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Note: I'm relatively new to Blender, so apologies if terminology a bit confused or just plain wrong :-)

I've created a bowl by subtracting a UV Sphere from a slightly larger one with a Boolean Difference modifier, and I'm now making some decorative holes in it by subtracting a cone that has a point at the origin of the bowl - see image below:

enter image description here

I've already added a bevel to the rim of the bowl, but I'm struggling with how to add a curve / bevel to the sharp corners of the "tunnel" left by subtracting the cone. I thought about joining on "half a torus" inside the hole - e.g. this:

enter image description here

but that won't work because the holes on the inside and outside faces of the bowl are different radiuses and it would be a bit of a fiddle to get the angles exactly right to line up with the surface of the bowl.

I'm probably going about this the wrong way, so any help would be appreciated. I'm happy to start from scratch if that's the pragmatic option...

mclayton
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  • Blender is not a CAD software, avoid booleans. This has been covered extensively: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65395/repetitive-carvings-holes-around-a-sphere https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/67334/how-to-turn-my-honeycomb-pattern-into-the-sphere https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3212/how-can-i-create-a-hollow-sphere-with-regularly-spaced-holes/3222#3222 – Duarte Farrajota Ramos May 11 '22 at 09:41
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    @DuarteFarrajotaRamos - I'm not sure if this matters, but the holes are not uniform - there will only be half a dozen or so at arbitrary positions. All of your links are for uniformly covering the surface with a pattern... – mclayton May 11 '22 at 10:01
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    Some techniques still apply. Choose a base topology that adapts well to your needs, select only the specific points you want rather than all of them – Duarte Farrajota Ramos May 11 '22 at 10:08

1 Answers1

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Ok, so I've found a way to do it. Per @DuarteFarrajotaRamos's comments this might not a good way to do it, but I think it will work for my scenario...

First, in "Edit" mode, select all of the vertices around one side of the hole:

enter image description here

Then use "Edge -> Bevel Edges"...

enter image description here

I'll need to bevel the inside edges as well, and it looks like I'll need to fix the geometry a bit to close the solid, but it's 90% of what I was looking for.

If there's a better solution I'd be very happy to hear it :-).

Update

I've found a way that produces a cleaner bevel as follows:

  • First subtract a larger solid than required to make a slightly bigger hole - in my case using a cone with a larger base. (Based on other advice I also switched to a icosphere)

enter image description here

  • Close the inner and outer holes with a new face each. This will make a flat base for the bevel to spread out onto and eliminate any weird artifacts.

enter image description here

  • Then make the smaller hole that you actually want:

enter image description here

  • And apply the desired bevel separately to the inner and outer faces

enter image description here

mclayton
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    You should be aware that there are two very vocal schools of thought about Boolean modifiers in the Blender community. One swears by "non-destructive Boolean workflow" and uses tools like HardOps extensively. The other schools has good reasons for applying modifiers, like exporting to other applications, and swears at the problems that creates. Don't assume either school. Experiment and develop the workflow that works for your needs. – Marty Fouts May 11 '22 at 15:44
  • @Marty Fouts - my workflow so far has been to do everything with the Python Console and keep my scripts in source control :-) - that way I can tweak a setting and rebuild the whole thing from scratch without worrying about what I do as an experiment with the mouse and keyboard in the modelling view. That might change if I move into more organic models, but so far everything has been pretty geometric / procedural without any manual editing so it's been working for the moment... – mclayton May 11 '22 at 16:26