Nurbs and polys in the same model?
 

Hi, I am still mucking about trying to make a simple boat model. Now the hull is good in my model so I wanted to do a bit of railing. Find a way to do a rail in nurbs by revolving around a line to get a smooth flowing tube around the model. It works but I wonder. Is it at all sensible to mix polygons and nurbs in the same model? Or should I convert the rail to polygons? Guess it will be a whole lotta polys to make a smooth round tube.


So in general, does anybody ever use a mix of polys and nurbs?

There is no problem with mixing nurbs and polys in a single model.

However, you must consider how the model is to be used. Some applications like 3D game engines do not support certain geometry types. So in this case nurbs or subds could be a problem.

In general if you are building the model for yourself use whatever geometry type makes the most sense. Nurbs are great for tubes and wires and have the advantage of being easily textured (no need to layout UV's).

As a primary geom type though they have fallen out of favor and polygons and subd's are now more popular as they do not require patch topology and avoid the need to worry about seam tangency which can cause trouble when animating.

Ok, thank you. Good to have that sorted out.