Can anyone give me some ideas how to create this shape?

[Gareth8 Albatros]

Hi all.

I've got an odd shape I need to create, and I'd really like your advice on how I can achieve it if indeed it's possible. I've got these two shapes:

The smaller ring is then raised 0.356m above the bottom one, like so:

Now, what I'd like to do is create a shape that will join the two rings. I've made a decent enough stab at the front of it by taking a ring, path-cutting it and playing around with stretching and tapering it:

What I'd like to do is finish off the other half in the same vein. The problem I have with that is that I'm trying to make a shape that's curved at the top, and either flat or more curved at the bottom. I've been playing around with cutting cones, hemicylinders, tapering cylinders, stretching them and so on and so forth, but it's a real bind. Are there any experienced builders out there who could give me some hints and tips to more easily achieve the shape I need?

I hope this is something that be done with standard prims. I suppose it could more easily be done with sculpties, yes? Unfortunately I'm not a builder and know absolutely nothing about them, so any help you could give me would be much appreciated :)

[Peewee Musytari]

Ugg that`ll be messy...Square peg in a round hole comes to mind lol

You are right that the way to do it is a sculpty, you could do the whole shape in one prim that way instead of what would be a jigsaw puzzle of prims the other way.

You could find someone to make the sculpty for you if you are not able to do it yourself, though you should get Blender and have a go at making them, you might enjoy it

[Suspiria Finucane]

Sculpt it. :smileyhappy:

 

http://www.blender.org/

[Cinder Roxley]

You don't need to master sculpties to make that. A second life resident made this program which i use for shapes like that http://www.archipelis.com/ . There are some equally easy free tools in the wiki http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide . Good luck!

[Knowl Paine]

Take a copy of the two part bottom ring.

If you use the grid, set the object to your grid.

From each prim remove any hollowness or paths cut. You will restore them later, Ignore any overlap. Having the prims properly rotated (as you do) to insure that the cut paths will align is important.

Now you want to make a copy of the bottom ring. The copy should sit flush on top. Copy each ring half. You can copy in place or drag a copy, whatever method works for you.

With the copies in places you want to stretch each prim, one side only, vertically to create the center section and keep it in alignment with the bottom ring. Stretch each prim to the height you want.

Next you will copy the larger center sections and position them flush on top of the center sections.

Note: Because of the taper the edges will not be aligned yet.

Stretch the copied sections one side only and reduce the height vertically to the desired height or thickness.

To align the top ring parts, you can stretch both sides using the stretch boxes, or in the build menu click in the Prim size in meters window and using your mouse wheel, slowly reduce the width and length of the top rings until the align.

Restore all Paths cut and restore any hollowness

apply a test texture

 

Your final dimensions for the top rings might not be even numbers.

Your graphics settings effect being able to see how well they really line up, just a fyi

if you create a tiny overlap of 0.001 meters it can help to smooth the seams.

 

I could show you a few things Inworld.

[Knowl Paine]

Working with regular prims,

 

You will have to have to create the illusion of the top tapering to a perfect circle.

One method can be to make the top circle ring from one prim and make it less hollow than the base.

Then you lower the ring until it "appears" to meld with the base top. If you have flicker on the outside, taper the the top ring slightly.

[Gareth8 Albatros]

Thanks, everyone. The correct answer was...get someone who knows how to build properly to do it for you