We are glad to announce today one more new way to create 3D objects in 3DTin.
Many 3D shapes are better expressed by their projections in 2D plane. Sometimes you want to draw a two dimensional figure and extrude it along third dimension. Sometimes you imagine a side profile of a figure in the form of a curve and would like to revolve it around an axis to create 3D solid. The new feature we are unveiling today is meant to help in such cases.
Here’s how you can get your hands on it. Click the new button added to the Shapes bar to launch the 2D editor.
The 2D editor presents you with a smooth curve along with bunch of control points (circled red). By moving the control points around you can change the shape of this curve.
There are two ways in which this curve can be used to build a solid.
First is Extrusion
When you hit Build, the curve is automatically closed and extruded along third dimension and a solid of specified thickness is ready to add to your main sketch. This is how the solid of above curve looks like.
This is a very powerful technique. It opens doors to creating any arbitrarily shaped objects and putting them together into really interesting models. You can increase the number of control points up to 30, which lets you add more and more details to the curve.
The second option is Revolution
When you hit Build, the curve is revolved around the shown axis of revolution and you are presented with the final solid to add to your sketch. You can imagine this curve to be a side profile of the final solid. When added to sketch the above curve looks like this.
You can use this trick to create objects like Pots, Vase or any other shape that is circularly symmetric.
We are very excited to see what you make of this new way of building 3D shapes. Head over to 3DTin and try it now.
(The objects created with revolution can be little too heavy and sometimes with some undesired artifacts. We will fix that aspect in future. For now we wanted to deliver the new feature to you to get your early feedback.)
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