Chamfering Everything

[Matt Sugden]

is it good idea? does it make renderings look better generally?

[Guest nazcaLine]

YES.

it does make a difference, subtle though.

now with the new chamfer feature in max 2008 is easier and more efficient.

good luck

 

Eduardo

[Tommy Burns]

Or you could use the round corners feature in A+D materials saves you a bit of time.

[Matt Sugden]

could you elaborate a bit more on this round corners feature? where is it? is it native to max?

 

also when chamfering, how much is too much, do you tend to do it just to try and give the impression of no sharp corners?

[Hazdaz]

So how does MAX 2008 implement this?

 

Ideally I think some kind of chamfering option should be available at the rendering-stage. After all, why add tons of extra corners and polygons and such to a model at the model-stage when we are adding chamfers solely for better looking renderings?

It is especially messy if you then need to take that 3D model and import it into another program.

 

I would think you could program out some kind of rendering algorithm that sees if one surface is +/-90 degrees from another surface, and then adds a pixel or so of "filler" between the 2 surfaces when rendering a scene. almost like anti-aliasing.

[MasterZap]

I would think you could program out some kind of rendering algorithm that sees if one surface is +/-90 degrees from another surface, and then adds a pixel or so of "filler" between the 2 surfaces when rendering a scene. almost like anti-aliasing.

 

...and that is EXACTLY what the Round Corners option in the A&D material does!

 

/Z

[Dave Buchhofer]

also if vray is your renderer, the same thing is possible by putting a vrayedgestex map in the bump slot of the material you are trying to 'chamfer'

[aaron-cds]

also if vray is your renderer, the same thing is possible by putting a vrayedgestex map in the bump slot of the material you are trying to 'chamfer'

 

Nice tip, I'll have to experiment with that. Modeling the chamfers is a lot of labor. It would be great to cut that out.

[RyanSpaulding]

You'd think someone whould have added an auto-chamfer tool/modifier by now...

[aaron-cds]

There's a free ruby script available called chamfer along path for Sketchup. That's what I've been using to save time.

[cdos00]

Actually the tutorial on this page does a WONDERFUL job of explaining how to use the 'round corners' option in the A&D Material. It is also one of the main reasons I will be switching all of my materails to A&D materials.

 

http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2008/issue28-3dsMax.html

 

Additionally Scott @ Digital Architect has a great movie that explains it.

 

http://www.scottonstott.com/vodcast/Episode021.html

(the movie takes a while to load, be patient)

Cheers!

[jophus14]

also if vray is your renderer, the same thing is possible by putting a vrayedgestex map in the bump slot of the material you are trying to 'chamfer'

 

For some reason this doesn't seem to work. I have put the Bump multiplier to 100 and the Pixel to 50 and I'm still not seeing any chamfer. Please explain how you accomplish a chamfered look for a VrayEdgeTex material. Thanks.

 

EDIT: You have to use World Units and not Pixels to get the chamfer. Nice tip. Thanks.

[Chad Warner]

It's really not too hard to do with edit poly....just select all edges and then chamfer to your hearts content. But doing the VRayedgesTex works well also.

[louis.cho]

depending on resolution I try to make all my edge chamfered. However, VrayEdgeTex is wonderful on almost everything except close shots: it's make edges blurry(it's what its made for).

 

I already use A&D mat in mental ray and it's very cool too. I thnk it's also fillet 2 surface blending together.

[SandmanNinja]

EdgeChEx

http://www.vg2max.spb.ru/EdgeChEx.htm

 

It is the closest thing you'll find to an AutoChamferEverything.

 

It rocks the Casbah...

[Hazdaz]

It's really not too hard to do with edit poly....just select all edges and then chamfer to your hearts content. But doing the VRayedgesTex works well also.

 

I don't think anyone is saying that it is difficult to chamfer edges... quite an easy and straight-forward process, but it does create extra geometry which with organic/compound-curved surfaces can get meshes to be a little untidy... but even then, not a big deal. I think my personal biggest issue is that it can create problems if you need to update a model after you've chamfered it up. Changing angles or other dramatic alterations can cause problems... even more so if importing a poly model into a CAD program.

[SandmanNinja]

And that's why I like the plug-in - you can turn it off in the stack, or modify the settings in the rollout.

 

It's an intelligent edge chamfer tool.

[3dwannab]

For some reason this doesn't seem to work. I have put the Bump multiplier to 100 and the Pixel to 50 and I'm still not seeing any chamfer. Please explain how you accomplish a chamfered look for a VrayEdgeTex material. Thanks.

 

EDIT: You have to use World Units and not Pixels to get the chamfer. Nice tip. Thanks.

 

 

Can you post a screen shot please "Its not working even with realworld units"

 

Thanks

[mrstardust]

since this thread already existed, i thought i might just jump in aswell...

 

I´m currently still working on workflow optimization.

 

Since alot of the archviz-gurus like ronen bekerman swear on the sketchup-modeling, max-rendering workflow, i tried this out myself.

I´m now on my 4th startover and starting to get frustrated.

I know in an everyday workflow most of the times you got deadlines preventing you from producing something even vaguely as professional as those nice renders.

But i´m not there yet and so i´m still trying to accomplish the best results for a portfolio while still learning to be fast and efficient.

 

my first experiences with sketchup went from this:

"Wow this is fast and intuitive"

to this:

"Wow this looks total crap in 3DS-max, cant use it at all!"

 

My second step was to start over in sketchup, trying to produce a better organised base model for further refinement in 3DS-Max.

Asked by another forum member, what i wanted to refine, i replied:

"Mostly chamfering edges to get rid of that CG-Look"

 

that still proved to be an almost impossible task, even with a slightly better organised SU-Model.

 

I then played around with the Round Edges Feature in MR, but wasn´t quite satisfied.

Below i posted a comparison between Base Model, Model with Rounded Corners (set to 1.3 cm) and Model with some chamfered edges (also 1.3cm).

I hope you can see what i´m getting at.

Weirdly the further away edges look worse with Rounded Corners (wich is supposed to work better with further away objects), the chamfered version just looks more defined.

 

So now i completely remodeled the house in 3DS Max, only to find the chamfering to be even more tedious, since i can´t just select all edges and chamfer without getting weird results (holes, tris and such).

 

Finally i found EdgeChEx and tried the demo version.

This seemed to be perfect.

I´d still like to get the SU-Max-Workflow to work, so i tried EdgeChEx on my SU-model.

But once i try to render or collapse the stack, 3DSMax just crashes and i couldn´t find any help on EdgeChEx online.

 

Any ideas on how to get this to work?

Or any ideas on the general workflow?

 

Here are the comparison pics:

 

No round Corners/No Chamfer

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45950[/ATTACH]

Round Corners

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45949[/ATTACH]

Round Corners with Blend

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45952[/ATTACH]

Chamfered

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45951[/ATTACH]

Edited November 30, 2011 by mrstardust

[Brodie Geers]

I just do the chamfering in SU. http://sketchuppluginreviews.com/2010/04/23/round-corner-2-1-google-sketchup-plugin-review-2/

 

There are methods of creating a model in SU that can allow editing in 3ds Max but it turns SU into 3ds Max style drudgery and defeats the purpose of using SU in the first place. If you look through the plugins you'll find very few things that 3ds max can do that SU can't if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of flexibility.

 

-Brodie

[mrstardust]

yeah, i already read about that plugin.

but since i just wanna get my portfolio done now, i kind of lost appetite for sketchup and just remodeled everything in Max.

Theres a fantastic plugin called EdgeChEx, wich automaticall chamfers all edges you define by a threshold, so it doesn´t chamfer anything you don´t want...Just select te whole object, define the amount and enjoy all the free time you saved...

 

Once i´m finished with my actual project i wanna give sketchup another try, my biggest problem is still not to use components and groups wisely.

[Inxa]

I haven't used plugins. It's simple to chamfer the object when modeled or placed in the scene. Nothing is razor sharp edged, so I always try and chamfer a model. Also, it helps with the highlights.

 

I chamfer models when working on exteriors as well, but not a compulsory routine.

 

Nice tip, I'll have to experiment with that. Modeling the chamfers is a lot of labor. It would be great to cut that out.

 

How have you been, long time seen you around here.

Edited December 8, 2011 by Inxa