ZTRUCK Cloud and Zack Truck Excape - My first blend :P

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Well it is mainly the features like the windows and wheel arches, At the moment to create these I am Makig my Shape as a solid and then creating other shapes to subtract from that solid.

The problem with this is it isn't very accurate, for example until I have nearly finished the whole thing I cant really tell how the windscreen columns or the curvature of the bonnet will look. As in I think it looks fine until I leave it a little while and then come back to it.

I'll grab a copy of Solidworks from work (if I can) this week and have a play, but by all means I am willing to take advice!
 
From my experience, modelling in Blender using boolean operations on objects (addition or substraction of meshes) isn't the best way to go (while I'd believe solidworks handles that better), although I think Blender has improved in that area recently. I'd recommend other modelling approaches - I guess it's just for you to have in mind alternate ways of constructing your mesh. For example, in the mds5_w scene (weapon shop in a bus), you'll find some "grids" which are like some big plates with many circular holes in them to frame the baggage rack. I didn't model that by object subtraction. Instead, I modeled a 8 point circle within a subdivided square, where I'd leave the inside of the circle empty and make faces between the edges of the square and the "circle". Then use 2 array modifiers to replicate the pattern in both direction, use a solidify modifier to model the thickness and then a subsurf modifier to smoothen the circular holes.

Now, about giving you a better impression of how your model would look like and visually appreciate the curvatures, I recommend 2 simple options:
- You can switch to "real time render preview" on your 3d viewport (in the same tab where you can alternate between "solid view" and "wireframe view"), and if you have a good lighting setup, it gives you a good idea. However, if you don't have a good graphic card, it may be pretty slow.
- You can use a matcap. A matcap is essentially a basic shading preview with a boost in gloss, which often give a better appreciation of curvatures. It's extensively used in sculpting (for instance when you'd like to make wrinkles on a face or folds on a cloth).
Hope that helps :)
 
That definitely helps! I rememebr that subdivision of a square method from one of my first tutorials lol, i just didn't think of applying it to complex shapes like windows or parts that cross edge boundaries lol I'll play some more, maybe not tonight though I'm knackered. Lot's of overtime at real work at the moment :P First day I have got home in time for a week!
 
Use whatever you feel the most comfortable in, if you can achieve faster results in modeling in some other tool.
Solidworks can be exported into a multitude of formats, so that should not be an issue.

 8)
 
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