At least it has the form I expected it to have. We switch the camera to parallel projection mode, in order to be able to delete easier the pieces that we don’t need, and starting from one side of the bench to the other, I delete every second vertical surface, as you can see in image 20.Īfter many cuts and a lot of patience, our model is almost done. We can see that in image 19 too, since now we can select every single cut surface on its own. This means, that our model is also cut in slices every 4cm. Every rectangle slice leaves its’ outline on the organic form of the bench, every 4cm. What does this command do? Exactly what it is shown in the image above.
We select all the vertical rectangles, then we right-click on them, and select the command «Intersect Faces with Model». As you can see in image 16, the whole bench is covered from those vertical slices. I created a large rectangle shape at the beginning of the bench, which will be used as a «knife», and then I copied and pasted it along the bench every 4cm. To achieve that, I used a simple function in SketchUp, and common sense. So first, I had to think of a way to cut the whole bench in slices, along with the vertical axis, every 4cm. Moving on, I wanted along the whole length of the bench, to have 4cm pieces of wood, with the one right after each one taken out. At least it didn’t take long to create it. Once we have the final form, we hit enter, and the bench appears as a continuous organic surface in a group.Īs we can see in image 12, the whole shape consists of a very detailed design, with too many triangles, which means too many surfaces, which means a very large file. At the preview phase, there is a parameter bar, where we can change the parameters and the shape of our model. In image 10 you can see the preview of the final result from Curviloft tool. Once we have chosen the lines that we want, then we hit the enter button on our keyboard.
It always starts connecting the lines from the smaller number to the biggest. Every time the «Curviloft» tool recognizes a single line, either straight or curved, it selects it with a different color every time and gives it a number, that appears right next to it. With the help of the «Curviloft» tool, I will select every curve one by one, and in a row, in order to form a single surface. In image 6 you can see the curves I chose in their final form.Īnd now, the hard part. The reason I am doing this, as we will see further down, is that I will need to connect each curve with the next one, in order to achieve that organic form I want. My goal is to paste the item as many times needed so that it reaches the final length I want my bench to have.Įvery copy I make, I choose the curved line inside the rectangle, and I scale it up or down until I finalize roughly the shape I want my bench to have. Then I copy and paste the rectangle with the shape I drew, every 50cm. I draw a curved outline of the shape I want my object to have, and after a few tries and repetitions, I finally got the shape that I wanted, as seen in image 2. I begin designing Natrix by simply drawing a rectangle, and then choosing from the BZ Toolbar, the proper «spline». However, the final result that I am about to present to you, came out exactly as I had it in my mind. At this point, I need to remind you, that SketchUp was not as powerful four years ago, when I designed this project, as it is today. It took me quite a long time and experimentation to design this project, and I also tried to use many different tools in SketchUp. At the end of the competition, Natrix did very well and received a Medal of Honors prize among 300 other projects. Another addition to this design I had in mind for the competition was to add three rivers that surrounded the city, and create a dialog between the benches and the rivers, mainly because of their similar shape. I named it Natrix, which in Latin means water-snake because, from every point of view, it looked like a snake moving in space. First, I thought of designing a wooden bench with uneven curves, which would look like it rose from the ground. After I found all the proper tools that I needed to design forms with curves, I decided to take part in an international competition for young designers where the topic was Urban Design. Natrix is one of my projects I did a few years ago when I was training myself to design organic forms in SketchUp.