creating steel ropes
 

I already asked this in another tread ...but i still dunno how i can make a steel rope :/
anyone with more advise on the matter?

ps i need the advise rather urgently

thnx alot :)

http://forman.en.ec21.com/co/f/forman/img/oimg_24.jpg

model the end of one of the 7 strands that make the steel cable. Then copy and paste that polygon to make the other 6 strans(or use array to make 6 in a circle and put one in the middle). Now you should have a 2d version of the end of the cable. OK that was the hardest part! Now open up the lathe tool and set end angle to something like 900, sides to something like 300, and then adjust the offset until it looks about right. Here is what I came up with when testing this method.

colto, you foiled me again, I was just going to make up a mini tutorial for him

Go ahead and make one. It would help him to see all the steps with a picture to illustrate. Hehe that picture took me a total of 10 minutes to think of a way to make a rope. Model it, render it, and post the tutorial here.

nah it was the exact same thing as yours, but probably a little less eloquent. The only diffrence in mine is to make a whole strand first, then to duplicate the strands in to a cable.

thnx all :)
 

i forgot to send u guys a message weither it turned out ok or not to solve this prob :o
but it did...and i'd like to thank everyone for the help :) :tup:

the result i got isn't perfect but ooh well ...it is ok enough :)

If you are interested, here is a link to a nifty plugin.
http://www.next4d.com/

I try to avoid alot of plugins myself, but this one really takes the workload quickly.