Friday 27 June 2014

The Birail Magic of BlueSurfs

The BlueSurf

Per Solid Edge help, a BlueSurf Constructs a surface using existing sketches or part edges.
Further, at a minimum, you must define two cross sections or one cross section and one guide curve.
And no need to go any further. The minimum conditions for the BlueSurf spell magic.
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Full index of Solid Edge surfacing tutorials on this blog is here.

The Birail Magic

The BlueSurf is an awesome tool by itself.
Let it roll along a birail and it will workout wonder surfaces.
 
What is a Birail ?

A BlueSurf creates a surface using cross-sections and guide-curves.
The cross-sections and the guide-curves can be open or closed profiles.
When cross-sections travel along two guide-curves, the guide-curves are called birails.
The cross-sections and guide-curves must be well connected and this is the basic condition for a BlueSurf.
This method allows you to create complex organic surfaces using just two rail curves (birails) and two profile curves.

Under The Hood

The curves for the BlueSurf in step 1 are shown in figure besides.
The cross-sections (red color) are open. see figure.
They can be closed too.
On the other hand, the guide-curves (birails) are always open profiles.
Also, the birails can be non-straight curves which they normally are, and you will see this in the examples to follow.



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A Squeeze Bottle

Keeping in mind that you are to use only two cross-sections and two guide-curves (birails), lets see what all objects can be created.
Look at the bottle shown in figure.
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The First Cross Section

The first cross-section is a circle.
Note how the cross-section is connected to the birails.
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The Second Cross Section

The second cross-section is an ellipse.
Also, the shape of the birails can be seen towards both the ends.
Using these four curves, you can have a bottle in place.
To read an in-depth tutorial on how to create this bottle,
Click Here.

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Hairdryer Handle

Take another example of a hair-dryer handle.
See figure.
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Hairdryer Handle - Under The Hood

The cross-section and the birails are as shown in figure.
And a heavily illustrated tutorial on how to create the complete hair-dryer with the handle and more...
Click Here.
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Door-Knob

By now you must have got a fair idea of how birails look and work.
And if you have started getting a feeling that the birails are pretty straight, then think again.
Have a look at the door knob shown in figure.
Try to figure out what could be the cross-sections and the birails.


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Door-Knob - Under the Hood

The red circle on the left and the small ellipse on the right end are the cross-sections.
The other two white curves (bent like hell) are the birails.
Keep admiring the complexity or the organicity of the surface formed.

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The Birail Magic

So the next time you have a complex organic surface to construct, do not panic.
Visualize the surface as two cross-sections and let them roll along the magical birails...
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