Non-destructive method to subdivide cylinder lengthwise (i.e. replacement for loop cuts)

Question

I'm currently using a non-destructive workflow to build models for product photography.

Here is my hollow cylinder/tube, constructed from a subdivided 2D mesh, with a boolean to remove the center portion, then solidified:

I need to find a non-destructive way to subdivide the horizontal faces of the cylinder lengthwise, creating a sort of "gridded" appearance. My ultimate goal is to add a further boolean to this cylinder, and the length of these quads causes distortion when the boolean is added.

I've toyed with all manner of modifiers, spent hours searching for suggested solutions, and even dipped my toes into geometry nodes to look for a solution, but I haven't found anything that works for my purposes.

I've seen other solutions that suggest creating a 2D grid then adding a simple deform bend modifier, but that significantly complicates my workflow when modifying this model for the various product specs I wish to create.

Answer 1

Of course you can use Geometry Nodes here:

1. First I set up the parameters as group inputs.
2. To make the normals of the inner side point in the right direction, I reverse one of the curves with Reverse Curve.
3. I use these two curves as profile curve for the node Curve to Mesh. I achieve the desired subdivisions of the cylinder by subdividing the base curve with the node Resample Curve.
4. For the upper and lower part I use the node Fill Curve for the profile curves. For one of them I rotate the normals with the node Flip Faces and convert both into instances.
5. I place these instances at the endpoints of the base curve with Instance on Points.
6. After converting the instances into meshes, I connect them to the cylinder and merge the points with Merge by Distance to get a closed mesh.

This can then be used with other Boolean modifiers.