Reply To: Collab 2020: Modeling Heavy Equipment (Backhoe)

[Jake Korosi]

@adrian2301 – to answer your questions:

Q1 – nope, the length of the cylinders right now is kind of arbitrary.  Once I have your updated frame I’ll be able to shorten them to the right size, no problem.  If I need to, I can also adjust the cylinder mounts rearward a little bit also without affecting anyone else’s stuff.

Q2 – you are right!  There are clamps on both the top and the bottom; I left them off for now for clarity while you’re making your adjustments.  They’re simple square plates, so not a pain to add once we’ve settled the compatibility issues.

@blanchsb My favorite way of doing hoses and tubes like these are by using paths; I used them to make a French horn for a project a year or so ago and they turned out great!  There is one problem, though.  From the very early beta days of 2.8, I remember reading that there were some problems getting materials to show up properly in Eevee on 3D shapes made from curves or paths – i.e., you’d end up having to convert them to mesh to add a material.  I have no idea if that issue has been fixed or not – I hope it has, because I’d much rather keep all of the hoses curves rather than making mesh out of them, in case I need to tweak shapes.  But, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose.  

Also this month, I see people have already begun adding at least basic materials to their components, so that is on the menu for me as well.  At some point before the model is finished I feel like we’re all going to have to decide on some “universal” materials – yellow paint, flat black paint, glossy black paint, bare metal, shiny metal, rubber, etc. to apply to our stuff so that the model will look consistent when it’s finalized.