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Relatively new to Blender, using version 2.69 to model a cone shaped grip of a door handle to be 3d printed later. Took a photo and measurements for reference. Scale: 1 blend unit = 1 mm.

cone shaped grip of door handle

The shape was pretty easy to model with a cone with straight extrude region on the top and bottom. Used a cylinder to cut the hole with a boolean difference.

modelled grip before bevel

All done in a few minutes... Only needed to do the bevel on the bottom to be finished. Hours later not done yet, because the bevel must be a non uniform bevel and mesh | edges | bevel only seem to do uniform bevels. Taking the above right ortho view, it should simplified have an offset of 0.4 on the z axis but an offset of 0.275 on the y axis.

bevel offset animation

I would like to set a different offset per local axis of an edge bevel. So in one axis 0.275 and the other 0.4.

I read that some people have this as a bug due to the fact that they scaled in object mode and did a bevel later. I would like it as a feature without the scaling in object mode.

Any ideas how to do this?

I currently did a workaround by making a profile of the grip in svg. Imported it, converted it to mesh and spin it. workaround spin svg profile Still knowing how to do an non uniform bevel would be appreciated.

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2 Answers 2

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I think I'd use a different workflow. I'd start with a profile of the end of the grip with the cavity, and spin it to create the large end. When the spin is complete, I'd extrude from the circumference to the small end of the grip, and then extrude and scale to create the small end of the grip.

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  • $\begingroup$ Actually Im trying that approach the past 2 hours. But unfamiliar in exact curve editing in Blender, I made the profile in Inkscape and saved it as svg. Importing is no problem, but dont get the curve into edit mode with the mesh tools to spin. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2014 at 19:31
  • $\begingroup$ The grip profile as svg on mediacru.sh if that helps. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2014 at 19:56
  • $\begingroup$ Just found out how to get the svg to be spinned. It has to be converted to a mesh first : object | convert to | mesh from curve (alt+c). Then in edit mode, spin button shows up. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2014 at 20:13
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Those triangles at the end of your mesh are going to make it very difficult to bevel.

Instead I'd add a circle and extrude it to avoid creating tris in the first place:

enter image description here

  1. Add circle (ShiftA > Add > Mesh > Circle).

  2. Extrude upwards (E) and scale (S) to create the basic shape.

  3. Extrude each end circle without moving the vertices (EEsc), then scale (S).

  4. Select the inner end circles and press W > Bridge Edge loops.

  5. Bevel (CtrlB)

You can change the profile of the bevel in the Redo panel after beveling:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ You showed me a different way to model it with a better result to do the bevelling. Kudos! Curious what you used to make this gif. But besides that, it doesnt answer my question to do a non uniform bevelling with exact measurements. The end result should be an exact replica for 3d printing and replacing some of the broken grips. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2014 at 19:41
  • $\begingroup$ @YggyDrasil I'm not exactly sure what you want, but if I understand correctly the profile settings might be relevant.. I used LICEcap (running in wine) to create the gifs. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Jul 21, 2014 at 2:59
  • $\begingroup$ I edited my original question in the hope it will clarify it. I used LICEcap now to do gifs as well. I still need a bit of preperation and practice before making one. ;-) $\endgroup$ Jul 21, 2014 at 9:05

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