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Welcome to the Stargate tutorial!
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This tutorial is primarily for trueSpace. However As there aren't any complicated trueSpace only procedures involved
I've left it up, as I've seen people make use of it creating there own Stargate in other programs :)

Also this tutorial is a bit out of date in the fact that the stargate shown here isn't 100% accurate.

First you need to make a section of the ring with the polygon drawing tools like this: The 'hole' is for the inner ring that holds the glyphs and spins.


Section of the Ring.

To make the ring you need to lathe this piece. The settings I used are shown below:


Lathe settings.

Next press the lathe button and the ring should look like this :


The first ring.

You should use the same technique for the inner ring. First draw a polygon shape that is a little lower than the 'hole', then lathe it.



Now you have the two main pieces of the Stargate. Next job is to cutout the shapes for the Chevrons. First create the basic triangular shape (If you have some good pictures then use them here!), then lay them out. Centralise the axes of the rings. I did this by placing one where it was supposed to be, at the top, normalising its axes. Now there are 7 chevrons altogether but you could fit 9 on. So I calculated 360/9, turned on the grid mode. Changed the grid settings to 40 (as thats 360 divided by 9 :) ) and copied and rotated the cutout until I had all 7. Like this:



Now make a copy of the ring.
Select the cutouts and press the boolean subtract button and click on the ring. Now in one of the side views centralise the cutouts axes and slightly reduce the height of the cutouts so they look like this:



Now select the ring and cut the cutouts from the ring. You should now have a ring like this:



Now the next job is to start on the detail for the inner ring. There isn't much really only the glyphs and the glyph separators. We'll start with the separators first. Create a cube and resize it so it looks like this:



Now there are three of these cubes that make up the Separator (I freeze framed my VCR!). Simply copy and place the other two cubes. Now, as the inner ring is slightly slanted you'll have to do the same with the separator. Its a simple matter of raotating the piece until it matches the slant of the inner ring. As there are thirty nine glyphs you'll need to copy and rotate the separator you just made so that there are 39 separators. To position the separators so they are in the right place I calculated 360 divided by 39 and set the grid lock setting s to the result which is 9.23. Before you do this though normalize the location of the separators axes. That way you will not have to position the pieces manually they will be in the right position when you rotate them. You should now have the outer ring, the inner ring and the separators



Now for the GLYPHS!!!
These took an age to first draw off the TV and then to place in the right order and then to draw them again with the Polygon tool in trueSpace. I'll save you the bother of finding the order in which they go but you will have to polygon draw your own. Below is a picture of all 39 glyphs in order in rows, the first at the top left:



I drew them, swept them slightly and beveled the top slightly. And thats all the work done on the glyphs :) Now for the Chevrons. First polygon draw a shape like this:



Now sweep it once and resize the end and rotate it so that it looks like this:



Then sweep it again so it looks like this:



After this you will have to use the bevel tool. I set the angle to 90 and the bevel to 0.005. Then I swept it one more time.  You should now have a piece that looks like this:



OK. The next job is to cutout the pieces at the top of the piece you just made. Create a cube, resize it and then copy it six times:



Now copy the chevron so you have a backup, and create another cube and resize and reposition it so that it covers all of the chevron just under the bottom cutout. Now select the chevron and select the subtraction tool and click on the cube you just created. Selecting the full chevron subtract the cutouts from it. Now centralize the cut chevron's axes, and resize it so that its a little smaller than the full chevron. Now its up to you what you do next you can either union the two pieces or simply glue them together, It doesn't really matter. Now copy and mirror it so you have an object that looks like this:



Now for the middle pieces and the top bits.
First create the shape using the polygon drawing tool. Then turn it on its side and make a cutting out piece to shear off the top at an angle. Like this:





Now sweep the cutout so that its longer then the middle chevron piece. Then subtract the cutout from the middle piece. It should now look like this:



Now you must cut out the middle section of this piece. You do this by creating another polygon shape and then sweeping it. Then copy the middle piece and the cutout then subtract the cutout from the middle section. Now union the second cutout and the second middle piece. Resize the middle middle piece slightly.  You should now have this:



That about does it for the bottom part of the chevron. Now to make the piece that goes on top.
First you need to make the basic shape as before. First create it with the polygon drawing tools then sweep it. The initial shape should look like this:



And the swept shape:


Side




Top

Now in order for the gap in the middle section to show, you'll have to cut out a section of the piece shown above. To do this draw a shape over the middle piece like this:



Now sweep it and position it (in side view) so that it is just above the bottom of the middle piece. Now subtract the cutout from the top curvy bit(!!! Sorry I couldn't think of another name!!!). Copy and mirror the piece and position it on the other side. You should now have the full chevron. Except you have to copy the bottom section and rotate it so that there is one on the back aswell. Like this:



All you have to do now is copy and rotate the chevron until you have all of them in the right place.

That about does it for this old tutorial!
Hope it helps!

Ed Giddings





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