What is the method others use to create, for example, a face?

[Dim Git]

Hi esteemed people,
I am working on another project which is a little more involved and have to ask how others would do it. I need to make a teddy bear. I managed to create most of it but it turned out too small so I will have to start again but thought I would ask for your advice. How is it best to create something complex like a face for example.

I used b-splines to draw the outline and then another, say 1mm above that and continued until I had created shape of the face or body etc. Then I loft between all the shapes created by the b-splines.

I tried to use a sweep but couldn't get that to work.

What do others do to create such a complex shape?

Thanks for reading.

[chrisb]

Although this can be done, FreeCAD was not built for such organic shapes. You may consider some other program like Blender for this task.

If your current solution is great, but small, you can try to create a Draft->Clone and scale it.

[freedman]

I stacked 3 profiles of a 50 sided polygon and removed the equal constraints, lofted them all. The pic shows sketching in 3D almost like working with clay. The real question is could you do this with B-splines without it blowing up .

[vocx]

...What do others do to create such a complex shape?

Chrisb is right. FreeCAD can create any parametric curve and surface in space using internal tools, however, if you want to create a very curved shape, with organic transitions, you need to use a very fine "mesh". FreeCAD is not ideal to handle very fine meshes (too much memory); for that you would use another 3D modeller like Blender.

Nevertheless, you can in fact create some nice rounded objects based on curves. For this you need to try some external workbenches that are specialized for curves and nurbs. The Curves Workbench is probably the best for this task, Curves workbench.

[Dim Git]

If your current solution is great, but small, you can try to create a Draft->Clone and scale it.

I wouldn't say it was "great" so I am happy to start again I guess.

However, I did take a look at Blender (thanks) and while I can see that it is very powerful it is a whole new learning curve (pardon the pun) again. How on earth do so many people manage to become proficient in so many packages? In time I will dig into Blender, seems very powerful.

@freedman That looks a lot like what I am doing but using b-splines. 30 layers 1mm apart and each has 5 b-splines and 5 straight lines. A bit slow to adjust each layer to get the profile right but ...

@vocx That is again very powerful, another learning curve! My brain simply cannot cope.

Many thanks everyone.

[vocx]

...
However, I did take a look at Blender (thanks) and while I can see that it is very powerful it is a whole new learning curve (pardon the pun) again. How on earth do so many people manage to become proficient in so many packages? In time I will dig into Blender, seems very powerful...

Blender is very powerful, developed in the mid 1990s for animation purposes, and eventually it was open sourced. They recently got like 30 million euro in funding from different companies to keep growing the program. It's a pretty big deal nowadays. FreeCAD developers are also in contact with Blender developers, so collaboration with them is very possible.

For your specific needs, I really suggest you search the forum for examples of things created using the Curves Workbench. There are various examples ranging from aircraft wings to twisted pretzels.

And, yes, learning Blender may be a daunting task at first; I remember the first time I installed it I barely could use the mouse. The second time I decided to be patient, and actually follow the tutorials. If you decide to try it, I suggest you start with the updated "Donut tutorial". It's a video tutorial that has now become legendary; the guy who made it has a good pace to explain things.

[Dim Git]

Thanks for your input all,
I haven't visited the forum since my last post in this thread so I have only just seen Vocx's reply (I have now ticked notify on replies ), Thanks.

The reason I haven't been back is because I have been engrossed with my problem and I sorted it using Blender as suggested.

I'm sure that Vocx's suggestion for the tutorials is completely valid but because I didn't see his post I went a slightly different route.

As I said earlier, I installed Blender, felt swamped and had no clue where to start but did a search for tutorials and found something that worked for me. I know this is not a Blender forum but I think others might be in the same position and end up here so I will give the briefest of clues for those.

I went straight into the "sculpting" window (is it called a "workbench" there ?) and used the "Snake Hook" tool to pull/push various parts until the shape was right. There are quick tutorials for that. If I exported a STL from that it had something like 45,000 points. Too many to process in FC. Then I looked for simplify and found "Decimate" and reduced the points to just 1,400 which was manageable by FC.

Back in FC I imported the STL, used Part to create shape and convert to solid. Because it was the wrong size I used Draft to resize and because I wanted it hollow (mechanism to go inside) made a second resized slightly less and in Part did a cut of the smaller from the larger.

I am in awe of both FC and Blender. Thanks all.

[microelly2]

creating an animal is always a complex task.
but for human like objects makehuman is a nice tool.
the resulting meshes have a very good structure for post processing.

http://www.makehumancommunity.org/

[Dim Git]

creating an animal is always a complex task.
but for human like objects makehuman is a nice tool.
the resulting meshes have a very good structure for post processing.

http://www.makehumancommunity.org/

Now that looks interesting for a future project I have in mind. Thanks.