Rhino 3D Tip: Shear: Precision slants without scaling

Shear slants geometry without scaling it, ideal for leaning walls, ergonomic tilts, and dynamic silhouettes. Here’s how to apply Shear with confidence and precision.

• Core workflow
  • Set a meaningful CPlane first (use CPlane 3Point if needed). Shear operates relative to the current CPlane.
  • Run Shear, select your objects.
  • Pick the shear axis by clicking two points. Points on this axis remain fixed during the transformation.
  • Define the slant by either:
    • Clicking a reference point on the side you want to slant and then the target point, or
    • Typing a distance or using the Reference option for a precise vector-based offset.
  • Use options:
    • Copy=Yes to keep the original and create a sheared variant.
    • Vertical to shear perpendicular to the CPlane, helpful for true “leaning” effects.
• When to prefer Shear over Taper
  • Shear preserves sizes but shifts points proportionally—great for consistent slopes without changing thickness.
  • Taper scales profiles; use it when you need narrowing/widening along an axis.
• Precision setup
  • Use Ortho and SmartTrack to lock directions and establish clean guides.
  • Place the shear axis along an edge or guideline that must stay put in the slant direction.
  • For part-oriented slants, align the CPlane to the part first, then Shear. Save it with Named CPlanes for reuse.
• Practical examples
  • Architecture: Lean a facade or canopy while keeping base lines intact.
  • Product design: Introduce ergonomic slants to buttons or casings without changing their footprint.
  • Branding/graphics: Slant extruded text uniformly without distorting stroke weight.
• Robustness and modeling hygiene
  • Work from clean curves where possible; shearing curves first and surfacing after often yields cleaner results.
  • On solids, expect perpendicular faces and holes to lose orthogonality—validate with Angle and Distance checks.
  • For planar 2D drawings, consider ProjectToCPlane after Shear to re-assert planarity if needed.
  • Shearing SubD is fine for ideation, but confirm edge flow afterward; convert to NURBS for manufacturing stages if required.
• Troubleshooting
  • Unexpected direction: Re-check CPlane orientation and confirm which side of the axis you’re clicking.
  • Too much slant: Use the Reference option to “measure in” the exact vector you want.
  • Broken shading after heavy slants: Use Dir to unify normals; for meshes, Weld if seams appear.
• Power tips
  • Pair with Named Views to A/B compare design variants. Use Copy=Yes during Shear to branch options quickly.
  • Combine Shear + Scale1D for compound transformations that keep one dimension stable.
  • In Grasshopper, use Affine Shear for parametric control and bake the final result into Rhino.

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