T-Splines for Rhino

Organic Modeling with T-Splines and Rhino 4

A tutorial in organic character creation

Ricardo Amaral, Modellistica
Sérgio Silva, Paraglobal

Introduction

Paraglobal is a Portuguese company specializing in mold-making, plastic design and engineering. One of Paraglobal’s main areas of expertise is the design and manufacturing of highly organic products for automotive components, toys, and other uses. In an industry that has traditionally been dominated by hand sculpting, Paraglobal is increasingly incorporating digital tools in its production process.There are a number of benefits from using digital models: it’s easier to archive data, share data with clients, and explore design alternatives.

The problem

But Paraglobal has struggled to find a 3D package that can accurately make their organic models in a format that can be manufactured into a mold, at a price they can afford. Paraglobal considered several established industrial design packages, but the hefty pricetag (many thousands of dollars) made this impractical.

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The solution: T-Splines

Then Paraglobal discovered a new solution, based on the familiar Rhinoceros® software the company has relied on for years: T-Splines for Rhino. T-Splines can easily handle organic objects, and gives the designer optimal levels of control in each area of the surface. The entire surface stays smooth, and is immediately ready for manufacturing.

The process

The following tutorial came out of collaboration from Sérgio Silva at Paraglobal and Ricardo Amaral at Modellistica and shows how to use T-Splines for organic shape creation. This cow is part of a set of didactic toy animals that Paraglobal is currently developing for children.

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