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Author
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Topic: Basic 3DStudio questions
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Aui
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 11:41 AM
   
3D Studio R2
I'm building this wing and decided after trying some different techniques with lofting/extruding etc to build it more 'by hand'. So I have these three airfoil profile splines that shapes my wing and I want to start building the surfaces. Because of this I need to build up a triangle by hand by connecting three vertices but I can't find out how. The three splines are separate objects but grouped. It doesn't seem I can use EditSpline-Connect (maybe because they are still separate objects? but I can't even manage to make them into one object).
I think I read somewhere that I need to attach the splines to each other and then convert to Editable Spline or Editable Mesh and from there find out how to make my polys. Any suggestions? Something with the Stack?Also regarding 3DStudio... is it really necessary that my background image is 512x512 pixels? If I try a bigger one it just resizes it back to that size. Is there a measuring tool in 3DS, kind of a click once and then present me with the 2D distance from there to the cursor? Utilities-Measure doesn't seem to have it... Is there a way to check if (and which) polygons (rather quads for me) are non co-planar? An easy way to make them co-planar if they're not (and not by converting to triangels)? Thanks in advance! Hope these questions aren't too dumb...
complex stuff + foreign language = problems
[This message has been edited by Aui (edited 01-27-2000).] IP: Logged |
JT
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 12:16 PM
Grouping does not attach. It just lets you select a series of pieces as one. 1. To attach different splines or shapes to each other, first ungroup them and then select the piece you want to attach something to.
2. Next, click the modify tab. As long as Sub-Object is NOT on you will see the "attach" button right under the "Edit Object" panel.
3. Press the attach button to turn it on.
4. Select the piece you want to attach. That's it! Now, if you want to manually build faces, you must convert what you have to an editable mesh. To do that, click on the "Edit Stack" button. A dialogue will pop up. In the dialogue, click the button that says "Collapse All".
Sometimes it builds faces automatically when you convert to editable mesh, so you may need to delete some faces.
Now you're ready to manually build faces.
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JT
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 12:24 PM
>Is there a way to check if (and which) polygons (rather quads for me) are non co-planar? An easy way to make them co-planar if they're not (and not by converting to triangels)?Yes. Select two or more faces and then hit the "Make Planar" button. If the faces move, then they are not planar in relation to each other. Hit undo and then check other faces.
In general, you don't want to use "Make Planar" to flatten two adjacent triangles into a perfectly flat quad. "Make Planar" will will put all your verts out of whack since making one set of triangles planar affects other adjacent faces.
What I try to do is stick to modeling techniques that keep the planarity of quads. This can be very challenging and isn't always possible. Some techniques are not possible unless everything is triangles.
Anyway, it's not a big problem. Apparently, if your faces are reasonably planar, you can hide the diagonals and then when you export .OBJ as quads it will join the triangles into quads. In other words, I don't think two triangles need to be perfectly planar for Max2Obj to form a quad.
Let me know if you need to know how to hide edges. IP: Logged |
JT
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 12:27 PM
>Is there a measuring tool in 3DS, kind of a click once and then present me with the 2D distance from there to the cursor? Utilities-Measure doesn't seem to have it...Click the "Create" tab and then click the "Helpers" tab. There are various measuring tools under... things like tape measure, protractor. I never have much use for them though. IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 12:45 PM
The "auto edge" tool can also be handy for hiding edges that are in planar polys. TS
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JT
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 01:24 PM
>The "auto edge" tool can also be handy for hiding edges that are in planar polys.... and for non-planar polys too. Just set the threshold higher. IP: Logged |
Aui
Pilot
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posted 01-27- 04:58 PM
Great! I'll try it, thanks.IP: Logged |
Aui
Pilot
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posted 01-28- 04:13 PM
Thanks again for the fast responses...Here's another question that I can't solve. Aligning vertexes. I can align stuff to an object's max/min/center/pivot point but more often my wanted targets are vertexes. Say for example that I have three vertexes nearly in a row forming a spline, but I want to move the middle one to make sure they really are in a straight line - Selecting the middle one and then aligning it to the straight line connecting the other two. Is it possible? Also quite often I want to align a vertex to the same x,y or z coordinate as another vertex. Is that easily accomplished with some align tool instead of using 'tools'->'transform type-in' and inputting the same values from there? //Aui IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-29- 02:07 AM
I am having the same problem Aui.. so far everyone tells me I have to type in the coordinates or use snap to gridbut there must be a better way TS
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JT
Pilot
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posted 01-29- 11:30 AM
Aui,
One thing you could do is create a line from one vertex to another and then snap the vertex you want to move onto that line. Just set the snap to vertex and edge (right click on the 3d snap tool to open the dialogue... you might also want to uncheck the box that makes it move only in certain axes, that way you can move the vertex around freely in the perspective window when you need to snap).
Also, you can change the size of the line without losing the angle it's at. Just switch to Local coordinate system and then scale the line.IP: Logged |
Aui
Pilot
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posted 01-29- 02:17 PM
Ah... True, I forgot about that 3D tangent snap thing. Thanks.Btw, while on coordinate systems... I'm doing all of my plane with units set to meters, does anyone know the scale difference I should use when exporting to OPS? The result is kind of big now... IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-29- 04:09 PM
1 unit = 1 foot in SDOE, scale down your object by however many feet there are in a meter. TS
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