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Basically I am asking what was already asked a year ago in this thread: Create a rounded wireframe?

The question is basically unresolved an I thought that since a year ago someone might have an answer, or simply an idea about how should I go about doing this in my own case. The wireframe + subsurf technique, even with with a crease of 1.0, will create uneven thickness with pointy corners at the vertices, however much I play with the options, and also subsurf adds unnecessary edge loops, subdividing edges between vertices.

What I feel would solve the problem is a RESOLUTION option in the wireframe modifier in order to turn those 4-sided wire frames into cylinders. Just like the option you have with curves. I know you can convert the mesh to curve but that automatically results in disconnected topology. And the skin modifier is way too heavy and results in twisted topology as well as rounded intersections.

enter image description here

In more practical terms, here is what I want to achieve. I have this mesh you can see in the picture above, which is actually a floor. Everywhere you see edges, I would like to turn them into cylinders in order to make a nice pattern onto what is an otherwise quite boring floor. I could of course use a texture but I would like the pattern to be 3 dimensional, and a 4-sided wireframe just doesn't make it. It needs to be round. What would be the most efficient way to do this, without the ugly results of the wireframe+subsurf, skin, or curves?

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Eranekao
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  • What about deleting faces only, turning into a curve, adding subserf, and then play with it from there? EDIT: Okay, never mind, blender doesn't like that method :( – TARDIS Maker Jul 05 '15 at 19:38
  • possible duplicate of Create a rounded wireframe? – Ray Mairlot Jul 05 '15 at 20:10
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    @RayMairlot the OP is indeed referring to that question, but not getting an adequate answer to his/her needs. –  Jul 05 '15 at 20:24
  • @RayMairlot Indeed this question is already linked in mine. I am saying no solution was found to it and I'm asking input on my specific case. – Eranekao Jul 05 '15 at 20:28
  • @cegaton You are right, though the wording of the first two paragraphs doesn't help. It makes it sound like the question is simply re-asking a question from a year ago, whereas the later paragraphs explain this specific use case. – Ray Mairlot Jul 05 '15 at 20:47
  • I have retracted the close vote, but I would personally move the last paragraph and image to the top to focus this on your specific problem. The opening paragraph makes it sound like you are purely re-asking an existing question. While I did read it all, that opening swayed me to think it was a duplicate. Just my opinion though. – Ray Mairlot Jul 05 '15 at 20:53
  • I'd suggest using TARDIS Maker's solution, but instead adding subsurf, turn on beveling that curve either with using bevel object or simply by increasing Bevel's Resolution and Depth - http://i.imgur.com/VzNAzWV.jpg – Mr Zak Jul 05 '15 at 21:18
  • @MrZak As previously stated in the question, the problem with a curve is that even though the bevel gives you the exact controls on the shape of the cylinder, if you look closely at certain intersections, you will find distortion and mostly disconnected topology, because a curve is basically a path with a unique direction. – Eranekao Jul 05 '15 at 22:29
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    What about adding a wireframe modifier, than adding a bevel modifier, and using the angle in the bevel modifier so that not all of the edges are beveled, and playing with the bevel values? – TARDIS Maker Jul 05 '15 at 23:10
  • @TARDISMaker That is a very good idea I hadn't thought of, and seemed like to be the solution at first, but I tried it and I cannot limit the bevel by angle, because the wireframe mod does not make tubes with 4x 90 degrees angles as I thought. I'm not sure if this is a bug, but depending on the edges being wireframed, some of them present an irregular quad cross-section. And then even if it did make perfectly square tubes, the angle mode works with a minimum, not an absolute value, which would inevitably bevel other parts above that value. – Eranekao Jul 05 '15 at 23:59
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    I too am still interested in finding a nicer solution :) Perhaps a feature request is in order.. – gandalf3 Jul 06 '15 at 03:52

3 Answers3

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You can use a sub-division surface modifier on top of a wireframe modifier. The trick is to enable 'Crease Edges' in order to maintain the crease in edges you don't want the subdiv to smooth out.

It should look like this:

enter image description here

Mike Pan
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  • As previously stated in the question linked, the comments and the question itself, wireframe+subsurf and crease does not give appropriate results. You can see it in your screenshot: the radius of the cylinder is not constant. The intersection points have a bigger radius, which gives "pointy corners" at the place where the original vertex were. – Eranekao Aug 04 '15 at 21:35
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  1. Select green edge loop Alt+RMB, Ctrl+E > Edge rings, Split (Y), Hide (H)
  2. Select blue edge loop Alt+RMB, Ctrl+E > Edge rings, Split (Y), Hide (H)
  3. Select all (A), delete all vertices X, unhide vertices(Alt+H)
  4. Back to Object Mode (Tab), Curve from mesh (Alt+C)

Set Curve 3d fill to full and set bevel depth and resolution:

enter image description here

enter image description here

p2or
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JuhaW
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  • Interesting idea. So far one of the best, but still not exactly what I am looking for. Issues: 1) Disconnected topo. Here it is done on purpose so that we are left with a consistent result instead of one single and very long curve, but inside faces remain and the object is not manifold. 2) For the first time trying this, the angles/intersection are looking great. However, it does so at the expense of a "flattened" (ellipse) tube rather than a circular one. There seems to be no way around this, because it's impossible to specify a separate X and Y value for a "width" of a curve control point. – Eranekao Aug 19 '15 at 22:28
  • Thanks for the interesting idea though! – Eranekao Aug 19 '15 at 22:29
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You will need to install standard add on "Extra objects">> "block tools">> "struts". This is what you need un a simple way.

Alexander ThreeDee
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