Hello to all. I am a product/jewelry designer working in Rhino 5 and Matrix. lately i’ve been pushing T-splines to the limit. I find it to be too tedious for fine details so i decided to work Mudbox into the workflow to sculpt details, but found the export/import to be a huge hassle. Most of the problem comes from Rhino exporting poor obj’s. I hear there are work arounds like using Moi to convert to obj instead of rhino but i hate the idea of paying $300 for moi when i just paid $1000 for Rhino 5.
I need my workflow to be… Build measurement specific solid (like a ring for example), sculpt fine details. Or the reverse… Sculpt organic geometry ( like a skull for example) and send to a program like rhino it implement measurements and functionality.
I’m hoping there is simple solution out there. I’m willing to learn an entirely new platform if need be. I hear Modo can do all of the above and export a print ready mesh. Thoughts?
Did you already buy Mudbox? If you haven’t, absolutely get zBrush instead. There’s nothing better for digital sculpting at the moment.
Most importantly, the re-meshing tools are the best of any software out there. Take any mesh, import it, and convert it to the cleanest quad-mesh you’ve ever seen, AND close holes, AND make it watertight, AND add a wall thickness if needed.
No, i have not bought mudbox yet. I’ll try importing a rhino object to z brush and play with the re-topo tool like you suggest.
For a free solution, Sculptris + Meshlab may work. It can be a pain importing obj’s from another program into Sculptris, but with Meshlab you can solve these issues - it will take a while probably to figure out how but often once you’ve found out a workflow it works for most models. And then if you need a Boolean function, Blender does a good job at those.
Tomas Wittelsbach has started a training course using ZBrush, Modo and Rhino, iirc.
Another example with Rhino, T-Splines and ZBrush here: Zbrush, Rhino, Tsplines model of Stannis sigil - YouTube
Other than that, there is quite some knowledge available over at the http://www.3dcadjewelry.com forum. Real jewelers with excellent CAD and CAM experience there.