bridge between two sub-objects, how to?

rybeck

Hello, folks

learning max very slowly, and got stuck on another basic part...


Made two cylinders, and deleted top portion polys of them, in order to connect them with decent shape. (i.e. machine made U shape pipejoint)
I tried to group them first and used 'bridge' command, but it didn't do a job.
Since I am former maya user, concept of "Combining" led me to 'group' them in Max, but wasn't it right way to do it?

What's the correct way to do connect sub-objects between two objects in Max?



JK

Mark Dygert

There are a few ways to do it.

- Create a torus(donut) the same dimensions as your pipe and cut it in half, weld those open ends together.

- Create a circle spline, convert to editable spline, detach two of the verts, delete half the circle, position it so the ends of the circle are at the mid point of the tubes, cap one of the tubes and "extrude along spline".

- Extrude the edges of one tube rotating and positioning them as you go.

I would rebuild it from a torus.
- Create a torus(donut) covert to EditPoly delete half of it, and extrude the edges on the open ends down.

I'm sure there are other ways to go about it also...

Joshua Stubbles

bridging works just fine. But it looks like there's no depth to the pipes? Or the edges are so close together, the bridge tool is getting confused.
I use bridge like this all the time.

rybeck

@ Viq,

Thanks for advices.
Half torus approach seems working, but still I have remaining problem.. verts are not welding each other.
I did group top (half torus) and bottom (base cylinder), and applied 'Edit Poly' modifier to the group, and then selected Verteces from Sub-obects list, and tried to "Weld" and "Target Weld" both.
Neitehr responsed.
What am I doing wrong?






@ Vassago,

Good to hear you can manage to use Bridge tool. If you don't mind, would you be kind to provide steps in bit further detail? Especially, I am confusing 'how to make two (or more) obejects workable together' (i.e. Weld)
In Maya (my primary tool), before you do anything, two (or more) objects SHOULD be combined to get them response each other.




Thanks for your reponse guys, it really helps me alot to keep going on...

Mark Dygert

You need to ungroup the objects, select one and under EditPoly turn on attach and select the other two pieces. This will combine all the pieces into one object and allow you to weld.

Don't think of group as combine. Think of a group as a quick way to select a bunch of objects and move them around, it doesn't really join them all together into one object but rather gives them a bounding box and a group name.

In the history stack it shows EditPoly in italics which means you had more than one object (or a group) selected when you applied the modifier. When that happens it applies an instance of the EditPoly modifier to each object selected but still treats them as separate objects. Only by "attaching" all the objects will you be able to weld the verts.

Sage

Okay to merge different objects together you use the attach button first then it makes two separate objects one. To use bridge you can do it in three ways

The object must be an editable poly or have an edit poly modifier on it.

bridge on edges. The edges must be open, as in they must surround a hole in the object. Select the edges you want to bridge and hit bridge. This works if the edges are open.

Bridge on Border is the same as on edge. A border is and edge loop around a hole in a model. In your cylinder example were it sounds like you have two separate cylinders with holes on the top you would select one. Turn to editable poly, hit attach to attach your other cylinder then go to Border and select the borders you want to bridge together and it will do it but it's not how to do it since it bridges in a straight line.

I think the step you are missing is the attach part. Combine in Maya under Polygon is Attach function in Max found in Editable poly, Edit poly, Editable Mesh, you get the idea. Detach button is Separate command in Maya. In Max to work on several objects they have to be one so make sure your separate elements are all together. Hope that make sense. Poly object in Max also tries to prevent the creation of illegal faces so that can throw you off at times. Max ships with a low poly modeling tutorial in the helps files and will show you the basics of how epoly works.

An easy way to create your pipe is to create your torus like Vig mentioned and then delete the sections that you don't want, then go to border, select them and hold shift and drag and that will extrude the edges. Drag to the desired length. This works with rotate and scale as well. Hope that helps.

Heh Vig you beat me to it, the attach bit.

Alex

rybeck

@ Viq,

"Don't think of group as combine. Think of a group as a quick way to select a bunch of objects and move them around, it doesn't really join them all together into one object but rather gives them a bounding box and a group name.
In the history stack it shows EditPoly in italics which means you had more than one object (or a group) selected when you applied the modifier. When that happens it applies an instance of the EditPoly modifier to each object selected but still treats them as separate objects. Only by "attaching" all the objects will you be able to weld the verts."

I just printed the paragraph of yours and tape it next to the monitor~
Thanks a bunch, Viq ~





@Sage,



"Bridge on Border is the same as on edge. A border is and edge loop around a hole in a model. In your cylinder example were it sounds like you have two separate cylinders with holes on the top you would select one. Turn to editable poly, hit attach to attach your other cylinder then go to Border and select the borders you want to bridge together and it will do it but it's not how to do it since it bridges in a straight line."

Yes, it happened just like you described.



"I think the step you are missing is the attach part. Combine in Maya under Polygon is Attach function in Max found in Editable poly, Edit poly, Editable Mesh, you get the idea. Detach button is Separate command in Maya. In Max to work on several objects they have to be one so make sure your separate elements are all together. Hope that make sense."

I see... Great illustration, you gave me!



"Max ships with a low poly modeling tutorial in the helps files and will show you the basics of how epoly works."

Hmm,... I just went to check them out but it seems not point the topic ("Attach" part). The keyword I used on early research was "Attach" inside User reference (from Max), and it brought out bunch of unrelated topics... Sigh...



"An easy way to create your pipe is to create your torus like Vig mentioned and then delete the sections that you don't want, then go to border, select them and hold shift and drag and that will extrude the edges. Drag to the desired length. This works with rotate and scale as well. Hope that helps."

Glued to "Viq's Paragraph note" !~




I remember a max user trying to getting help for Maya (s/he was in opposite situation. Learned Max first, and learning Maya), and complaining similar (orexactly same) named command function different. One example would be "Loft." I never used Max at that time at all, and didn't have an access to the s/w, so i just guessed it is not a big deal, but, hell yes... it is confusing big time...
With you guys' help, I will keep climbing over the this amaizing package... Thanks a lot~

Justin Meisse

check out the 3D Buzz video tutorials on max, helped me out when I had to learn max fast

Sage

Check under Max /help /tutorials for that low modeling tutorial of a soldier. It's under character modeling, I think it covers unwrapping as well.

Other good tutorials are

Poops

www.poopinmymouth.com

This is great too to get started in Max. Filled with VTMs

http://forums.ego-farms.com/index.php

and more game tutorials

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/tutorials/

Alex

rybeck

@ Justin_Meisse,

Thanks but gotta holding around with freeby these days...
not much extra dope left..



@ Sage,

Wow.. they are great sites filled with information..
Thanks a lot~

Sage

Rybeck 90 % of the VTMs on 3D Buzz are free, so I suggest you register go to their vtm section and download all the VTMS on unreal ed and the maxs ones as well.

Alex

rybeck

@ Sage,

I thought '3d Buzz's 3ds Max Course ' was what "Justin_Meisse" was mentioning... it's 100 USD.

I'd been actually MS (member sponsor) on 3d buzz forum over several month a couple years ago when I was beginning to learn Maya. Unexpectedly I found parts of VTM that only available to MS from stack of DVD. However, it's kinda too sketch to grab information I am looking for...
I'd rather found "ego-farms.com" really helpful, for me at least...
Learning new stuff tonight, all night long... lol