Category: 3D

Hello,
I want to render cross sections of an architectural model . That should
probably be done with a plane that cuts the model – the cross section,
displaying one half and making the other invisable nad then rendering…
I dont know how to do that in 3ds, please help…
thanks in advance

If the 3ds “Slice” modifier (works with all objects & meshes) doesn’t
do what you want, you can always get a plugin that is more exotic, like
ScalpelMax:
http://www.cebas.com/products/products.php?UD=10-7888-33-788&PID=6

I have created a hexagon spine.
Then moved the points around to create the shape i want. The problem i am
having is its 2d and i want it 3d.
I am unable to extrude the shape as its disabled in the menu.
Is there another way i was wondering

Try this as one alternative:
1. Create -> Shapes -> NGon
2. Choose the amount of sides.
3. Draw the NGon by “dragging” the mouse in one of the viewports.
4. Right-click the spline, and select “Convert to Editable Spline”.
5. Adjust the shape to suit with “Vertex”, “Segment” and/or “Spline”.
6. Either exit the “Editable Spline” sub-object mode, or simply
select/click “Extrude”. Note: If you just select “Extrude”, you are
taken out of “Editable Spline” mode. This isn’t true of the poly and
mesh modes for some reason.
7. Choose “Extrude” or “Lathe”, depending on what you’re doing.
8. Add Parameters -> Amount to add thickness if extruded.
9. Add Parameters -> Segments if you plan to smooth or otherwise change
the shape.
Hope this helps!

Here is one case where a user wanted a simple way to create a sink like
you might find in a kitchen:
1. Make a plane the right size, and give it lots of subdivisions as
appropriate.
2. Convert it to an editable poly.
3. Go to the “Paint Deformation” rollout and change “Push/Pull” to -10.
Change “Brush Size to “10”.
4. Select the Z “Transform axis”.
5. Click “Push/Pull”.
6. Carefully trace inside the sink, and even distance from the edge,
until the sink is uniform. Do this in the “Top” view, but keep you eye
on the side views.
7. Next, give the sink some thickness with the “Shell” modifier. Set
“Outer Amount” to .5 (in my world scale, which is always feet/inches,
as I do real-scale work mostly).
8. Create a small spline to define how the edge of the sink should
look. It is blocky without this. Make it a small arc, and place it
anywhere out of the way. One trick I’ll mention here is to keep your
splines in a spline “area” by creating a spline rectangle way off to
the side, and put all your splines within that area. This way they are
easy to find later.
9. Still under “Shell” “Parameters”, check “Bevel Edges” and click
“Bevel Spline:” to select your arc spline. Modify the spline to suit
your vision for the edge.
10. Create a cylinder the diameter of your drain, and at least as tall
as your sink is thick. Center it with the sink with the “Align” tool in
the X and Y axes.
11. Position the cylinder where the drain hole is needed.
12. Subtract the cylinder from the sink:
13. Select the sink. Select: Create -> Compound -> Boolean.
14. Under “Operation”, ensure “Subtraction (A-B)” is checked.
15. Click “Pick Operand B”.
16. Select our cylinder. It goes away, the sink now has a nice drain!

A post from alt.3d.studio where a user wanted to know about soft selections in 3ds Max 8

I think you said you have the 3ds max bible? Take a look at page 314
for a step-by-step tutorial as good as any I’d write. While that
tutorial is for a plane, you can apply a soft modifier to just about
anything that a normal modifier can be applied to.
For a coat hook as you described, it might actually be a lot
faster/easier to do it with a spline. But as your question was about
soft selection… With soft selection you’d be able to make the turns,
etc. but with “softer” turns, like a real hook _might_ have.
OK, I can’t resist a small tut:
1. In any window, make a cylinder.
2. Go to modify, and make it .1″ radius, and 3′ length.
3. Make Height Segments 10.
4. The Sides don’t matter that much, as long as they are over 8 or so.
This depends on how closely it will be inspected, of course.
5. Right click and convert to editable mesh/poly.
6. Go to vertex selection mode.
7. Under Soft Selection, select “Use Soft Selection”.
8. Change Falloff to 1’6″ (1/2 the length).
9. Select a vertex on one of the ends. Notice how the colors of the
vertices change from red (most affected) to blue (least affected).
10. Move the vertex around with move and rotate controls to see the
effects.
11. Select different points along the cylinder to see how they are
affected as well.
Some things are easier with the “Bend” and/or “Twist” modifiers. Try making a box primitive and messing with it using the “Bend” modifier.

Note: By default there are just a few segments to the box. In order to see the
bending easily, add some segments to some of the dimensions to see the
effects easier.

All this is is the intersection of 2 half pipes (1/2 a cylinder)
So simply:
1. Make a cylinder of like 5′ radius and 15′ length.
2. Clone a copy by rotating 90 degrees. To make things easy, re-align
the pivot point to the center of the object using the hierarchy tab,
then rotate.
3. Join the 2 together with boolean (create -> compound -> …). Use
Union…
4. Copy this object, and move it to the side. You’ll need it later.
5. Apply the Slice modifier to chop off the bottom 1/2.
6. This is where there are a couple ways to do this, but I’d suggest
the lazy way of converting the object into an editable mesh/poly and
removing the end caps now before using the shell modifier. Doing this
later might not allow the boolean subtraction to be smooth.
7. Now use the handy-dandy “Shell” modifier, and add outer shell, with
no inner shell. You’ll see why in a sec…
8. Create another boolean object from the object you’re working on by
subtracting that object you set aside in step 4 from the one you just
applied the shell modifier to. Obviously place the “to be subtracted”
operand B right under the “shelled” one. Use the “Align” tool on the
toolbar for more precise results.
9. Add a few pillars, and thats it.