[3ds Max] How The F*#% Do I Make This Faster?

Jean_Pierre_Seiler

So you know how to model something but have the feeling that the way you are doing it is way to laborious / time consuming and that there has to be a quicker way of doing it? Than this is the thread for you! This is not intended for questions like "How Can I Model This", it is for questions like "How Do I Model This Faster".

I try my best to update the initial post, to link to questions and their answers.

If any Moderator thinks this belongs to "How The F*'% Do I Model This" feel free to merge, but I for one kinda feel bad for asking mostly 3ds Max specific questions in there (in fact, I stopped asking because of that).

sacboi

Pardon?

Jean_Pierre_Seiler

The best example I can think of is this:

Question: How can I quickly add loops? Right now I am clicking Cut and than add the edges click for click.


Answer A: Oh that is really time consuming, clicking that button, you can just use alt+c for the Cut-Tool.

Answer B: Wow that is crazy, you can just select a edge in a ring use alt+r to select the ring and hit ctrl+e to connect, with the menu you can also add more than one loop at once


Answer C: You can just alt+1 insert loop if you hold ctrl+alt you can adjust the position of the loop


Answer You can just select one edge in the ring and hit alt+3 which inserts a new loop in the middle of it.

Jean_Pierre_Seiler

So a "real" question from me.

I have a conical object and I do need to extrude the cone precisely (just eyeballing it results in a clearly visible line when turbosmoothed), how can I do it quicker?

Right now I detatch a polygon loop, add the shell modifier, extrude, delete all the unneeded polygons, attach it to the original object and weld it.

PolyHertz

Edit: The scripts Swordslayer mentions below are probably the best answer.

sacboi

Personally, I'd just model then duplicate a segment of this rear MB wheel (hub, spoke and rim) spinning around the origin which should generally result in an increased level of accuracy while bearing in mind subd polygonal modeling at it's core methodology is really a approximate workflow.

Hence dependent upon complexity some 'eyeballing' would be expected, in most use case mechanical hard surface scenarios.

EDIT:

Try hiding/disabling shell modifier before extruding, in another DCC app had a similar precision issue which fixed it for me.

Swordslayer

Without scripts: Extrude the border, select the newly extruded faces (ctrl-clicking the face level to convert selection from edge to face), switch back to edges and delete the selected loop for cleanup.

Free script alternatives:
Extend Surface (UI-less)
Extend Borders (with UI)