metal plates - the best way?

martynball

Hey, just wondering how you lot would go about making these metal plates, as an example. but on the image I only mean the square plates, ignore the smaller curved ones.

I'm currently making separate element's for each mesh, but is it better to work with one plane which you then add an edge down the center, then chamfer it with 3 sections and simply push the middle edge back and add supporting edges?

scotthomer

I usually go for the push the middle edge back approach, its really trial and error and best for flat shapes.

for that shape in paricular, id most likely roughly model out the shape and extrude/bevel the plates out individually, adding defining edges where needed.
If the plates need to bend around a surface I usually model them flat, then use the bend modifier to deform the plates around the model the plates are going onto.

oobersli

use floating geo to mimic the space between the plates instead of actually modeling the plates? much easier to conform to your main mesh shape. the sweep modifier works pretty good for this.

martynball

oobersli wrote: »

use floating geo to mimic the space between the plates instead of actually modeling the plates? much easier to conform to your main mesh shape. the sweep modifier works pretty good for this.

That actually sounds like it would make life easier, in theory. It been used before?