Spiral Loop in a Circle

[Sketchy]

This is my first tutorial attempt. There must be a better way to present this, but for now I'd just do what is convenient for me at the moment.

This is in reference to the one posted on the WIP titled, "jewel of the nite."

If there is another easier way to do this type of model, please let me know.

Okay, first create a cylindrical ring like the one below. The one in the picture has 16 segments. It doesn't matter how many as long as the first point of the spiral we are going to form connects to the last point. Make the segments as proportionally-sized like a group of cubes lined up in a circle as possible.



The objective is to form a circular spiral with the ring as our guide like this:



With the ring as your guide use the TESSELATE tool to draw the spiral. Use the SHIFT key to SNAP to endpoints.



Then select the just added lines or edges and extract them using the CURVE EXTRACT tool.



You'll see this:



Hide the ring by turning it off in the SCENE TREE. You can delete it if you want.



With the line selected, pick the THICKNESS tool and add the desired values.



After validating the tool you will notice one of the segments somewhat crooked. I don't know why. No problem. You can delete the crooked edges and replace them by using the BRIDGE tool.





After the BRIDGE op:



Go to the appropriate view (like TOP view) and COPY the resulting shape after smoothing. (Or you can do the smoothing later.) PASTE, then ROTATE the copy to the desired rotation angle. Repeat the process till you get the right shape or figure.



I think the rest of the images are self-explanatory.

[Thomas]

Simple, but great tutorial!

[jbshorty]

Hi Sketchy. sorry i don't mean to step on toes. But there's another way to do this which is faster, and keeps the DG alive. Create a circle with lots of points. Create a helix. Select Helix, select the "bend" tool, then select the circle... Select the bent helix, and use the thicken tool. make cloned copies, and rotate...

[Sketchy]

jbshorty,
Yup, that's the quicker way to do it. And that's the power of Hexagon. It's undoubtedly way ahead of the pack. Where can you find LINE tools and apply THICKNESS to them?

The only drawback with the BEND option is that curves, which are technically not the usual Beziers or NURBS curves we usually associate them with but Polylines, are a bit harder to control. Because of the number of points involved that make up the curve, they create great amounts of unnecessary polygons, and even at such amount you still need to apply subd smoothing, which then triples the amount.

I appreciate the feedback, nonetheless. That's why we're here--to learn interactively. Not just point to links here and there.

Thomas, thanks for the good words.

[edcorusa]

Really great tut. I like it a lot.