Sharp, defined edges in Max.

I know this a noobish question, but it's driving me mad. Whenever I transform polygons sometimes they're too smooth. I want them to have sharp edges. What do I have to do in order to fix this?

 

It might be easier to answer your question if you provide a screenshot or something. But I think you might be able to fix the problem by applying the smooth modifier, by default it'll make all of the edges more cornered.

 

Wow that was easy, thanks a lot.

 

Ok, new problem. Sometimes when I make a boolean it comes out strange. How do I fix it?

[image=http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2504/maxprobvm2.png]

 

Make sure you have a good amount of vertices before you perform a booleans operation. If your starting mesh is to simple and doesn't have that many vertices it won't be able to do booleans correctly. Also, if your mesh has any holes at all it won't be able to do booleans. So to fix this, first make sure you have a good amount of vertices, you can do that by my using the slice modifier with the default setting (it might just take a few subdivided halves to fix it) or you can use tessellate or subdivide modifiers to increase the vertices. If that's not fixing it, then apply an STL Check modifier to it, have it set to select edges and then check the Check box and it'll check the mesh for errors and select the edges, or you can apply a edit mesh modifier and go to the edges sub-object level and then scroll down to the option to Select Open Edges and see if there are any open edges. I know that sometimes after I do booleans it'll put a hole in it somewhere and I can't see it and get confused when it screws up on the next operation.

I haven't checked it but there's a new booleans tool in 3ds Max 9 called ProBooleans which should probably perform the Booleans operation than the standard Booleans in Max.

 

actually the number of vertices doesn't apply... you can successfully boolean a cube or pyramid... but it does have to be closed...

something else you may wanna try is SHAPEMERGE, also under the compound tab... you can get strange results there too, but sometimes it will simplify things...

also, for sharper edges, you can switch your renderer from AREA to Catmull-Rom under antialiasing filter...


Darksteps...

 

I can tell you from great experience that the number of vertices does apply, without a shadow of a doubt. It's because there's only so many other vertices that it'll allow a vertex to be connected to so if you've got a simple object and you try to subtract a complex object from it it can go over that number.

Shapemerge can work for what it seems like you're doing, just make a rectangle and have it project onto where you want to place the box, then go into the polygon sub-object level and select the new shape it made in the surface and extrude.

And as far as sharp edges, he was talking about the actual model, not anti-aliasing. If you notice when you make a shape like a cylinder or a sphere that it's pretty smooth, but if you apply the smooth modifier it'll show how it really is----with facets.

 

I've usually found it best to boolean a simple object, then go back to merge vertices, add additional edges and do other clean up work. But the best thing to do is plan ahead and avoid booleans altogether.

And remember - always chamfer sharp edges!

 

I try whereever possible to avoid using Boolean operations (although that Max 9 Pro version sounds cool, will have to check that out), although sometimes there is just no other way.

A neat trick is if you are looking to do something simple like cut a hole in a poly or an area, then tesselate the area (if not already), select all the interior vertices and then right click and select collapse, then chamfer the collapsed vertices and voila a nice clean hole (of course remove any unwanted edges)



Wiz.