How do I non-destructively mask out a MASH Pattern based on a cage mesh

martenzander

Hi there!

For an educational project I am currently working on I have to create a rocket-league-like arena. Those who don't know what I am talking about, please see the image attached.

Now the problem I have is, that I created this hexagonal floor pattern using a single mash in combination with MASH Pattern. This works great, because I referenced my source hexagon from another scene and this way I can make changes to my hexagon and the whole pattern gets updated immediately.

However, if you take a closer look to the hexagonal pattern on the image, you can see the boundaries of the pattern that divide the hexagons from the grass are based on another shape. Now I am looking for a non-destructive solution to keep my pattern as dynamic as it is, but limiting it's boundaries to (let's call it) a cage. My first idea was to use Booleans, but they are absolute and destructive as far as I know. Besides that they don't seam to handle this medium complex pattern anyways.

I am really appreciating any ideas that may solve this problem for me. 

throttlekitty

Booleans are nondestructive, both of your inputs still exist unchanged from the operation and can be freely edited to change the result. Though it's possible to end up with invalid results, and maya has a history of unstable booleans, but it's been greatly improved lately.

Unless it's a project requirement, I wouldn't worry too much about keeping this non-destructive beyond cutting the perimeter. MASH + boolean sounds like a fine workflow. Once you have the boundary cut, be sure to weld all the hexagons and do any post-boolean vertex cleaning if needed. From here, you can create the edging. The border edge is easily selected, and either extrude it directly, or convert it to a curve to do an extrusion using a profile curve. The latter option gives you some room to overlap the hexagon area if that's a goal.