Cineversity

I’ve got a model that was converted from an industrial design CAD file with some 3rd party plugin.
Unfortunately, I can’t share the scene file publicly so I am hoping that by describing the details, a suggestion might come to mind. Or if it is not immediately obvious, I could send you small portion privately.
The total affected area of the model’s mesh is fairly dense (approx 30K poly’s)  and is made up of tri’s but quads as well. There are some shading issues right away so I used the mesh checker tool and fixed the immediate problems like unjoined edges and overlapping points. But any editing that only seem to “break” the mesh’s overall smooth shading appearance.
I’ve checked all the normals directions and tried deleting the object’s normal tag, adjusting the phong tag’s properties, and tried the select broken phong edges and unbreak phong shading command all to no effect. I should mention that deleting the normal tag that was created with the CAD conversion smooths things a little but creates new problems elsewhere.
The thing that seems to help more than anything is to drop the object into a SDS modifier. That returns the mesh’s smoothness but leaves new problem as well. But using a SDS is not practical because it creates issues when this part (object) is then re-inserted into the larger model.
Is there some way to “reset” the normal shading somehow? The model, while not completely quads or tri’s, looks good to me.

Hi pablum picasso,

Please check your PM [private message] to use the provided upload link.

I will not share the model, but perhaps small screen shots (neutral and un-identifyable) to illustrate—if I find something useful.

All the best

Thanks for the file, pablum picasso.

I have no one click and go for that. I could think that this can be solved with a plug-in, but I’m not aware of a “cut edge if a 3rd party point is located there and melt points then”. I have seen it (the problem) from time to time, and it might be a good idea to suggest that to MAXON, or one of the plug-in wizard to do a “cut-magic” thingy.

Let me explain, to get perhaps a new model that works, or to help you to fix it.

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Please select the original file and use the: Main Menu>> Mesh> Commands> Modeling Settings [Shift+M]

Here use the Boundary Edges: Select. (image)

You get a green line, that is exactly the “border of segments that the model had. The complete model exist out of triangles. BUT: they do not share always two points. Sometimes they have the same location (!) for a part of the edge, but not the same points on both side. Some have, some not. Hence the in-homogeneous smoothness of the surface.
I’m not aware of any plug in or technique that could cut an edge to have always two points per triangle pair.

I have no idea if s/he can melt these parts first and then triangulate this. Some CAD apps for such “organic modeling” are based on mathematical descriptions, as in the ACIS engine. Which allowed for an resolution free modeling and then a density was set by given a max derivation angle from one polygon to the next. So, if the modeler could melt these “patches” first, and then triangulate, the mesh would work. For any hard edge you would have the need to select and break it.

My suggestion, as it seems kind of doable manually, cut into the triangles to have always that point-pair/edge as a standard.
Please have a look to the image, where the green circle is that is OK, the red lines are needed cuts to get a nice edge, after that optimize, but set the tolerance value pretty small that mesh is tight.
This is what the version of your file shows, but only cut isn’t connecting it. Optimize will help, but the mesh is real small, be careful, perhaps start with Tolerance 0.0001 or something weird small. See image, I pulled it out to showcase this. If you are patient enough, use the point weld option, to not screw up that mesh with optimize (optimize works alos with the selected only, which should be considered here.)

I saw also a little hole in it, but that is certainly not a problem for you.

Sorry I have no other options here.

All the best

P.S.: What I sometimes do in similar cases, is to delete one row close along such an edge (the green boundary edge). Use polygon selections for that, so the points are kept.

Then I use the Main Menu>> Mesh>Create Tools> Close Polygon Hole [M~D]

Sometimes this will not work, and to get it done anyway, I place a single polygon in that long hole, perhaps more along the way, a single one each time, and close then the holes.
Check the Normals of course after that. Perhaps this might work faster than cut and weld.

P.S.2: I’m not certain if this is at all adequate, but suggesting it can’t harm.

Giving the green Boundary Edges [Shift+M] can be “broken for Phone, to get a clean edge in the rendering. Notice that some share the same points, and there the green line is interrupted. This needs to be selected manually to break it.

After that the model looks clean, but again, I’m not certain if that “look” is wanted.

You might ease a little bit the work, by Main Menu>> Mesh> Conversions>Polygon Groups to Object. Object 1.2 would be the one that is based on several groups (as far as I can see it) and cause all the problems. Perhaps the original modeler can leave all separated, if s/he is not able to combine things. The native file might help and ask someone else…

P.S.:3 I have written to one plug-in developer, in hope to cure this seam problem once and forever. I called it stitchMagic. Fingers crossed.

Update, it seems someone has an idea already, please stay tuned. I hope we can get soon a solution for that. /update [June 21]

Please, pablum picasso, check your PM. I guess there is some progress in the plug in creation soon :o)

Not to be a pest, but please check your PM (Cineversity Private Messages). I feel bad to ask a plug in developer for help and then have no follow up for him.