[3ds Max] Ultrasimple question about vertex removal

Japhir

Hey guys,

There is this one thing in max that I was never able to do properly. If I want to remove a piece of geometry I usually select the verts and hit ctrl+backspace (to remove the verts as well). But how do I remove the verts/edges without ruining the underlying geometry? right now i always end up having to manually re-connect all the remaining verts with each other...

IE:

._ . _ . > .~~~.
|._|._|. > |. ~~~|.

where . = vert, _, | = edge, ~ is the edge I have to put in by hand.

haha I love clear examples .

AlecMoody

just hit backspace in edge mode?

Japhir

that wouldn't get rid of the verts though.

CompanionCube

i don't really get it, can you make a proper image using max and photoshop

Japhir

okok, I thought I could cheat my way out of this :P.

.

situation 6 is the end result I want, without going through all of these silly steps.

PolyHertz

So you want it to automatically reconnect the remaining verts at the end of a loop upon its removal? Yea, that's something that's going to need to be scripted.

Japhir

yeah, or leave intact the original loops. I thought there would be a simple hotkey for this .

EDIT: I know this will automatically work if you remove the entire loop, but in some cases you don't want to do that . (like this one).

Mark Dygert

Why not select the center vertical edge and click remove, or ctrl-backspace, or is it alt-remove... damn its all muscle memory and I don't have max open. Play around with that stuff, see what happens.

PolyHertz

Actually now seeing your example, I dont see why you cant just ctrl+backspace on the original loop...but you said thats what your already doing...Hmm, maybe your asking how to remove a path of edges based on vert selection?

Japhir

yaah that was why I was automatically hitting the ctrl key as well, even when dealing with verts where it is unnecessary. It works, but leaves the end vert of the edge intact.. But it sure is a lot better that doing everything by hand!

thanks :P.

buuurn.

EDIT: PolyHertz: yeah I thought that was possible as well, apparently not without scripting. It's because I usually work in either vert or face mode, and only rarely in edge mode. :P. thanks
Moar edit: fun fact: i ran into this because I decided to polish up an old SDK I made a long time ago (yeah it was so old it had to be named twice in one sentence) for your new SDK master thread :P.

pior

What about this.

1 - Select all the edges you want to remove (not necessarily a complete loop)
2 - ctrl+1 to convert to verts selection
3 - hit 2 to go back to edges
4 - backspace (or whatever you have bound to the remove tool)
5 - hit 1 to go back to verts
6 - backspace

I know it seems long and can be automated (I have a script for that in a toolbar...), but it quickly becomes second nature, and the whole process takes less than a half second.

Hope this helps!

Anuxinamoon

pior wrote: »

What about this.

1 - Select all the edges you want to remove (not necessarily a complete loop)
2 - ctrl+1 to convert to verts selection
3 - hit 2 to go back to edges
4 - backspace (or whatever you have bound to the remove tool)
5 - hit 1 to go back to verts
6 - backspace

I know it seems long and can be automated (I have a script for that in a toolbar...), it quickly becomes second nature, and the whole process takes less than a half second.

Hope this helps!

Thats what I have been doing for like 4 years (until polyboost's remove loop tool)

Works like a charm.

Japhir

Pior: hmm, it's a lot longer than hitting ctrl+backspace (which does only so-so what I want it to do), but does exactly what I want it to do .

offtopic: haha I mentioned earlier that I rarely work in edge mode, but a few minutes later I realized that was ridiculous, I always edge-extrude most of my geometry.