I’m currently working on designing a ring in blender, and I’ve got most of the shape working. However, in the final boolean modifier I’m using to shape it, I get some really awful geometry. I’m trying to find a way to make the geometry line up better - perhaps subtracting more of a spherical shape from the inside of the ring? I can upload the blender file, but I’m not allowed to post urls as I’m a new member (I’ve only used blender for… a couple months now, tops. Still not great at it). Picture included - suggestions?
The problem is this - here’s an underside isometric view of how the vertices in the boolean geometry line up (they don’t, so… that’s my problem) but I’m at a loss as to any non-painfully-manual way to make things… play nice.
Additionally, those vertices aren’t just extruded straight up in the boolean geometry, but they taper slightly to line up with a proper circle - I would include a picture of that geometry, but I can apparently only put 3 pictures per post.
I’m trying to explain myself, but I don’t feel like I’m doing a very good job. Please let me know if I can clarify anything else.
Ugly geometry is kind of the trademark of any boolean operation…
Booleans are great in NURBS-based applications, but just plain suck in polygonal modelers. Period.
So, sorry, but other than “painfully manual” you won’t get clean geometry…
And btw: Why is that ring so huge?!
The reasons Booleans exist in Blender is that there are some situations where they are still faster ugly geometry and all than trying to work it out by other means. This, the intersection and difference of four curved objects is one of them.
Use low res cylinders, do the Booleans, apply them, and bite the bullet and fix the geometry, or retopo over the boolean’d object (what I might do, but retopo is not easy at beginner level). The easiest method would be to set up as if you were going to use Booleans but do the cutting with the knife instead using your objects as guides. This results in the least work after, but the cutting is not a one click business.
Try applying a ReMesh modifier to the result of your boolean. Crank up the octree depth and leave it Sharp. This may repair the damage done by the boolean, although you will have a denser face count.
I’ll attempt what has been suggested so far, but I was also wondering if, in the 3rd picture, there would be a way to ensure there is at least a vertex along every horizontal line (as well as others, for the sake of the shape) then project it onto the curved underside it’s cutting away from so it lines up when I use the Boolean? I don’t know if I’m making sense at all, let me know if I should clarify.
OK, some updates: I tried using the ReMesh modifier, and it wasn’t helping - I did manage to almost crash my blender by cranking the octree depth really high, though. I’m currently attempting to model it a different way, and I’ve got the geometry nice, but I still need to add in one curve - the pictures below show. I still get ugly geometry when I try to subtract it, but is there a way to wrap it/snap it to other geometry rather than subtracting, and would that help the geometry at all?
