Rendering a perforated steel facade...

[Quirky]

Hi,

 

I'm going to be drawing up a building with a perforated steel facade, as well as consisting of a number of steel mesh/ grated floors and walkways. I do all my drawing in Autocad and then import the drawing into Vis to render. Is there a tool to set a transparency to a material for the perforations, similar to a bump, or will I have to model each hole?! I tried modelling the steel mesh floor and the file became so big it was unmanageable!

 

Thanks

[tanni]

that depends, how much close to it or LOD. most of the case i use maps

1. defuse 2. opacity 3. bump. 3ds max has a good map to use in perforated material you can try.

[SandmanNinja]

I think Tanni is spot on - a map would be the easiest method.

[Quirky]

Thanks. I was thinking to use a map, bu if viewed up close is there a way for the perforations to appear transparent? Sorry, I'm a bit of an amateur on Vis. The steel grate walkway is causing me most problems (see link for an idea of the type of material I'm after). It's quite important that gaps are apparent in the texture and that the depth of the grate is visible... Can this be achieved with a map?

 

http://www.usffab.com/usffab/images/USF6685.jpg

 

Thanks

[tanni]

opps, link doesn't work. Just take a look i think this will work.

[neko]

Thanks. I was thinking to use a map, bu if viewed up close is there a way for the perforations to appear transparent? Sorry, I'm a bit of an amateur on Vis. The steel grate walkway is causing me most problems (see link for an idea of the type of material I'm after). It's quite important that gaps are apparent in the texture and that the depth of the grate is visible... Can this be achieved with a map?

 

http://www.usffab.com/usffab/images/USF6685.jpg

 

Thanks

 

yup - opacity mapping is the solution. all you need is a b&w map

[Quirky]

Great stuff. Thanks for your help. I've just had a play around and setting a map and then using a bump and a cutout in the material's special effects seems to do the job.

 

Thanks

[Claudio Branch]

 

I tried modelling the steel mesh floor and the file became so big it was unmanageable!

 

 

I have a modeling approach that you might consider using. When your camera is right on top of the subject, you really need to go with geometry. A large mass of modeled grating can quickly become unmanageable, but it doesn't have to...

 

Modeling:

 

1. Create a plane and assign an appropriate number of segments to it

2. Convert the plane to Editable Poly and select all of the edges

3. Use EP's "Create Shape from Selection" (use linear not smooth)

4. Select the new shape and make it a renderable spline.

5. Adjust rendering parameters to appropriate proportions/scale

 

Optimizing:

 

1. Once you have the grating scaled, Display as BOX!

2. Create instances of a single grate and build as needed from one

3. Convert all grating to V-Ray proxy (Especially on large scenes)

 

Just ask yourself this - "How is this thing put together in the real world?"

 

Think about how anything you need to model would be built and then utilize the tools our software offers us to replicate the process digitally...

 

Happy Modeling....

[gfriedman]

i've been wondering about hwo you might do this. thanks for the tips - I m kind of new to max and I know how I would do what you you've done in the image but I dont get the renderable spline bit and the box - aren't you basically taking the splines, and simply extruding them? what are the other steps about?