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how to merge meshes FAST ?

polycounter
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rollin polycounter
Is there a working merging/boolean script or function in 3ds max or any other program that allows to combine open lowpoly meshes?

When I build the lowpoly for hardsurface hp-objects I end up with lots of intersecting boxes and stuff which I want to merge into one big mesh. For now I cut along the intersection an edge for both intersecting objects. Then I delete all the faces that would end up inside of the merged mesh and weld along the open edges.

It would save me tons of time to have some automatic function.
boolen and proboolen tend to do stuff I don't want (most of the time) like not cut into both operands, or one operand disappearing. And If a merge function needs too much extra effort I can keep doing it by hand.

cheers

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  • Mik2121
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    Mik2121 polycounter lvl 9
    If you check around the Polycount news, there was this weird program that someone made that let you merge random meshes together. The guy who made it created a few seriously creepy examples with some human and some rabbit ears or something....



    Eh, nevermind, wanted to check it out again by myself:

    http://www.meshmixer.com/

    Hopefully you can get over the creepiness of the examples and just check out the app itself :)
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    hi Mik2121, I've already tested meshmixer.. but it doesn't allow me to merge an imported mesh. Guess this program is more for adding things ontop of an imported mesh with the mouse controlls.

    I would need a one-click solution with maybe some cleaning afterwards.

    or maybe I don't know this function in meshmixer
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    are you using closed meshes with proboolean?
    Its not going to work well if you dont.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    yes my workflow requires that the meshes may be open.
    proboolean works just 20% of the time.


    Anyhow.. how are others creating the lowpoly for some hardsurface sifi stuff? I can't think of any faster solution as I'm doing it right now.. but maybe I'm just missing a cool technique
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    If you are wedging, say, a cylinder into a cube, you miiiight be able to extract the cylinder loop edges as spline and then project that based on the camera onto the cube.

    Pure nurbs modeling allows to do that btw (but is a pain in max). Maybe try Rhino and M.O.I ?

    In the end I always end up remeshing (zbrush) or voxel-ing (3dcoat) and smooth a little. Or, going all the way and doing a full retopo in Topogun ...

    I think a friend of mine manages to do it using simple booleans in maya, and I believe his meshes are open, too. I'll ask around...
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    hi per!

    Problem is the lowpoly parts don't always look like a bucket where you can simply cap the hole. capping them and organizing the edges over this cap and then boolean and then cleaning is not faster then cutting and welding by hand. Welding two meshes doesn't cost's that much time.. but doing it over and over again sums up
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    this is a quick random example. I made the center mesh x-ray to see the intersection a bit better


    goal is to get one connected mesh where you just have to clean up here and there a bit.

    mesh_weld.jpg
  • foreverendering
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    foreverendering polycounter lvl 12
    I'm searching for the exact same thing rollin is talking about.

    Anyone found a better solution? Currently I'm having the most success doing what perna mentioned (extruding the border way out, capping, then running boolean cut) but it feels like there should be a better way.

    Anyone know of a script that checks the intersection of one geometry to another and adds cuts at that point?

    Maybe rollin found a better alternative in the past year..?

    [edit] I should mention that the ideal is something that would work on open geometries as well [/edit]
  • divi
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    divi polycounter lvl 12
    best results i've gotten for that is pro boolean with insert and imprint checked. still not perfect but it cuts the boolean object where the meshes intersect so cleaning it up afterwards isn't that much work and i've never had proboolean behave weirdly with imprint checked. also works with open meshes as long as they don't intersect with the open border, as that imprint will most likely vanish once you convert to editable poly.
  • foreverendering
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    foreverendering polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks for posting this divi.

    I just came to the same conclusion last night after testing a bunch of different settings. I'll give it a thorough run-through while resurfacing my next character asset and post my thoughts then
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