A Roof Experiment

[SandmanNinja]

Background:

I have problems with roofs. Not sure why, but it's like a mental block.

My skills in AutoCAD are weak at best (only able to do some very basic operations). I'd prefer a roof solution that was 100% internal to 3ds Max.

I'd also prefer not to use plug-ins. The reason being is that I'd like to get a system that works and I'm comfortable with, and that I can sit down in front of another 3ds max machine and not worry about installing a plug-in.

 

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In my never-ending quest for an easy way to do roofs, I had an idea this morning.

 

The angle of the roof pitch is usually given (or if not, then a protractor laid on the floorplan will give you the angle). I dragged out 2 user grids in my top viewport.

With Angle Snaps turned on, I was able to rotate my user grids to be 30-degrees on either side (30 degrees slanting left to right, and then the opposite angle for the other user grid).

I named them Grid-30-Left and Grid-30-Right (but you could have any angle you want, naturally).

I then select one, activate it, and drag out a plane on it (no auto-grid is required, since the grid is at the 'default' angle, it just draws naturally at the proper angle).

I select the other grid, activate it, and drag out another plane.

I switch to a side view and get the two planes to touch at the top (using Snaps set to verts).

 

I end up with my roof at the perfect angle that I need.

 

I convert one to an editable poly and attach the other half of the roof to it.

I weld the verts along the top so there are no gaps or seams.

I do a reset xform and the convert it back to an editable poly.

 

Everything is now set to the default angle and rotation.

 

I can easily drag anything I want on top of either (see attached screenshot) using the AutoGrid, so laying roof tiles would be very easy.

 

I can select the edges of this particular section and extend the length of the roof section to as long as I need it to be.

 

I can also copy the roof (both halves) and raise it to form an elevated section of roofing.

I simply attach the new raised roof to the original roof section, select the edges that face each other, and bridge them (I gave mine two segments to help with the texturing).

 

After sorting it out from My Head-to-a-Max scene, I reset the scene and re-did it in just a minute or two.

 

I'm going to have a play with it and see how it behaves with a real set of walls and what-not.

 

I know there are many different ways to do the same thing in Max (that's why I love it so).

 

 

I'd be interested in your feedback.

[Horhe]

Are you trying to put the roof-o-matic plugin people out of business?

Just kidding

 

Yeah well seems ok, you could ultimatelly align the roof tiles to the slope and then just copy them which basically is what you did. Poly editing rocks

Edited November 8, 2008 by Horhe
more to add..

[SandmanNinja]

Hey Horhe, Thanks for the feedback.

 

I tried this on a house with a 'weird' roof and it came out looking good and was very quick and easy to do.

 

I think this method will 'do' until I can sort out a way to do it with splines.

 

I love poly editing!

[AJLynn]

That's not tile. It's polygon lines. There's not texturing on it.