Register now for this free webinar on Tuesday May 7, 10 AM Pacific.

Are you a fan of “Car Talk” on National Public Radio? In this popular radio show, “Click and Clack” demystify the complex challenges of everyday people trying to understand their cars.

In the spirit of this radio show, we offer “T-Splines talk.” T-Splines gurus Kyle Houchens and Sky Greenawalt (aka “Click and Crash”) will demystify the challenges of ordinary designers trying to understand T-Splines.

T-Splines offers designers the chance to make and edit beautiful aesthetic shapes easier than in NURBS, but we’ve found that designers well-versed in NURBS often have questions about how to best approach modeling with T-Splines.

In this webinar, Kyle and Sky will review user-submitted design images and walk through the process of drawing out a T-Splines-suitable topology on the images. This process of thinking through the topology layout (ie, how the faces and edges hook together) before beginning your model is a key practice that will greatly improve the quality of your models. Then, they will take one of the designs forward and actually create a 3D T-Splines model out of it.

Beginning and intermediate T-Splines users will benefit from seeing the thought process of Kyle and Sky as they approach creating these models in T-Splines.

Do you have a design you’d like some pointers on? Post it on our forum. We’ll try to pick 5-6 to use in the webinar, then get through as many as we can. If you have an interesting backstory to the design, your life, or your question, include that as well and we might read it on air!

The folks at Simply Rhino have put together a free of charge, half day workshop to introduce T-Splines and give some hands-on time with the product.

The workshop will feature guided tuition showing how, in just seven simple commands, you can get productive in T-Splines and create complex geometry quickly and easily.

The event is free, but registration is essential.

A huge box containing the winning T-Splines Organic Modeling Contest models from 3D Systems arrived this week.

For me, it never gets old seeing a 3D model go from the computer to a physical prototype.

These were printed with DuraForm PA Plastic on an sPro SLS 3D printer. 3D Pro Parts, a subsidiary of 3D Systems, actually did the printing for us. They offer a good explanation about what actually happens when a 3D print is made using their SLS technology.

Transit
The winning transit model was this electric sailplane by Joseph Culbert. Here’s the render, and some photos of the 3d printed part. This print was so large that Jody designed it so that it could be assembled. Note that there was enough detail to print each of the pilot’s fingers.

Consumer products
The winning consumer products model was the Blackberry Peer by Felix Lorsignol. Again, here’s a render, as well as some photos of the printed part. Each of the parts fit nicely together in the assembly.

Beautiful models, and gorgeous prints. Thanks again to 3D Systems and 3D Pro Parts to providing this to the winners.

Juan Santocono proposes this week’s T-Splines modeling challenge: a Star Wars imperial guard helmet.

Head over to the T-Splines forum to check out other submissions and to give it a try yourself. This is a great model to practice your T-Splines skills on.

There are a number of reasons why a designer or engineer would reverse engineer a part. (We’ll define reverse engineering as fitting usable CAD data to a scan of a physical object.)

One reason is to get a completely accurate CAD representation of the physical object. Most objects are not exactly symmetrical, have imperfections, etc. Sometimes you want all that information represented in your CAD model. For instance, if you are making a custom after-market part that needs to mate to an existing physical object, you would want an accurate representation of that object.

Another reason is to reproduce in CAD the general shape of the physical object, but not care so much that the CAD file exactly represents the physical object. If this is your objective, you might assume symmetry of the object, or leave out imperfections or minor details. You might take this approach if you are going to manufacture a copy of the physical object and you have a loose tolerance, where the form and shape is more important than exactness.

A final reason is to use the scanned object as the starting point to explore a new form or variation. For example, you might scan a car hood, then use that data to make a new hood with a scoop in it.

In this webinar recorded on November 29, 2011, T-Splines user Sky Greenawalt introduces T-Splines 3.3 beta for Rhino, and shows how its new reverse engineering tools provide high quality, cost-effective solutions for each of these reasons.

Sky’s presentation is pretty expansive, ranging from discussions about shape and accuracy, to the nuts and bolts of how you actually run the commands.

Take a look at the webinar below. Your comments are welcome. You can also read the audience Q&A from the webinar.

T-Splines 3.3 is a free upgrade to anyone who has bought T-Splines v3 for Rhino.

T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino (currently in beta) contains new tools for reverse engineering that have a broad application across many industries.

In a free webinar on December 7, T-Splines user Kevin Pasko will show how T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino enhances the footwear modeling process.

T-Splines CAD assets can be easily reused and reshaped for different variations, and the unique push-pull T-Splines modeling approach enhances creativity.

Kevin will show how T-Splines can be used to create editable, digital lasts. He will also demonstrate the creation of the mid-sole and out-sole of an athletic shoe with T-Splines.

T-Splines models are unique in that the each part is watertight, unified surface that can be easily pushed and pulled to get different variations. T-Splines models convert to NURBS or meshes for downstream compatibility.

Though this webinar will be focused on the footwear industry, the design principles Kevin will use are general and applicable to many industries.

Register for the webinar now.