One trick for making this windows round is to just extrude the edges and then select the corner edges and bevel them to your likes… this works nice if the subdivisions on the edges are equidistant but nonetheless there will be triangles… (this is also more easy if this is based on grid like layout like what is just mostly for games) :
I would like to add that if you do that, you may want to add a “weighted normals” modifier on the object afterwards. It will improve the shading by preventing the bevels from affecting the flat faces and bleeding on them.
Yeah, been also using that extrude/bevel function sometimes but forgot to add that … the whole assembly is curved, so the bevel create a flat resultant face N-gon, that’s why it’s messing with shading…
I tried shrinkwrapping to the original uncut mesh but doesn’t help a lot
Why it’s so time wasting and annoying to do such simple things. Blender should really now make this basics easy and clean, even though I understand this is art of topology, when doing hard-surface it’s not very convenient to spend a day just to ensure proper shading or consistent workflow, while in a CAD soft it takes like 2 or 3 sec …
But the Blender 3D Editor is more a mesh editing tool and in a CAD you can give parameters to round an corner to a specific radius… and have to pay for this… or use FreeCAD :
Hi guys,
I’m not sure what the exact aim is, but if you want to create a clean topology with smooth inner edges, watch Blender Guru’s chair tutorial from 12:01 It can be of help😊
Do you have references of what are you trying to recreate? Because a lot of time windows have frames which allow you to hide transitions between different objects:
Splitting different components into different objects is good idea in general, because that will save you a lot of headaches from trying to connect different topologies together. And that’s how a lot of things are made in real life - different parts glued / welded / riveted / etc together.
One technique that I use, is blocking out things like window sections and the more prominent curvatures and unique design features first, then fill in the rest of the model’s outer surface after that, by connecting the spaces in between the blocked out sections (adding loops, cuts, etc. if needed).
You can start with the window frames, keeping everything as lower poly as possible with your subsurf modifier, adding extra loops if needed. Then move to the rest of the body. Things like windows can be the last section to add (as separate objects, with less loops). The frames can be either initially or eventually separate parts, following Format64’s advice treating real life parts as separate parts in your model as well (unless you’re going for low poly game model or something similar).
You can’t use this technique maybe for every project, but can help with models with a lot of extra features and cutouts.
