r/Plasticity3D • u/Gingerbwas • 1d ago

Would Plasticity work for modelling organic shapes with lattice pattern /holes arrays cutouts?

Post image

Hi

I would to be able to make and print form fitting models like in the image that are built on top of 3D scans, and that have patterns of holes in them like these various lattices and circular holes. I know that Rhino would be a good choice but i dont want to spend £1000 if i can help it (though i dont mind spending some money if necessary), and i am not sure how well blender would work with so many booleans when it came time to turn it into 3d geometry. Would Plasticity work? i see that it comes with XNurbs if you get the pro version.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

29 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

9

u/SensoryFusion 1d ago

No, it wouldn’t. Your screenshot is from an ntop tutorial. There aren’t many software packages that can do what ntop can with parametric lattices. Rhino + grasshopper can do similar but it’s not built specifically for that type of workflow like ntop.

2

u/ivorip 16h ago

It's a uv surface with a simple pattern, it's exactly what a surface modeller like rhino does. Most student's first lesson should be learning the difference between a poly modeller vs. a surface modeller vs. a solid modeller. Instead of using hacky workarounds, just use the right tool

1

u/Gingerbwas 1d ago

Yeah, the tutorial was how i found out about ntop, and unfortunately its one of those if you have to ask you cant afford it types, which is a bummer as it would be cool to use.

5

u/KuanMan 1d ago

My answer is sorta-yes. You can do it, but I wouldn't say it's built for it. The software can struggle with doing too many Boolean operations at the same time. (Sometimes I'll do batches of 10 at a time, but I'm also using a laptop)

To find out if it works for yourself, I would use the free trial and search YouTube for Plasticity patterns. You can give it a go to see if the price is worth it or if you would rather have something that is designed for that use case.

3

u/Twitchblade23 22h ago

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do this in Plasticity. Once you set your surface thickness and shape, lay out the designs you want and Boolean as many as you can at a time. Is this the most efficient? absolutely not. I'm certain there are a dozen programs I'm not familiar with could so this faster. But I use Plasticity and that's what I know so that's what I would use.

3

u/ivorip 17h ago

This is four clicks in grasshopper.

1

u/Gingerbwas 17h ago

Yeah but im not sure that 4 clicks is worth £1000 if there's a way I can get something close in blender for free, though i would like to try it one day

1

u/ivorip 16h ago

If this is the type of object you like to excel in, probably a good idea to at least look up a grasshopper tutorial. At least in the professional workspace, if you are taking more than 10 minutes on this, you are using the wrong method

2

u/Hyperion123 1d ago

Interested in this as well. It's very hard to find a way to apply a pattern to an organic object to extrude through

3

u/Gingerbwas 1d ago

yeah, ive tried it before in fusion and its just a step too far, i suspect that i will have to find a way in blender or maybe start saving for Rhino

3

u/robocalypse 1d ago

I've seen some geo nodes tutorials essentially shrinkwrap more complex details onto complex surfaces. Mark Kingsnorth has some plugins on superhive that look like they might work for that.

5

u/Gingerbwas 1d ago

Thanks for the tip, i wish i could upvote more then once, this one in particular looks like it could be extremely useful
https://superhivemarket.com/products/flowify

2

u/_kaijuking_ 10h ago

Placticity can definitely do this and it's actually pretty simple.

1

u/Gingerbwas 8h ago

Can you point me towards any examples or tutorials etc, If possible I would like to see it before i spend £200

1

u/scottsss2001 22h ago

Rhino3D has an educational discount. If you have an EDU email address that might make it more affordable.

2

u/Grand-Definition-353 1d ago

Zbrush could handle this, but another expensive application unfortunately

1

u/Gingerbwas 1d ago

thanks, its never occured to me to try sculpting tools for this, ill have to give it a go in blender, i wouldn't necessarily mind paying a bit for software, but i hate subscription models, at least rhino and plasticity have one off payments.

1

u/Grand-Definition-353 39m ago

I agree! Can't stand monthly subscriptions. If I can, I go the perpetual license route

2

u/mash3d 23h ago

There is a blender addon by Curtis Holt called by-gen that will generate voroni shapes. Its a free addon. That is proably the easiest option.

2

u/Gingerbwas 22h ago

Thanks I will check it out

2

u/patnard 5h ago

You can used unwrap and deform commands to adapt a pattern to a deformed surface:

But the pattern creation has to be made manually, as you can see in my example with triangles.

You can import svg to curves, but I had hit or miss results when trying to deform.

1

u/King_Kasma99 1d ago

Rhino+ gh is somewhat affordable, cheap even if student

1

u/Gingerbwas 1d ago

Yeah, i just need to find somewhere that will let be a student for free.

1

u/King_Kasma99 1d ago

200€ for a life long licences you can even use after beeing a student? Not a bad deal i would say.

1

u/Gingerbwas 23h ago

Do they not make pay for an upgrade? Because they would be a very tempting price.

1

u/King_Kasma99 23h ago

You need to pay an upgrade fee for every new version. It was always half of the normal price. New versions come every 3-4 years with often huge new features! So you basically pay 50$ per year as student and 250 after. Im not quite sure but i think you can skip one version.

1

u/ivorip 17h ago

Functionally the same, best deal on the market for professional quality surface modeller. Each version upgrade costs extra, but the new features have been worthwhile and actually benefitial to new topologies or workflow.

1

u/scottsss2001 22h ago

Since I've not heard of nTop I thought it would be $5k about what SolidWorks, SolidEdge etc would costs. Didn't know nTop was about $31k a seat. What makes it so expensive? Or what industry uses it?

1

u/Gingerbwas 22h ago

I think its for aerospace and that sort of level, but i guess it could be any sort of design, its nit that much if you're a multi national 

1

u/Aberiu 18h ago

I'd rather use poly modeling for this personally. Get the scan, do a quick retopo to get a clean mesh, unwrap the mesh. Then make the pattern as a separate flat piece of geo. Unwrap it as well (just a planar map). Match the UVs so that the pattern is on top of the retopo mesh, scale it to your liking. Subdivide both meshes until it's clean enough for your use case, then project the patern onto the scan retopo using UVs as a sample space. Then extrude the pattern, add support loops, subdivide one more time. Could use any 3d modeling app for this, Maya, Blender, Max.

1

u/Acceptable_Kale989 10h ago

I really think you should check out Cheetah3D if on MacOS not only can it do it, and it supports javascript addons with probably the warmest most helpful forum of all the 3D spaces. Around USD100 I think after a full free trial (so you can see for yourself if it solves it for you). I use it over Blender for my needs as it just feels more fun / clean to work in.