3darchitect Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Hi all - I'm a freshman in college w/ no formal training on 3ds. I'm working to teach myself 3ds8 for my firm. I'm working on a rendering project right now, and I have some questions. The building I'm rendering is symetrical, but it has irregular planes and virtually no flat walls. I got the core of the building done (I'm doing an exterior rendering only), but I'm having issues deciding how I want to put in my windows/doors. Apparently, Boolean isn't the best way to go, but I have no idea. I've tried using the Boolean, but it isn't working. I wanted to make my walls by drawing a pline in AutoCAD for the exterior of the walls, extrude it up in 3ds, then import that and then use the boolean to cut out the middle of the box. It worked fine, but for some reason, the Boolean simply didn't work - it just didn't subtract the inner box (its not really a box, but oh well). I tried the same thing for the windows. I drew plines around the windows in AutoCAD for one elevation, imported them to 3ds, extruded to a solid, then tried to subtract w/ boolean, but it didn't work. So.....what should I do? Any ideas? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 Theres lots of threads about this, heres one http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/22414-windows-doors-holes-wall.html But I would recommend going through some tutorials. What youre asking is very basic (but can be done lots of ways) and if you have to ask this, you'll have to ask something else at every turn. tutorials, tutorials, tutorials....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3darchitect Posted March 20, 2007 Author Share Posted March 20, 2007 Hi, yea I know its a basic thing. I'm just asking this b/c I've done it before and I don't know why its not working this time. I've used the boolean tool before on other projects, I just don't get why this time it just freaks out or does nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karl zacharias Posted March 20, 2007 Share Posted March 20, 2007 I try to stay away from booleans all together, can get ugly when your doing large facades of windows (schools, office buildings, etc.)...I find line modeling and converting to polys, slicing, and extruding the cleanest...but tommy's right, check out the tutorials and the threads and choose the method that best for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batteryoperatedlettuce Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 A while ago I asked a question here about aligning things to strangely angled objects. I practically wrote the CAD "align" function as a script to align two or more objects based on their normal direction (which turned out to be a waste of time). Someone told me to read up on grids, which has been a great help. Grids and the auto grid tool will allow you to define a temporary set of coordinates, in which you can create objects at angles paralell or perpendicular to the face of an object. You will almost certainly find it useful if you're working with oddly arranged angles. Search the help for Grid and Autogrid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffc Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 heh, model and boolean in acad first.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Park Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I do almost all of my modelling in ACAD first, boolean too. I've just finished a project for a school building with tons of windows and with ACAD i found it pretty str8 forward, you can 3d align things too, very handy tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3darchitect Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 I'll try it - I think the reason why I didn't do it that way before is because I started out that way, and some of my imports got screwed up, so I tried to do everything in 3ds. I'll give it a shot though - thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Park Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 make sure you have the new dwg importer with sp3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3darchitect Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 ok, is that available on AutoDesk's website? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nazcaLine Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 check ted boardman's video tutorials in his blog. he has a series of vidtuts that cover working with compound shapes instead of booleans, very easy and flexible. advantage is you can modify the number, size and position of the holes whenever you want, without a problem. now try to do that with booleans... Eduardo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exellite Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 personally I love autocad modelling and especially since autocad 2007, solids in autocad are boolean, once imported into max its converted into mesh so modifying window sizes etc is simple, few things I would consider though, especially when importing into a program like max is more organinc models should always be tackled from scratch in max, and revolving objects within autocad is also not recommended, although drawing the initial polyline/spline in acad is much easier, u can always loft/revolve in max which will create a clean polymesh. In short, although there are exceptions to this, I would go with Flat surfaces = Model in CAD, Curved surfaces = Model in max or max type programs Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffc Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 In short, although there are exceptions to this, I would go with Flat surfaces = Model in CAD, Curved surfaces = Model in max or max type programs Mark Exactly my workflow. I'm an architect who also does 30% 3d. So, I'm very used to acad, and like mentioned above 2007+ acad is very helpful for modeling and navigating in 3d. One great thing about modeling in acad, is you can xref your different plans into your 3d dwg file with z coords per the floor height. And then cycle through xrefs depending on what you're working on. I then do not import my acad bldg, I file link into a max site, where I add all organize/curved surfaces, site modeling, plants, lighting, materials, etc. And, I just have to apply material by layer, which of course means planning layer naming on the front end in acad. If I need a bldg change, I just open acad and make it there then update in the file link manager. just my $.02. I know I'll get flamed for promoting acad modeling in the max forum! **edited: I should also add that being an architect first, many of my models are projects I'm currently designing and working with in acad, ie, not a finished project that someone else gives me to render. That's why I really need to flexibility of making constant changes in acad and file link updating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3darchitect Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 Awesome - that's great advice, and I'll give it a shot. I'm an intern now, and will hopefully be getting my Masters in a few yrs, but I've been doing some minimal 3d on the side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batteryoperatedlettuce Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 I'm actually in awe of people who do 3d modeling in AC. Are there any good tutorials written for 2007? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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