Developable Surfaces
Developable surfaces can be formed by rolling a flat sheet of material
without stretching it. When a surface is linear in one direction (u/v)
it MUST NOT mean that it is developable!
Compound Curvature
With Rhino you can display the Gaussian curvature graph and analyse if
a surface is developable. If the Gaussian curvature is not zero on any
point on a surface, then it壮 not possible to unroll it without stretching
the material. A sphere for example is a surface with compound curvature.
Unroll Surfaces
Cones and cylinders are basic examples of shapes that can be perfectly
unrolled.
Common Point of Intersection
A surface can be unrolled, if all its ruling lines have a common point
of intersection.
Parallel Ruling Lines
Surfaces with parallel ruling lines also can be unrolled. In this case
аarallel? means, that the ruling lines intersect in infinitiy.You can
create developable surfaces with parallel ruling lines by extruding any
curve
PolySurfaces and Freeform Curves
As long all the ruling lines of each sub-surface have a common point of
intersection they are developable. The sub-surfaces? points of intersection
can be different. Developable "conelike" surfaces can follow
any curve and can be created by lofting the curve to a point.
Trim developable Surfaces
If the underlying surface is developable it can be trimmed in any way.
Developable Loft
Here you can see what may happen, if you create a loft with developable
style from the above trim curves. Though there is a solution with a single
developable surface the loft command might fail to find it. You can try
to simplify the result of the developable loft by using it's rebuild or
refit option.
Developable Surfaces in Marine Industry
The Fregatte 124 Sachsen for example is mainly made from developable surfaces.
Check out how more stylish work can be done with developable surfaces
in yacht design.
Developable Surfaces in Architecture