Collab 2020: Modeling Heavy Equipment (Backhoe)

[Kent Trammell]

Brilliant work on the *swing arm*! Thanks for digging deep on this part. I’ve updated its name on the spreadsheet. No problem at all starting over from scratch – I’m happy you did. It doesn’t surprise me that mine was poorly approximated 😅

So next week after you’ve finished your stage-two work on the digger arm, if possible I’d like to get a copy of it so that I can adjust the width of the hinge knuckle to fit precisely.

Absolutely. I will be providing everyone the updated master file with all contributions ASAP after the stream 👍

[Kent Trammell]

STREAM #2 Tomorrow!

Hey team, thanks for submitting your models for review and assimilation. I just finished downloading all submissions and will assess them today for review tomorrow during the stream.

I’m so excited to see the level of modeling and participation so far. While the last four weeks have flown by in one sense, I’ve also been impatiently waiting to continue this project. See you all tomorrow!

[Omar Domenech]

I just found a two in one of what this livestream has produced.

[Kent Trammell]

@dostovel haha woah! After the backhoe is done, imagine we take all the highly detail pieces and kitbash something like this. That would be wild.

[Ingmar Franz]

Hm, what does this creature like to eat 😁 ?

[Omar Domenech]

Well since we have our DOG logo, I can totally see kitbashing a cool backhoe puppy, or the Puppyhoe. 

Can you turn this little one into a hoe?

[shan jay]

Of course not Omar Haha😄 

Plus 

Equals

[Shawn Blanch]

@theluthier and crew. Living proof that I work at Caterpillar haha. It’s the small text at the bottom of my security badge: “A Caterpillar Company”

Our company got bought by CAT a long while back. I don’t work at a Loader/Backhoe production plant but I do work at a Turbine Production Facility. I work for Solar Turbines but technically it is Caterpillar. The big Brother mandates everything we do and has the deep pockets we need to support our production needs. The turbines we make tend to sell in the $100k to multiple million price range. All of my swag has the CAT name on it including my lunch box, hoody, and hat.

I don’t know this machine intimately that we are modeling but I can give guidance on common things I see that are similar in design since I work at one of their production plants. We all do our production pretty much the same since big Bro has structured everything.

I’ve had a lot of fun working on something that my company makes. Whenever we do any kind of construction projects outside at my plant they have to use Caterpillar equipment from third party contractors haha. So I get to see backhoe loaders similar to this one from time to time. Anywho know you know me a little better. I may not be the best blenderer but I am killer at PLC programming and turbine testing/hardware/and software troubleshooting. I’ve installed, removed, condemned and worked on industrial turbine equipment for the past 9 years after graduating in Mech Engineering. I currently support production testing of overhauled (newly restored) turbines that are tested in Texas and our other worldwide facilities.

Much more I can say (I love to talk about myself haha) but this is already plenty.  Thanks again for this live stream.

[spikeyxxx]

Looked at the link about the checker deselect trick and yes , that would work (quite brilliant actually)…I saw it first here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yptda_yKQIU  but like I said that was long ago;)

[Shawn Blanch]

Yeah that was the first video that you linked when I was introduced to the workflow. Then I found the second video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYTmFHQDpHY and I felt like it clicked a lot better. I can’t say I have used it yet but have been keeping it in the back of my mind when I see stuff with super high resolution that needs to be simplified. Seems like less work than the old fashioned and painful “delete and start over” method.

Not saying that method doesn’t work but this becomes a welcomed option for some very specific use cases I think.

[spikeyxxx]

In this case I’d definitely opt for re-modelling, but the technique is great. I’ll have to use it a few times to see how fast it is and when it would be useful.

The delete and start over method might be painful, but so is falling down when learning to ride a bike.

And the second time you do something (in Blender ) it is thrice as fast and twice as good…(or maybe that’s just me)

[Shawn Blanch]

Yeah, I was thinking of maybe using command recorder with this type of work to see if I could maybe even program something better?

Yeah, like I said I have not used it either. I typically delete and start over too. But I really liked the possibilities here. Got my brain churning and made my jaw drop at how quickly I could decimate something manually and keep clean topology. I really like that Select Similar operator as well. I got introduced to it around the same time. I think it was probably the perfect time for it to “click” for me.

[Karen Trevino]

Here’s a link to my Blend file if anyone wants to give me some advise….Help!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ghdnh7CV-68DrKjQnGtJeXkMJjUYywhh/view?usp=sharing

[spikeyxxx]

Should be fairly easy to make it into an addon, but, what I don’t like is that I don’t have any control; I can’t turn a 32 edged cylinder into a 12 edged one…

I tend to model everything myself and as I plan ahead, I will probably not find myself in a situation where I’d need this.

But: I still think that the trick is great! Might be usable in completely different and unexpected situations.

[Omar Domenech]

Blanch, someone scratched parts of your security badge and left black parts, I’m sorry.

That checker deselect technique is a killer. The video of the girl with the nice voice was the best one.  

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