Boolean Operation

[Alpenshiva]

Hello,

 

my current project is an egg-shaped blobb. Now I would like to cut rectangular windows into this shape. I thought about the boolean command in 3DSMax. But most of the time, the model is being partially destroyed as you can see on the picture. Is there a better way of cutting exact rectuangular objects into free forms?

Thank you, Harald

[ajvbochove]

When you have a subscription and max 8 you can download (free!) proboolean

Then you have clean meshes (and a powercutter tool).

[Alpenshiva]

unfortunately we are working with max 7 without subscription.

[kippu]

maybe if you can increase the density of the mesh ..... can u show a wireframe of the blob

[arturito]

where do you change the density of the mesh??

[SandmanNinja]

Wow... I've never seen Max 7. I started with Max 8 and then got the ProBoolean add-on.

 

A few ways to increase the mesh density:

* manually - by selecting the faces where you want to make your boolean, CONTROL + EDGE SELECT (this will select all of the edges from the faces that were selected), then connect the edges together.

 

* tesselate - select the faces and then press tesselate

 

* mesh smooth - select the faces (there's a pattern here... ) and then apply a mesh smooth modifier

 

* turbo smooth - not sure if you've have that or not. Like mesh smooth, only a bit better

 

Think of the mesh as a monitor. If you have to display a circle and there aren't enough pixels, it will be shaped funny. Not enough resolution to properly define the shape.

 

Same with boolean and segmentation.

[Claudio Branch]

 

Is there a better way of cutting exact rectuangular objects into free forms?

 

 

You can use ShapeMerge on your free form object and select a closed shape to either cutout of the object or integrate into the existing geometry (Cookie Cutter or Merge).

 

Collapse your geometry to Editable Poly and select Polygon and the group of polys bounded by your merged shape are selected by default. Then you can use EP's Extrude command to finish the form.

[Claudio Branch]

The approach I described above works very well, but will create some stray vertices along the boundary of the merged shape. These should be manually deleted using EP's Remove command.

[only3d]

no need for booleans here.

either use pro-boolean (try installing it anyways it might work with max7 as well) or just do the whole thing using edit mesh or edit poly (negative extrude).

ull get better results than either one of em.

[Jackie Teh]

no need for booleans here.

either use pro-boolean (try installing it anyways it might work with max7 as well) or just do the whole thing using edit mesh or edit poly (negative extrude).

ull get better results than either one of em.

i am abit confuse of which step should go first, we have convert the object into editable-poly then go for pro-boolean or go for pro-boolean before convert the object into editable-poly??? which one should go first???

[only3d]

if ur going with poly then theres no need for any kind of booleans, just select the polygons u want gone and delete them. id do an inverse extrude first to give the opening some detail.

but if u want the opening to be straight thn ggo with pro boolean.

it doesnt matter if its a poly or mesh to that matter.