AliasDesign :: Wheels: Part 1

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Posted February 20, 2009, 12:06 am by , Fridolin Beisert You must sign in to share pages.

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Wheels: Part 1
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This three part tutorial will show you how to build two different kinds of rims together with applying realistic
textures, setting up lights and rendering them into a cool composition. The content is designed for beginning
Alias users and you will notice that I like to add as much detail as possible to the individual steps to make sure
that you will not get stuck! Let’s go:

Set-up I like to work on a grid spacing that is 1cm per line, it makes it easier to build details. To set this up,
go to:

AutoStudio -> Preferences -> Construction Options…

In the window that pops open, set all of the linear units to cm, and then click on the button that says Reset
Grids. This will set the grid spacing for all modeling windows to be 1cm each.

Revolve

Click on the Left window to activate it. In the top corner of that window you will see an icon for the grid

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spacing and the number 1. This confirms the set-up that you completed in the previous step. Now begin to
draw a curve:

Palette -> Curves -> New Curve by CVs

For the first CV, use both the Left Mouse Button (LMB) and the Alt key on your keyboard. This will allow you
to snap the CV to the origin of the grid (where the X and Z axis meet). For the second CV, use only the Right
Mouse Button (RMB), this will place it vertically from the origin. Place an additional 3-4 CVs with the LMB to
create a curve similar as shown.

Next, select the curve and revolve it by going to:

Palette -> Surfaces -> Revolve -> Options

In the Options window that pops up, set the Revolution Axis to X, the Sweep Angle to 60, and the Sections to
4:

When you click on go, the selected curve will create the revolved shape:

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Skin

Next, create a curve in the Back window as shown. Make sure the curve does not have any sharp turns and
that it fully sits within the revolved shape created earlier. Leave a small gap between the first and the last CV:

Now close the curve by going to:

Palette -> Object Edit -> Close

Click on the curve once and it will create a closed shape. This technique is a quick way to create a closed
curve that is similar to a circle:

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Center the pivot of the curve by going to:

Palette -> Transform -> Local -> Center Pivot

Click on the curve once and you will se the green pivot jump into the center of the curve. This will help in the
next step to duplicate and scale the curve.

Select the curve and create a duplicate by going to:

AutoStudio -> Edit -> Duplicate -> Object

Move the duplicated curve out in front of revolved shape:

Palette -> Transform -> Move

Use the Left Mouse Button (LMB) in the perspective window:

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Scale the curve slightly larger, this will create a tapered shape later on:

Palette -> Transform -> Scale

Make sure to scale the curve only a little bit:

Use the skin tool to create a surface between the two curves:

Palette -> Surfaces -> Skin

Click on each of the two closed curves to create the skin (the order is not important). Here is a view of all four
modeling windows:

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Before going on to the next step, make sure that both surfaces are fully intersecting:

Surface Fillet

In this step you will create a fillet surface and trim away the extra materials. Go to:

Palette -> Surfaces -> Surface Fillet -> Options

The options window will show up with a radius of 1. Do NOT close this window, as you will need to adjust the
radius later on. Just move it to the side for now.

In the perspective window, click on the skin surface and rotate the camera so that you can see the direction of
the small blue arrow. The arrow will indicate the direction of the fillet, make sure that is pointing outside of the
skin. If necessary, you can reverse the direction of the blue arrow by clicking on it once:

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Once it points outwards, click the Accept button:

Next, click on the revolved shape. It will turn yellow and also give you a small blue arrow. Make sure that this
one is pointing towards the tapered end of the skin shape. Rotate the camera if needed to check the direction.
Again, you can click on the arrow to reverse its direction, otherwise click the Accept button.

This next image shows that the fillet was not completed because the turns on the skin shape were too small for

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a radius of 1 cm:

Click on the Auto Recalculation button and then enter a smaller radius:

Notice that now the fillet can be build, however it is still too large to trim both surfaces. A radius of 0.25 cm will
in this case complete the fillet and trim both surfaces:

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Partline

In order to create a partline, go to:

Palette -> Curves -> Primitives -> Circle -> Options

In the Options window that pops up, uncheck the periodic circle button and then add 60 for the sweep angle, 3
for the curve degree, and 4 for the spans:

To place the circle section, go to the Back window, hold down the Alt key, and snap it to the origin with the Left
Mouse Button (LMB). The circle will be very large, possibly too large to see in the window. Go to:

Palette -> Transform -> Scale

And type in 5 into the promptline. If you now press enter, it will look like this:

Go to:

Palette -> Transform -> Rotate

And type 180 into the promptline. If you press enter, the circle will rotate 180 degrees in the X axis:

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Now you can create another duplicate as you did earlier and move it along the X axis (with the LMB if you are
in the perspective window):

Skin between the two curves to create a temporary surface that you will use to build a partline:

You will now use this skin surface to quickly build two fillets. Go back to the surface fillet tool:

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Palette -> Surfaces -> Surface Fillet -> Options

In the option window, click on advanced, change the Radius to 0.1, and then change the Trim type from
Automatic to Curves on Surface. This will allow you to quickly build the fillets without yet trimming anything:

Click on the skin surface and make sure the blue arrow is pointing upwards. Remember that you can change
the direction by clicking on it. When done, click on Accept:

Click on the revolve shape and make sure the blue arrow points inwards (to the right) as shown. Click Accept
when done:

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This will build the first of two fillets:

In the Surface Fillet window, click on Next to build the fillet that will face down:

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Click on the skin shape again, this time make sure the blue arrow points down:

Click Accept and then select again the revolve shape, arrow still pointing inwards (to the right):

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When done, you will have two fillets. Select only skin shape that was used to build them and delete it:

Now you can trim the surface:

Palette -> Surface Edit -> Trim -> Trim Surface

Click on the revolved surface, both above and below the two fillets; then click on Keep:

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Duplicating

Next, select all parts and group them together:

AutoStudio -> Edit -> Group

This will make sure that all parts have a common Pivot point at the origin. I have put the curves onto a
separate layer so that they are not in the way.

With the group selected, go to:

AutoStudio -> Edit -> Duplicate -> Object -> Options

In the Options window, enter 5 for the number of duplicates and 60 for the degrees in the X Rotation:

When you press Go you will get the full rim:

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Tire

For the tire, create a curve with 8 CVs in the Left window:

Select the curve and go back to the revolve tool:

Palette -> Surfaces -> Revolve -> Options

In the options, make sure the X-Axis is selected and that the sweep is set to 360 and the sections to 8:

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And that should do it:

In the next tutorial I will show you how can reuse the tire geometry to build a rim that has spokes. I will also
include a small bonus on how to create a bolt and socket.

Find out more in Part II and Part III.

DownloadableFiles

wheel1.wire (308 kB)

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