Optimization of polys

MegaMoogle

Ok, so guys let the knowledge flow!

I'm at work and I've been given a Pro-E model to model around. The model itself is over 3 million polys, so needless to say Max is not liking it one bit. I convinced my supervisor to download the polygon cruncher trial plugin by mootools, and I've been using it, and it's just not doing anything, literally, 0% optimization. I've also tried the optimize modifier in max, and it also seems to not be doing anything. Am I using them wrong, or should I be trying something else?

Ben Apuna

I'm not too sure what your end goal is, but if all you want to do is lower the polycount then you could also give Mesh Lab a try.

MegaMoogle

Yeah, I guess I didn't explain very thoroughly. Basically I have in my viewport a 3D scan of an object, and I need to model that same object, lower poly, using the scan data. However, the scan data is so high poly that max is not taking very kindly to it and doing the most basic things takes an eternity. I will look into this mesh lab also, thanks, Ben!

ralusek

absolute best thing i could suggest is if you have zbrush, just decimate it and then retopo. if you don't have zbrush, just use blender's decimate modifier. it might take a bit if you're having some problems in max, but it will get the job done

sprunghunt

MegaMoogle wrote: »

Yeah, I guess I didn't explain very thoroughly. Basically I have in my viewport a 3D scan of an object, and I need to model that same object, lower poly, using the scan data. However, the scan data is so high poly that max is not taking very kindly to it and doing the most basic things takes an eternity. I will look into this mesh lab also, thanks, Ben!

You can try breaking the mesh up into smaller pieces. Max draws lots of objects better than 1 big object. Even if the total polycount is the same.

Also this way you could hide the bits you're not working on.

miauu

If you using max2009 and have installed Creativity Extension try with ProOptimizer modifier. Set the value of 75% and wait to see what the result will be. This ProOptimizer modifier is PolyCruncher, but built-in max. If nothing happen tray to use Prooptimizer(or PolyCruncher) with small value of optimisation (for example 20%) several times. If your mesh have only quads, afret using ProOptimiser(PolyCruncher) the mesh will be full ot triagnles.

MegaMoogle

sprunghunt wrote: »

You can try breaking the mesh up into smaller pieces. Max draws lots of objects better than 1 big object. Even if the total polycount is the same.

Also this way you could hide the bits you're not working on.

I did initially try breaking up the model like you said, but unfortunately it's so high poly that even when I tried selecting using elements it only selected a few polys, and it would take 5-10 minutes to process I even did anything. Then, on top of that, after having selected a few elements it would just completely freeze up and ultimately die. So I gave up doing that after a few tries. *shrug*

MegaMoogle

@Miauu

Thanks so much! I tried that and it does work!

East

MegaMoogle wrote: »

[...] I will look into this mesh lab also, thanks, Ben!

Out of curiosity, how did MeshLab handle the mesh?

MegaMoogle

I don't have permission to download software here, so I told my supervisor about it, but he didn't download it to my knowledge, so I never tried it, sorry. But it is a free download, so there's no reason why you shouldn't try it

East

Oh, I've used it extensively, I was just curious how it worked with your troublesome mesh