Is there an easy button for making bolt holes?

ScubaSteve

I was wondering if there is a way or script out there. To create a hole from a vertex. Maybe even have some control of how many sides you want the hole to be(as in 6 sided or 8 sided)?

This is for my job I need to make a lot of bolt holes for bolts to go in. Instead of going crazy with cuts.

thanks for the help or suggestion in advance.

ZacD

some reference photos would help, is it a constant pattern or anything? there's different approaches depending on if tis random, flat, or curved, or a pattern.

SpeCter

The only thing which came to my mind would be Selecting Verts and hitting Chamfer, but you wont have controls over how many sides you get(you always get 4 Sides).
So it´s just less cuts i guess.4 Cut´s , 1 Chamfer and 1 Spherize(or some equivalent).

The Chamfer step can be done on all Verts at the same time.

renderhjs

I was asked before and suggested this thread, I did a dirty macro recording and created a script that creates these holes on every selected vert:

the size is hardcoded but I want to make it depending on the volume of the vert with its neighboring verts - and say like 0.25 of that volume like a quarter.

this is the dirty code so far, select a vert on your editPoly base and run it

$.vertexChamfer = 3
$.EditablePoly.buttonOp #Chamfer
$.EditablePoly.ConvertSelectionToBorder #Vertex #Face
subobjectLevel = 4

$.insetAmount = 0.46
$.EditablePoly.buttonOp #Inset

$.extrusionType = 0
$.faceExtrudeHeight = -4
$.EditablePoly.buttonOp #Extrude

tharle

if you're using maya, you can select the vertex and detach component then average vertex and you'll get a hole that you can scale/smooth as appropriate. the number of sides you get depends on the topology you start with.

renderhjs

here is actually a concept which should't be to hard to script and something I am quite happy with (the idea)


The base idea is around having just quads (similar to pTex), so you select one in your current model like where you want to have a detail, hole or whatever. In a script panel or interface you pick a prefab tile that you want to fill it with.
The script would align that prefab (or copies if multiple faces were selected) using FFD or similar skew/transform taper,.. or just linear interpolation math I could do myself. Because quads in models can have trapezoid shapes its not just a matter of scaling w / h but transforming based on each of the 4 corners (like FFD could).

The last step would be to attach the prefabs and weld the corner verts all into a new editPoly modifier so that the whole thing can be undone or previewed on / off.

This could be a cool script for all kinds of details to be added into complex subDiv models

ScubaSteve

Thanks renderhjs.

With your script renderhjs is there possible way to set it up so, you can select multiple verts at the same time? Is there a way to do this hole cutting for a tube? Like a bridge type of feature?

Is it possible for a script to call for a max file that has pre-made holes for a quad? so you have more control of what it looks like in the end ?

Is there also a way to do this hole cutting for a tube?

whats_true

Holes are easy, but how do you do that with a square?

Mark Dygert

Depending on how deep the holes are what about placing floating geometry using object paint?

whats_true wrote:

Holes are easy, but how do you do that with a square?

add more edges and reinforce the corners so it holds the shape.

ScubaSteve

I cant use floating geometry. Its just the high poly model. No baking any normals. It has to look like the real thing.

EarthQuake

You could use floating geo to get the placement down quickly, then at the end when finalizing the mesh chop the geo up and merge the floaters in. This may suck depending on how many holes you need, but if its just a few it should be easy.

renderhjs

thread mirror link that is related: Creating a hole in a Sub-D model
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80305

ScubaSteve wrote: »

I cant use floating geometry. Its just the high poly model. No baking any normals. It has to look like the real thing.

Up to how the script would be coded, certainly possible- my style not so much.
I was thinking about something like this:

A few (3 in this example) hardcoded templates that one could use to fill the quads with. Each of those templates can be placed in the scene as well (edit buttons) so you can modify and pick it after wards in the script.

ScubaSteve

yeah that be pretty sweet if you had it that way.

another question is how well can it be done to a cylinder with out creating bumps?

Also what if the square was not a perfect square, would it make your circle more oval like?

Danielmn

you can try using the circle tool in the loop tools section

Sean VanGorder

I made a short image tutorial for cutting basic holes into meshes. Maybe it will help.

http://seanvangorder.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/tutorial-cutting-holes-into-meshes/

renderhjs

just quoting that tutorial here as well (as people don't always click on links)

tristamus

Wait a sec, so you are not allowed to bake normals for this project, and you must use geometry for all means of detail?? That sucks! lol..good learning experience, I suppose!

However, I would of suggested to use normal "widgets" for things such as screws, bolts etc....what I mean, is a repository of already made normal maps of screws and such that you can literally copy and paste where appropriate in photoshop, combining normals sort of thing.