SEO sculpting and lousy mesh work

[David Collins]

Dennis wrote:
BTW, how was this done in AC??? ...
http://www.architectsjury.com/Members/ULa/kartinka-malenkaya.jpg/image_view_fullscreen

Dwight wrote:
From the lousy mesh work i would suspect it to be Archicad and SEO sculpting.

Dwight, I assume by "lousy mesh work" you mean the noticeable trianglulated surface that shows up on "tail" of the thing? Or did something else catch your eye?

Given a month of sundays I suppose I could manage this with a series of meshes, dragged and dropped into GDL, ROT, ADD and MULed into place, with a lot of CUTPOLY's thrown in at the end, but I would have to know exactly where I was going and what I was trying to achieve. Somehow, with all due respect for very interesting design, I don't think this guy did.

"SEO sculpting?" In archicad proper? You think?

[Dennis Lee]

He says he used exclusively meshes here:
http://www.architectsjury.com/Members/ULa/malenkaya-1final.jpg/view

[Dwight]

Yes.
But i apologize if anyone thinks i mean our colleague was careless or unskilled, but that the tool's limits were apparent in the image. Lousy mesh work should read "Lousy Mesh" work.

Our colleague envisioned a smooth graceful series of twisting sweeps and, from personal experience in trying to achieve similar results, i know that hours and hours spent smoothing the thing are sabotaged by the rendering engine, attempting to smooth the surface with its own surface analysis, showing irregularities that detract from the concept.

You only get perfect results with the mesh tool by connecting a disciplined series of splines having matching nodes, preferably height-aligned. And these aren't helpful in making design but are, rather, a product of design. Subjectively shifting "Z" nodes in an OpenGL view creates tiny flaws revealed by the renderer.

As for SEO sculpting, it does have use when allied with the curved wall tool and custom profile feature to make swoopies.