Looking for help on a project

[jsu0rf]

I am new to using rapid form and am still having some issues with modeling organic shapes. I am looking to reverse engineer a motorcycle gas tank I have scanned and am looking for some tips on how to approach it. I have tried creating a boundary network but can not seem to create smooth surfaces, I have also tried modeling by surface regions but can not seem to blend the surfaces together. I'm am interested in how a more advanced user would approach modeling something like this. Thank you.

[JAppleby]

Hi. To use the Boundary Fit you should have a good curve network and mesh. The mesh looks fine so this would be down to the shape of the curve network as well as the number of control points.
Ideally the loops that make up the curve network would be square and have no T junctions or triangular patches.
A rectangular patch will not need so many control points along its short sides, so this can be changed from the 'default' number of control points. Bringing this number down with mean smoother patches but at the expense of the accuracy if the patch is over an area with different features.
Check out Freeform Design in the help tab, under tutorials.

Hope that helps.

James

[jsu0rf]

Thanks James, If you had to model this would you use boundary fit or would you go with a different approach?

[JAppleby]

I would use the boundary fit if you want an exact 'copy' of the scan data. However, I would begin by copy and pasting the mesh and then change the copied mesh to remove any features you want to add in using another method. For example you could remove a hole on right hand side of the image and fill in the mesh, then cut the hole back out of the CAD model after surfacing to produce the freeform CAD model with a true cylinder cut into it.
Alternatively you could try and solid model this using sketches, extrudes etc. This would create a perfect model but would not be as accurate to the scan data.