How to do this in Blender and select multiple things at ones or is there a better way to do this?

Question

In the end it will be a video, for a music track of mine, a fly though through the corridor.

Let met start with a few picture to explain what I am trying to achieve. ( and a vid )

My question is not about the fly through part, it's about how to model the corridor around the bends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbJrFz2nKls

The problem I am having , is how to get not just the hull around the bends, but also the pipes and other details.

The bends I made in edit mode, select edges, then spin (45 degrees) then fill (F) then extrude, and again spin. Then delete the faces I used to extrude.

Wiling to share the blend file if that helps explaining my problem.

I hope the answer won't be, I will have to do this part for part.

I am getting the feeling I am doing it too much the 3D cad way, not the Blender way.

I thought I had figured it out so I made the hull a parent, and the details childern, but this does not work for edit mode, only for object mode.

Answer 1

I guess that you are using an array modifier since your pattern is repeating itself. I think you can very easily achieve your goal with a curve and a curve modifier.

Create you hull-block.

Create a curve and tweak it as you need. You can force the control points to be linear by selecting them and the shortcut V > Vector.

Add an array modifier to your hull, set the length to "Fit curve" to your new curve. You may need to tweak the direction depending on in which direction you modeled your hull.

Add a curve modifier and set the object to your curve. You may need to tweak the axis or rotate your object in edit mode to get the correct result, You can also tweak the "Roll" parameter of your curve's control points.

Result :

Let's say you have a multitude of different objects to add to the array, you would have to use a "Constant offset" instead. Let's say the block dimensions are 2 meters in the Y axis :

Now you have your pipe elements which are 2 meters long and some kind of repeating thing on top.

Select all these elements and set their origin to the world origin. Make sure you apply the transforms with CTRL + A > Apply all. Now keep them selected and select your hull object as the last object, and choose Object > Make Links > Modifiers.

Result :