Help with wings face rotation

#1

I’d like to be able to rotate a face, perpendicular to it’s normal - WITHOUT stretching/bending the edges parallel to the face’s normal. Effectively I wish to produce an angular cut by using face rotate (or otherwise) without affecting the remaining shape.

For illustration, create a cube and select the face normal to the Z axis. Rotate the face in X and observe how the result is squashed in Y. How do I create/move that face at an arbitrary angle without squashing the sides? I know with a cube I could simply move one of the edges parallel to the face normal, but if the face is not square this won’t work.

EDIT: Having some experience with CAD, I would otherwise solve this problem with a boolean subtraction. I understand that boolean operations are not used un subdivision modelling?

#2

[color=white]<< I wish to produce an angular cut >>[/color]

[color=white]Probably better to stick with what you want to end up with, imo …[/color]

[color=white]Depending on all manner of stuff – geom in question, accuracy required, what you’re actually trying to achieve etc there are various options available – even tho’ there’s no Boolean Tools (as such) in wings.[/color]

[color=white]Taking the example quoted, after (arbitrarily) rotating the face, do a vector axis scale along the appropriate axis of the rotated face to increase it’s length (height) – but not its width.[/color]

[color=white]If precision isn’t an issue, then do this whilst Viewing -> X (or Z) ortho, and eyeball it.[/color]

[color=white](If precision IS important, I’d suggest checking out the facilities offered by the Vert / Edge Intersect tools.)[/color]

If angle is known and accuracy important, you have sufficient info to determine the scaling factor necessary to do the job (info on linked site)

With this example, though, you could have done many other things (with +Z face) to achieve a similar result.

Moved top edge –Z, bottom edge +Z (or vice versa)

Constructed new edges around the cube (check out Tools | Connect) and used Edge | Loop Cut to chop off the unwanted bit.

Selected +Z face and used Face | Lift (RMB option) – then moved the newly angled bit +/- Z as required.

Select top edge of face and used Edge | Slide.

Select and connect all edges parallel to Z axis, slide appropriate edge and loopcut off unwanted chunk.

Etc

For more complex situations, you could set up a reference plane (often a face of cube rotated as required) and use Tools | Connect to draw an (approx) line of intersection – then use Intersect (in conjunction with ref. plane) to get stuff more accurate.

These are only a few pointers – other pple will have their own approaches and as there are often many ways of achieving the required result, none are right / wrong – just different :slight_smile:

There’s more info covering some of the above at linked site – if not already seen.

Pp

[color=white]http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks.html[/color]

[color=white]www.puzzledpaul.com[/color]

#3

Thanks paul for the suggestions, I’m interested to learn more about the intersect tools as I haven’t been able to get any sensible results yet. I didn’t consider the face lift and/or loop cut methods, they would work well for what I am trying to achieve.

By the way, that is a very informative website, thanks again.

#4

After a bit more experimentation I’ve found that vertex intersect|stay on line followed by loop cut achieves the exact result that I’ve been looking for. I think I’d be able to reproduce any of the boolean operations that I’m used for from TurboCAD 7 with only a little preparation required.

#5

Good - glad you’ve found the tool useful.
The only thing I’d add is to not forget that (sometimes) totally different, non-boolean type approaches can produce the required result - quicker and with less hassle.

One of the (many) great features of wings imo - lots of ways of doing stuff :slight_smile:

pp

#6

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