The meshes need to be water tight for any type of boolean to work. No open edges, no boarders no double faces, no flipped faces. It also helps if a single element is operating on a single element. If you have multiple meshes joined into one edit poly its going to have trouble.
They changed ProBoolean a bit in a 2011 service pack or 2012 so it operates on open meshes a bit better, but they're still dicey operations.
Even when they work Booleans still tend to make a mess out of everything, even when it attempts to clean it up, its still a mess. There are some scripts that help with that on scriptspot.com.
Bad meshes = Bad ProBooleans
Some meshes are just too complex for it to operate on and it will always drop out and do what it shows. Your operand mesh looks to be pretty chaotic and fairly dense and edgy so it might need to be simplified.
It also doesn't help that your operand mesh is several elements and some are clipping into others which will complicate things. You should probably break off each element (there's a script for that) and treat each one as an operand.
To check for open edges it depends on what version of max you're using: (Note: You're more likely to get help and save me from writing walls of text if you say what version of max you're using)
2011 and greater:
You can use Xview (click the right most viewport label) to highlight any open edges, flipped faces (face Orientation) and other various problems that can throw a pro-boolean into chaos, which isn't hard...
The nice thing about Xview is that it highlights the problems so they are easy to find.
2010 and lower:
You're stuck using the STL Check modifier. You need to check the "Check" box for it to run. If there is a problem it will tell you... it won't show you and you'll have to hunt around to find it. Normally its an open mesh.
Needless to say, you should avoid using booleans at all cost. Booleans should be used only as last resort imo.
I would say that booleans are like ngons in high poly modelling. When used wrong they can be a pain in the arse to fix but when used correctly they can save loads of time.
I would say that booleans are like ngons in high poly modelling. When used wrong they can be a pain in the arse to fix but when used correctly they can save loads of time.
I agree there is a lot you can do with them, if you carefully manover around the pitfalls.
What is this script called? You mentioned it on a previous reply.
"It also doesn't help that your operand mesh is several elements and some are clipping into others which will complicate things. You should probably break off each element (there's a script for that) and treat each one as an operand."
There are several. Matt Lichy's turbotools include a script to do it, along with other awesome stuff. Plus he's a polycounter so no reason not to try 'em ;-)
Replies
They changed ProBoolean a bit in a 2011 service pack or 2012 so it operates on open meshes a bit better, but they're still dicey operations.
Even when they work Booleans still tend to make a mess out of everything, even when it attempts to clean it up, its still a mess. There are some scripts that help with that on scriptspot.com.
Bad meshes = Bad ProBooleans
Some meshes are just too complex for it to operate on and it will always drop out and do what it shows. Your operand mesh looks to be pretty chaotic and fairly dense and edgy so it might need to be simplified.
It also doesn't help that your operand mesh is several elements and some are clipping into others which will complicate things. You should probably break off each element (there's a script for that) and treat each one as an operand.
To check for open edges it depends on what version of max you're using:
(Note: You're more likely to get help and save me from writing walls of text if you say what version of max you're using)
2011 and greater:
You can use Xview (click the right most viewport label) to highlight any open edges, flipped faces (face Orientation) and other various problems that can throw a pro-boolean into chaos, which isn't hard...
The nice thing about Xview is that it highlights the problems so they are easy to find.
2010 and lower:
You're stuck using the STL Check modifier. You need to check the "Check" box for it to run. If there is a problem it will tell you... it won't show you and you'll have to hunt around to find it. Normally its an open mesh.
Forgot where I got it from.
http://pastebin.com/PHPpaHrE
I would say that booleans are like ngons in high poly modelling. When used wrong they can be a pain in the arse to fix but when used correctly they can save loads of time.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1428155#post1428155
What is this script called? You mentioned it on a previous reply.
"It also doesn't help that your operand mesh is several elements and some are clipping into others which will complicate things. You should probably break off each element (there's a script for that) and treat each one as an operand."
Thanks!