drapp@frontiernet.net Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 I appologize in advance for my 'yet another dropping things onto terrain' question. I have a very high poly terrain. I also have roads, sidewalks, parkinglots and buildings all that need to be 'dropped' onto this very uneven mesh. The buildings are no problem, but there are so many roads, etc that nothing seems to work. The roads, sidewalks etc all come from AutoCAD and I have cleaned them up, closing all gaps and overlapping splines etc. I've tried the boolean/cut/split thing that was mentioned in that PDF tutorial excerpt, but there is an error in the writing and MAX doesn't allow me to select the road opperand after the boolean (and the mesh is so dense that I can't stomache the idea of hand-selecting all those teeny triangles) I've tried the Itoosoft Glue thing (which I've used many times on a smaller scale), but it craps out after a while and I get a null result (yay) I've also tried the whole shapemerge thing - no success. There HAS to be a better way. Like some way to 'z project' the roads onto the terrain. I don't know, I'm starting to consider shoveling dirt for a living. That way I'd get to wear a 'wife beater' to work. Nah, I love 3D. Any thoughts? Thanks, Dave [no wives were beaten in the creation of this email] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lecameleon Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 Interesting! I am in a rather "dense" mood today.. Cannot think of any solutions offhand, but it would be interesting to see if anyone can come up with solutions for this one. I would like to know how this is done too. Btw, I will try out some stuff later and post stuff if I get something out of it.. Dont have Max on this machine. Curious, no one has answered yet.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted October 22, 2006 Share Posted October 22, 2006 I don't think there is an error in the writing. The process is really very simple and if you're having problems, make sure you can get it to work for simple primitives before applying it to something so complex. You say you can't select the road operand after the cut...that's because the road operand no longer exists after the cut. You have to apply the Edit Mesh modifier after the cut and go to Face subobject mode and detach the faces. If it still doesn't work, write exactly what steps you're doing and what happens after each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drapp@frontiernet.net Posted October 23, 2006 Author Share Posted October 23, 2006 Brian, Thanks for the reply. I ended up deforming the verts of the roads (manually) to the terrain and vise versa. its been time consuming, but at the time I was at whits-end. I've since tried that technique on a smaller scale and gotten it to work. Its a big pain due to the shear number of triangles involved. Again I assert - there's got to be a better way. (I'm really starting to hate terrain, its always been a big pain - getting it, importing it, optomizing it, getting roads and parkinglots on it) Digimation save me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 If you want to upload a file with just the two operands, i'll take a look at it. I've never had a boolean not work properly so i'd love the challenge and to see if i can figure out why it was causing you problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtroupe Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Alright, I tried the same tutorial and am having no luch either. After you do the boolean, cut, split and then pick the opperand button, the road object disappears. So the next step says to pick the raod object and then add the edit mesh modifier. So how are you supposed to pick the road object when it just disappeared??? I can't get past this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Alright, I tried the same tutorial and am having no luch either. After you do the boolean, cut, split and then pick the opperand button, the road object disappears. So the next step says to pick the raod object and then add the edit mesh modifier. So how are you supposed to pick the road object when it just disappeared??? I can't get past this point. Where exactly are you reading this? I went back and could not find this error. Which part (I, II, or III) and which page? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtroupe Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 It is in part three where you are trying to make the 3d terrain and the road to follow it. It is on page 18. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 OK I see now...I thought you were referring to Part I. Yes the word 'road' should say 'terrain'. The terrain object object is the only object to be picked. Will have to fix the typo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drapp@frontiernet.net Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 Brian and jtoupe - Thanks for looking into this. I finished my part of that project, as metioned above, and got swept onto another. I'm presented with the same situation - dropping roads on terrain. So, I'll read the 'de-typoed' tut again and try it. Thanks for looking into this. I really appreciate it. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 the pdf on the site is still the original...haven't gotten to changing the word yet so keep on the lookout for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drapp@frontiernet.net Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 BTW: I can't find that PDF - I've tried searching for about an hour - no luck. could you hook me up? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 It's in the Insider...the links are on the home page down on the right side and they are just about on every other page as a banner ad. http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/VI/default.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drapp@frontiernet.net Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 In stereotypical fashion- I found it about 5 min before you responded. Thanks tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony cortez Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Hi all, Check out the road and terrain tutorials from our friend Louis from Autodesk... pretty interesting way he shows using the conform tool in Max. Good luck! ftp://maxaes-u:TipsTricks@ftp2.discreet.com/maxaes/3dsMax_TipsAndTricks_Videos/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkletzien Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 I've never had a boolean not work properly Now that's a charmed life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Well i should have said 'since I learned how to use them properly.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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