Best way to achieve a tapered lattice effect?

[Kirsten Zirngibl]

I have the need to create a tapered strut effect on some heavy geometry.  I have tried a few different ways to do it, and feel like I still haven't struck the optimal one.

Here's the type of effect I'm going for. 

The "best" method I've found so far is to use the morpher modifier, but I am unhappy with it:

1.  Apply lattice modifier, struts only, with multiple segments
2.  Store a thin version and a thick version in the morpher modifier.  Set the thick version to 100%.
3.  Duplicate the object, remove modifiers, then add a lattice modifier this time with joints only.  Collapse to editable poly.
4.  Go back to the strut/morpher version, and place a volume select modifier under the morpher modifier.  Set the selection object mode to mesh and then pick the joint geometry just created in Step 3.  Activate soft selection within vertex mode so that it interpolates between thick and thin state.

So, yes, it does work, but...
- It's really, really slow.  It takes me many minutes of Max locking up to apply any changes, and it takes a long time just to select.
- It's dependent on strut length.  Ideally, I would have each strut taper in the same manor, regardless of how spaced the joint "volume select" meshes are.
- Opening a scene with this applied takes a really long time for the file size.

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I have also tried using the graphite strip selection tools to get this effect, by selecting ends in poly mode, inverting selection, converting selection to edges, then shrinking until I have the central edge of every strut automatically selected, then activating soft selection and resizing in local coordinate mode.  However, this method was even laggier, and requires collapsing the strut geometry first, barring me making changes to strut geometry as easily.  It also has the same problem as the method above, as in, the soft selection is fixed, meaning that the taper amount applies differently depending on the length of the strut. 

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I have also tried the TySplineMesher (From TyFlow plugin).  This requires converting all edges to splines first, though, which is problematic because "create shape" will often create one continuous spline where multiple struts would be, so without exploding the whole thing to individual spline segments and attaching in chunks to prevent Max from crashing, it's not very feasible. 

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I suspect this is a common effect people would want to achieve for modern architecture, so I may be missing something much easier/resource-efficient.  Anyone have better suggestions for solving this problem?  Thanks!

Edited August 17, 2020 by Kirsten Zirngibl
word tweaks