trying to loft crown moulding

[philvanderloo]

I'm trying to learn to use the loft tool to create crown moulding. I drew a line around the perimeter of my walls, I created a crown profile and scaled it to 6". Then when I select my line, choose loft, get shape, and select the profile, I get huge crown and it's backwards.

Why doesn't the loft tool create the shape to the scale of the profile?

How do I make this right?

Thank You

[Ismael]

http://www.cgarchitect.com/2010/12/lofting

http://www.cgarchitect.com/2010/12/lofting-ii

[Corey Beaulieu]

This may be covered in Ismael's links, but for this I would actually use a sweep modifier and choose your custom profile. This will keep the end mesh a lot cleaner and it should create correct mapping coordinates.

 

That said, max tends to reference the 100% transforms in it's modifiers. Not always, but for many. If you need to scale a profile like this, it is best done through sub-object scaling which keeps the object transforms at 100% or really, just draw a reference rectangle in the viewport.

 

For now, if you want to use everything you have and just get it working, a quick way to reset the scale of your profile would be to draw a rectangle> convert it to editable spline> and attach your scaled down profile. Then just press 3 to get sub-object by spline and delete the original rectangle. The last step would be to adjust your pivot back to your desired position.

[philvanderloo]

Man this is driving me crazy. I've tried everything a dozen times and each time I get a different result.

Corey I did the rectangle scale thing before I posted this issue and that didn't work. Now I've tried using a sweep modifier instead and I either get crown all over the place, (Not EVEN following the path I created), or I get the same huge crown I got when using the loft tool. I re-created the profile several times and I know the scale is correct. So why is the end result so huge?? Check out the crazy path in the second image.

Edited August 25, 2013 by philvanderloo

[Ismael]

http://docs.autodesk.com/MAXDES/13/ENU/Autodesk%203ds%20Max%20Design%202011%20Help/index.html?url=./files/WSf742dab041063133-61da5a1f112a1cebf4a-7ff2.htm,topicNumber=d0e45546

 

Use that on the scaled profile.

[philvanderloo]

Thanks Ismael,

This took care of the scaling problem but presented a whole new weirdness.

The two images attached are the results of using the sweep modifier and the loft tool.

[Ismael]

Do a front view of that. It seems as if the Path is screwed up.

[philvanderloo]

It's not. I promise. I snapped the path to the top of the walls, inside corners. No matter what viewport I view, the path is correct.

[John Dollus]

it could be as simple as leaving banking activated or reorienting your crown shape before applying the reset xform.

I would not use loft in this case.

 

Create a simple closed spline in the top view and try the sweep modifier on that. If it turns out fine, then your spline is messed up regardless of promises to the contrary. If it does not turn out fine, then your crown profile is messed up. It's one of the two so just eliminate the possibilities.