I’ve created a tire with a tread pattern on the right half of the tire. I clipped the left half so I could mirror the right half to the left side. The problem is that while the left side of the tire has the same tread pattern, it is staggered slightly from the tread on the right side. So I tried to center the transpose tool in the middle of the tire opening so I could spin the left side of the tire to make the stagger. I finally got it to work but, apparently I was only close because when I merged the two sides there is a hair line seem down the center. When I export the tire to another 3d application, it becomes clear that the two sides are not one piece of geometry and the poly flow is off enough to make it difficult to repair. Does anyone have an idea how I can create a tire with staggered tread or how I can align my two halves perfectly? Thanks
It would be quicker and easier if you just used half the tire (left side) then go to “Tool > Geometry > Modify Topology” and click “Mirror And Weld”. Anything to the left of the centre line will be mirrored and welded on the right. You can turn on the Floor grid to see where centre is.
You are correct zber2. It would be quicker and that is what I did the first time. But it doesn’t stagger the tread. For example I need the tread to look like this.
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But if I just mirror and weld I end up with this
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thanks for for the feedback though.
Does anyone have an idea how I can create a tire with staggered tread
Radial Symmetry might work wonders for this.
Yes, side radial symmetry to create the tread on half the tire. The problem is getting the same tread pattern on the other side but in between the right side as I show in the previous post. If your suggesting another way to use it I didn’t follow. Maybe I’ll just have to try and duplicate the other half by hand. Thanks for your comment.
I think I’d use the Tool>Deformation sub-palette for this. Offset and Rotate. Set the axis by clicking the tiny x, y or z in the slider and you can enter values from the keyboard for accuracy. Mask the ‘good’ side of your tire before you start.
I’m suggesting you draw both sides with it on. Start out with a mask and then inflate afterwards. It’s a small amount of manual work, but the tire would have been done quicker than a reply would take.
Alternatively:
- keep the entire tire symmetrical and do one side. Mask half of it off to preserve it, and then rotate the mesh slightly
- Use photoshop to create a simple pattern. Apply it to your model as a texture and mask by intensity.
Thanks to both of you. I’ll try that technique, but manually doing both sides might be my best shot even though I doubt I can make the tread exactly the same on both sides. I’m wondering if I mask one side and rotate about 10 degrees if the mesh will show twisting. I’ll give that a try though. I didn’t think of this option. Thanks again.
Sorry I wasn’t able to respond sooner, I’m a bit under the weather. But I tried your suggestion, which seemed perfectly logical. I’m sure the result has to be do to some setting, but as you can see when I entered 12 for a rotation factor (it shows 0 in the pic) it rotated the unmasked side, but also lowered it. I can manually move it back into place, but if things are working correctly, shouldn’t it have just spun the unmasked side?
The second image shows a side view when I redid it using a setting of 50 rotation. It seems to not only move the half down, but forward too. I wouldn’t think this would happen with only the small x selected. The odd thing is when I move the half manually back up to match the masked half, very little rotation has taken place. I’m kind of new to zBrush so I imagine this may have to do with my skill set rather than the software.
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It looks as though the pivot point for the mesh is off-center. You can set it temporarily by pressing Transform>Set Pivot, then when you’ve done the rotation press Transform>Clear Pivot.
Thanks marcus, that is exactly what I was missing. I appreciate the help.