

Next I turned on the snap tool and made sure it was set to ‘snap to vertex’ so I could join the vertexes which I had just created to the unconnected ones at the back of the dial. This was slightly harder than expected as when I moved each vertex it jumped to the closest one. Due to this it took a lot of care to make sure all the vertexes were correctly aligned and that at no one place were there twisted segments or more than one vertex joined to another.

When I believed I had snapped each vertex to the correct place I selected all the vertexes I had just joined with the paint selection tool and opened the weld window. Here I set the weld threshold to 0.025cm as this reduced the number of vertexes by quite a bit.

To check that all the vertexes which had been snapped together were welded I moved each one in turn to make sure they did not come apart. As not one did, I feel this task was completed successfully.

At this point I felt I had done all that was needed on this part of the dial and so moved on to create the centre part. For this I created a cylinder and set a radius of 9.439cm so it fitted within the outer shape with no gaps and a height of 7.002cm to try to get the correct level of gap between the edge of the metal part and the dial face. I set the height segment value to 1 as no more were necessary and the cap segments to 2 as this will allow me to create the spindle in the centre which the needle will be attached to.

I then made this into an editable poly, went into vertex mode and selected the inner ring of vertexes. I reduced the width of this ring with the scale tool to a point which I felt was a realistic size for the central raised area.

Next I transferred to polygon mode and selected the polygons in the centre of the dial face. I then opened the extrude window and applied the extrude amount of 0.674cm and then extruded a second time to 0.776cm. I felt this created the correct height of extrusion and so went into vertex mode and selected the vertexes created from the second extrusion. Then with the scale tool I reduced the width of the ring of vertexes to a point which I felt was realistic.

I then went on to create the needle for the dial. Looking at the shape I was not sure if there was a suitable primitive I should use to create this within smax. Instead I headed for the line tool. With this I set the type to corner and turned on snap. I then drew out a shape made up of quadrants to create one half of the needle.

When I was happy with this part I selected all the lines and cloned an instance and mirrored the new quadrants along the X axis. Then with the move tool I positioned the two side by side.

Next I selected one of the quadrants and made it into an editable poly. I then went to polygon mode, selected this quadrant and opened the attach window so I could join all the other spline quadrants. Finally I selected all the vertexes of the needle and used the weld tool set to 0.025cm to join all of the overlapping vertexes which had been snapped together.

I was quite pleased with this; however I did find that the central part where I joined the mirrored instance to the original was still not welded. To resolve this I highlighted the central vertexes, reopened the weld window and increased the weld threshold to 0.559cm.

Afterwards I rotated and scaled the shape so that it fitted on the face of the dial. When it was to scale I went into vertex mode and selected the vertexes at the join with the spindle on the dial face. Firstly I used the move tool to make the shape rounder in this area and then with the scale tool I increased the width between the vertexes so they were visible either side of the spindle.

Looking at the needle as a whole I felt it was too wide in comparison to photo. So, with all the vertexes select apart from the two I just positioned either side of the spindle I used the scale tool to reduce the width.

I was quite pleased with this so far, but felt the area of the needle around the spindle was not quite right as a diamond shape. To correct this I went into edge mode and selected the cut tool, allowing me to divide this area up horizontally. I completed this process twice, resulting in a total of 8 segments in this section.

Next I returned to vertex mode and with the move tool moved the new vertexes outwards, creating a rounder shape. This went quite well, however I did feel too little of the needle was visible around the sides of the spindle. So, whilst in vertex mode I highlighted all of the vertexes which made up the circular shape and scaled out the vertexes so more of the needle was visible around the outside.

The final alteration I did to the basic shape was to make the needle slightly thinner.

I was pleased with the shape of this and so I decided it was time to give it a third dimension. To do this I changed to polygon mode and selected all of the segments which make up the needle. Then I opened the extrude window. Here I applied the extrude value of 0.187cm as I felt this gave it a realistic depth and finished the task by capping the open edge.

I am happy with the dial and feel it is now complete. Next I will create the piping which will join the dial to the pipe I have already made.