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Gunderson Dwarven Dagger Tutorial (Rhino 4.0) of 23

Dwarven Dagger Tutorial

Benjamin Gunderson

Cedarcrest High School

January 27, 2014


1.0 Introduction

1.1 In this tutorial you will learn how to create surfaces, extrusions, simple boolean

operations, and simple rendering. You will be able to perfect your hand-eye coordination

and simple sketching skills. This tutorial will be based in Rhinoceros 4.0, a NSBU

modeling program.

2.0 Prerequisites

2.1 You will be using Rhinoceros 4.0. This is designed for those who know some basics. If

you do not know how to use it at all, seek out the help of a fellow classmate or tutorial.

Likewise, I will be releasing a tutorial soon on advanced rendering

2.2 Skills you will need to already know

2.2.1 Open and save a Rhino document

2.2.2 Align viewports and change simple display properties

2.2.3 Create simple sketches on world plane

2.2.4 Use the Rhino command bar

2.2.5 Toggle control points (F10, F11)

2.2.6 Use and navigate the help pane (helpful to know)

3.0 Skills to Be Learned

3.1 In this tutorial you will learn specific skills. Your understanding of sketching and free

hand will be implemented a great deal. As many real life applications cannot be modeled

with equations or regular shapes, this tutorial will push you into using hand sketching,

editing control points, and doing lots of post-editing. Specific skills you will learn

include;

3.1.1 Creation of surfaces from network curves

3.1.2 Extruding curves

3.1.3 Extruding curves along other curves and guide lines

3.1.4 Using and editing control points

3.1.5 Rebuilding models to increase control point control

3.1.6 Using advanced chamfers and fillets

3.1.7 Creating surface intersections

3.1.8 Creating raised surfaces and modeling on varying depths

3.1.9 Basic color and material rendering

3.1.10 Using lighting in renderings


4.0 Modeling Process

The Blade

4.1 Open a new Rhino Project. For the purposes of this project, I recommend a small object

file with inches as units.

4.2 You will also want to reference this picture, it was more than helpful; Dwarven Dagger

4.3 To start things off, we will begin by making a sketch of half the blade. Just follow the

general shape and outline with the line tool. We will draw to lines such as. The upper line

will become the side of the blade and the lower line will follow to the point of the blade.

4.4 We will trim the lines now to be an appropriate length. Highlight the lower line and type

“trim” in the command bar and hit Enter. Select the lower portion of the other line. The

lines should now look like this

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=dwarven+dagger+skyrim&FORM=HDRSC2&adlt=strict#view=detail&id=5465BA8CAF2943CD186D916DB1C6C85A45081250&selectedIndex=7


4.5 Now trim the other line to this line. Once you have done so, select both the lines and type

“fillet” and type Enter. In the command bar, you may change the radius to an appropriate

scale. Now select the first line and the second line. You will notice a filleted union

between the lines. I chose a radius of 5. If the radius doesn’t suit you, undo and change it.

Now we will mirror the blade half. Type “mirror” and hit enter. Select all the lines,

should be three, and hit enter. On the bottom of the screen, Click ortho (This will make

lines run parallel to x and y axis only) and Osnap, and select the “end” option. Hover

over the lowest point on the blade half until “end” appears and the point is highlighted.

Click and draw a vertical line. Click the second point to finish the mirror plane.

4.6 Now we will create depth to the blade and give it an edge. Type “copy” into the

command bar and hit enter. Select all the curves (there should be 6) and hit enter. Select

your origin point on the tip of the blade and move up. Decide how steep you want your

blade (The farther up, the less steepness it will have) Select the second point. Now you

will need to carefully select your curves you just copied and type “scale1d” and hit enter.

Click the bottom point and go outward to the left or right, click a second point, and move

back in toward the blade until the distance is to your pleasing. It may not look quite like

you imagined, but this is where your creativity comes in. Using f10, turn on control

points for the selected objects. Here you can alter the shape of the curves after they are

set. F11 turns off these points. When finished, your blade should look something like this.


4.7 Now, create a line from the left side of the upper point of the blade to the right side of the

blade. Now that all curves are enclosed, trim the center out of the crosswise curve, like

this. These are the cutting objects

This is the part missing after the trim


4.8 Now type “extrude” in the command bar and hit enter Select the inner both curves. In the

command bar click “cap” until yes is selected and click “Bothsides” until yes is selected.

Press enter and pull the extrusion to the thickness of the blade you want. Once you click

at a desired thickness, the operation will be finished. Your model should look something

like this

4.9 Now we will do a rail sweep. The rail sweep will allow the heightened area of the blade

to slope down to the edge of the blade. First, we will create a cross section. Create a line

snapped to the end points of the base of the blade, as shown below


4.10 Almost ready, select the curve in the center of the shape and type “copy” and press enter.

Move a copy of it to the upper outer edge of your solid, like this.

4.11 Now type “sweep2” in the command bar. Hit enter. Select your first rail as the outside

edge of the blade, like this.

4.12 Your other rail will be the edge of your raised surface, like this.


4.13 Now select your cross section curve. This is the curve you made in step 4.9. Select this

curve and hit enter. A menu will appear, leave the options alone and hit Ok. Your blade

should now look like this;

4.14 Now we will mirror this new blade edge over the top plane and across the center of the

blade. Using “mirror” select ONLY the rail sweep edge and draw your mirror plane from

the tip of the blade parallel to the blade. It should now look like this;


4.15 Now we will mirror it across the top plane. Type mirror and select both rail sweep edges.

Press enter. In the command bar click “3 point” and draw a plane from the point of the

blade to the back of the blade and a 3rd

point to the left or right, like this;

4.16 If you want to leave the center portion of the blade hollow you may, Personally I think it

looks better that way, but as the Dwarven Dagger did not, I will create a surface in the

center. Type “EdgeSrf” in the command bar And select the edges as shown

4.17 Press enter. There is now a surface in the center of the blade. Other than the extruded art

in the blade, the blade is now finished, and you are ready to make the handle! We will

come back to the decorative drawings.


The Handle

4.18 Draw a rectangle to serve as the core for the handle. Make sure to select the back corners

of the blade. If the rectangle is not on the world plane, you can use the

“ProjectToCPlane” command. Once the rectangle is parallel to the world plane, you may

extrude it in the same manner the blade was extruded, like this;

4.19 Now we will put a hand guard on the dagger. Using the ellipse command and turn osnap

on center. Create an ellipse centered on the center of the handle face that attaches to the

blade. You may need to make it elsewhere and move it/alter it depending on your view.

Create the ellipse so that it generally follows the shape of the blade. Yours may look

something like this;


4.20 Now we need to create a few more figures. In the top view, Create another ellipse with

the center point on your previous ellipse. The ellipse will intersect the ends of your

previous ellipse. In the other direction, set a distance that you like. This will be the

bottom of your handguard. It should look something like this;

4.21 Now type “trim” in the command bar and press enter. Select your first ellipse as your

cutting object. Press enter and select the blade-side half of your second ellipse. It should

look something like this;


4.22 Switch to the top view. Now create two lines as shown below. If the lines are not on the

top plane (due to osnap points possibly being above the world plane) you may need to

select your lines and “ProjectToCPlane”. It should look something like this;

4.23 Now you will create a circle. The shape and center of the circle will be generally where

the center of the triangle shape meets the hand guard. For the best results, create the

center of the circle on the center point of the ellipse. The exact shape is up to you, but to

follow the model we are trying to replicate should appear something like this;

4.24 Now type “PlanarSrf” and hit enter. Select your vertical ellipse. Hit enter. A surface

should now fill the end of the handguard.


4.25 Now type “railrevolve” in the command bar and hit enter. Select your horizontal ellipse

half as the profile curve. Select the vertical ellipse curve (not surface) as the rail curve.

Now turn on osnap center and select the center of your vertical ellipse as the first point of

the revolve axis. Hold shift and move toward the end of the handle and select a second

point. You can see the first (blue) point and second (black) point of the revolve axis.

4.26 Once you click the second point, your hand guard should look something like this;


4.27 Now extrude your triangular shape both directions. It doesn’t matter how far as long as it

is past the edge of the vertical ellipse. Now extrude the vertical ellipse curve toward the

end of the blade past the triangular surface. This one does not need to be both directions.

When finished, it will appear messy and look something like this; Im aware it looks

horrible, stick with me.

4.28 Now trim the blade side of the ellipse extrusion and use the triangular extrusion surface

as the cutting edge. Likewise, extrude the outer edges of the triangular extrusion and use

the trimmed portion of the ellipse extrusion as the cutting edge. You will need to do both

the top and bottom sides of the blade. When finished, it should appear like this;


4.29 Now, change your view to ghosted, by right clicking the view box in the upper left of the

view pane. (allows you to see buried curves) and select the circle you created within the

hand guard. Extrude this circle past the edges of the hand guard both directions. Should

look like this;

4.30 Now use “PlanarSrf” and select the surface edge of the circle. Hit enter. Repeat this on

the other end. It should now look like this;


4.31 Now mirror the Triangular surface (one touching the blade) across the back of the hand

guard. The exact plane where you mirror across is not too important, but I suggest not

going too far, as the model we are following does not have a large distance here. We will

need a similar shape, no need to re-invent it. Should look like this;

4.32 Now we will copy and scale down the copy of our vertical ellipse, then extrude it to meet

our mirrored surface. Copy the ellipse and keep it in the same place. Then select your

copy and type “scale”. Select your first point in the center of your copied ellipse. Select

the second point on the edge of your ellipse. Move it in and select a third point so the

curve is larger than the handle. Should look like this when finished with those steps. The

yellow figure is the copied and scaled ellipse; note it is larger in diameter then the handle.


4.33 Now extrude the scaled ellipse in one direction down the handle and make sure it

intersects through the triangular mirrored surface.

4.34 Now trim the portion of the circle on the handle side of the mirrored triangular surface.

Use this surface as the cutting edge. Likewise, trim the outer portion of the surface using

the trimmed extruded circle as the cutting edge. When you are finished, it should look

like this;


4.35 Now copy the circle you scaled from the vertical ellipse to the end of the handle. Extrude

this new ellipse on the end of the handle a small ways each direction. Be sure to click

“cap” to yes and “bothdirections’ to yes. It should look similar to this;

4.36 Now type “filletedge” into the command bar. Select the surface edges on both ends of the

extruded circle. You can change the radius in the command bar after you select your

edges and hit enter with the “setall” option. There will be markers to preview your fillet. I

used .2 inches. Use an appropriate measure for your scale;


4.37 When finished, your fillet’s should look like this;

4.37.1 (Optional, somewhat difficult) I would scale the end piece of the handle

larger in order to give it a bigger appearance then the beginning of the

handle and follow the model more accurately. This can be achieved in the

back view with a “scale2d” and using the center point as the first reference

and moving outwards until the desired size is acquired. Likewise, if the

end is too big, you can also scale down the transition piece from the hand

guard to the handle the same way

4.38 Now type “ExtrudeCrvTapered” and hit enter. Select the surface edge on the blade side

of the end cap just inside the fillet. You may increase the angle of taper if you wish, but I

find the default to be adequate. Extrude it about the length of the endcap again toward the

blade. Be sure to set “cap” to yes

4.38.1 You may also scale this piece in from the endcap similarily to 4.37.1


4.39 Now we will create the center pieces of the handle. Type “Polygon” and hit enter.

Change the number of sides to 6. Create a polygon and move it to be centered in the

handle, such as this;

4.40 Extrude this polygon both directions about the width of the end cap piece. Be sure to cap

it;


4.41 Now make a similar polygon, click circumscribed, and make it a bit smaller diameter

with 8 sides and move it to one end of the handle. Extrude it to be about half the width of

the extruded Hexagon. Extrude it both directions and capped;

4.42 Now copy the octagon 5 more times, 3 on each side of the hexagon. Evenly space them

as close as possible. I would suggest using scale and setting one side then mirror over the

hexagon. Adjust them to look similar to this;


4.43 Now we will scale the polygons down to fit the handle size. Select all the polygons and

type “scale1d” select the center of one of the polygons and use a point perpendicular to

the handle as a reference point. Scale them one dimension at a time so they are smaller

than the hand guard-handle transition piece and end cap cone. They should be elongated

wider than they are taller, not regular polygons, but warped. Should look like this;

4.44 That wraps up the handle!

Finishing Touches

4.45 For the extruded blade art, draw on the surface of the blade. I will not direct you on what

style to use, or how to do it; challenge yourself! Once you have one side of the design

you like, extrude the curves and mirror across the blade and to the other side of the blade.

This is what I did;

Done… Well with the tutorial on modeling. Try some things out, alter shapes, and play

around with it! You will be surprised how much you learn. Mistakes happen, I still make

lots. Don’t worry; “undo” is a good command!


5.0 Rendering

5.1 There will be a rendering tutorial separate of this tutorial for advanced rendering using

Flamingo Raytrace.

6.0 Additional Applications/Conclusions

6.1 Pretty much any basic rhino modeling project could make use of these skills. With basics

down pat, you can begin advanced modeling, such as lofts, Boolean operations and

advanced sweeps and extrusions, etc.

6.2 Be sure to keep trying new things! Rhino can be difficult, but the potentials are far

greater (in my opinion) than Solid Works

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