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How The F*#% Do I Model This? - Reply for help with specific shapes - (Post attempt before asking)

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  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
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  • Filip5
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    Filip5 polycounter lvl 8
    Hey guys, how do I make these edges hard ? Adding a loop also affects circle part, for which I am going to use turbosmooth. Just can't get this working. I want to make it a brick with two holes in it.


  • Filip5
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    Filip5 polycounter lvl 8
    @perna Thanks, it worked !
  • Pedro Amorim
  • Michael Knubben
    I considered warning Perna for enabling such a lazy post.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
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  • Pedro Amorim
  • GuanAndOnly
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    GuanAndOnly polycounter lvl 6
    Hey guys, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but I'm trying to figure out using gras/leaf cards.
    I'm reading Berker Siino's breakdown here: https://80.lv/articles/unreal-engine-4-stylized-rendering-workflow/
    From my understanding it's rendering planes onto a sheet to use as textures, and you uv cards onto the right places.
    I've tried doing that with some primitives:

    Now my question is, what is a power of 2 plane, and would (or could) I get the same results purely by painting these patches directly in photoshop or something and cutting them out afterwards? Or is there something special about baking it? :0
  • supaclueless
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    supaclueless polycounter lvl 12
    @GuanAndOnly when someone says power of 2 (in regards to textures, plane meshes size, etc), it usually means following the scale of units of numbers on the power of 2 (IE: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, so on so forth). I am not well-versed enough in engine design for utilizing textures but the short hand is most game engines use ^2 resolution sizes for textures (sometimes 1/2 size on vertical, IE: (1024,512). But is mostly commonly (512,512)(1024,1024), etc etc.
  • GuanAndOnly
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    GuanAndOnly polycounter lvl 6
    @GuanAndOnly when someone says power of 2 (in regards to textures, plane meshes size, etc), it usually means following the scale of units of numbers on the power of 2 (IE: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, so on so forth). I am not well-versed enough in engine design for utilizing textures but the short hand is most game engines use ^2 resolution sizes for textures (sometimes 1/2 size on vertical, IE: (1024,512). But is mostly commonly (512,512)(1024,1024), etc etc.
    Oh dang, thanks for that! I'm familiar with typical texture resolutions and whatnot, but I've never heard the term.
    Cheers!
  • Vent
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    Vent polycounter lvl 7
    Long time lurker, first time poster.

    This might seem like a fairly simple shape, but I'm having some trouble with it. I'm pretty bad with topology.

    This is what I'm attempting.



    And this is my attempt. It feels messy, and wrong. I've been doing this for a while, but I'm a novice when it comes to subdivision modelling. 



    Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

    Edit: I attempted to fix the triangle problem, but I still feel like I'm going about this wrong. With this flow how would I place edge loops without disrupting the curve of the front of the receiver?

  • GhostDetector
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    GhostDetector polycounter lvl 10
    @Vent

    The most important part is to make sure the edge of the cylinder is creases the 1/2 cylinder.  This preserves the circle.

    I did make a mistake on this and I didn't notice that the edge is beveled.  Nonetheless you should be able to figure out the rest.



  • sheheryar_noor
  • heklis
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    heklis polycounter lvl 9
    sheheryar_noor

    Not super correct with some friendly ngons maybe someone show you better topo...
  • sheheryar_noor
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    sheheryar_noor polycounter lvl 10
    I appreciate your effort@heklis. But the problem (either i am seeing and understanding it wrong) is the top area.
    I see this part as " " Bottom part(cylinder) and the top part are attached/welded till red line .In your result http://prntscr.com/f0bs9v top and bottom parts are attached till small red line, and green line shows to have the attachment below i will have to extrude more polygon till green line.
    After seeing your result an idea just hit me, will post my another try. Thanks for helping


  • heklis
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    heklis polycounter lvl 9
    @perna
    yep u are right i just check one picture and dont understand it. Its just one bended sheet of metal... I hope its right now.



  • sheheryar_noor
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    sheheryar_noor polycounter lvl 10
    Ty Perna and Heklis. Heklis i think your first attempt was OK.  Following Perna pattern(yellow line) i finally did it but single face (without shell). Now going to apply shell before extruding wings. Thanks alot@Perna and Kelis
  • TheWiredFrame
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    TheWiredFrame polycounter lvl 7
    I've been trying to get back into modelling lately with Blender and decided to try doing a MiG-21 because I thought it looked reasonably straightforward as far as fighter jets go. The canopy is giving me major problems tho and despite many different approaches I just can't get my head around how to accurately reproduce the shape of the forward section.

    You can see what I'm talking about here:



    And also in a very nice 3D render from an angle to get a better idea of the exact shape here:



    Clearly, the canopy begins at the rear by being a simple cylinder shape extending from that "spine" or whatever on top of the aircraft. Going forward it gets more complicated. There's a kind of metal band going around the cylinder, then after that it appears the sides continue the cylindrical shape of the rear while tapering inward, with a flat section facing the pilot surrounded by a rounded metal frame.
    This front section is surprisingly complex and I'm especially not sure how to make the metal frame look right once I've approximated the shape. I found this video, which helped a bit...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk2ZK7AaLhU
    ...but I still can't create and position a cylinder where if I cut the front plane the sides will also look about right. Then I'm not sure about the complicated corners of the frame either and I'm not sure where I'd begin to do those properly.

    Whenever I try, it usually ends up looking like on the left here and then I'm not sure where to go. Probably more vertices would help, but I was originally planning to do it as low poly as I could, hoping it wouldn't take as long. Ironically going higher poly might make it easier to approximate...

    On the right is the same with Subdivision Surface and a 1.0 Edge Crease on the front face. That always seems to make the area around the crease look weird with the lighting etc. How should it be done to make it look somewhat like in the previous render? I'm not even aiming for a particularly high quality or level of realism here TBH, just something that looks recognizably like it portrays the general shape with some accuracy.
  • GhostInTheShell
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    GhostInTheShell polycounter lvl 3
     Hi guys, i was attempting model muscles and trying to get the shapes of the fiber correctly, i have tons and tons of reference that i could get, i did a lot of alphas too, tryed nanomesh too, but i don't think that i get the aspect that i want yet, so if possible could you guys give me some insight on how i can approuch this?

     Thanks in advance.

    >some alphas that i did


    >some nanomesh attempting

  • Callisto
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    Callisto vertex
    Hello again, thank you very much for the answer, and I'm sorry for being inaccurate with rules. I have another question, about these corners. They get arcs when smoothed, what is an appropriate way to avoid that? I would also take any advices to make my geometry better. Thank you again.

  • NegInfinity
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    NegInfinity polycounter lvl 3
    Need advice with something. I'm using blender 3d.

    How do I model an "anime" head based on extremely stylized reference? 

    Example (please ignore messed up hair):
    model
    References used:

    Basically... heavily stylyzed head shape gives me grief and I'm not sure how to produce this kind of effect:
    With polygons.

    Any advice?  My issue is anatomy - I'm not sure how to deal with huge eyes while still having some semblance of proper face structure. Original image is flat and has parts that subtly ignores anatomy/perspective. Also, typical recommendation to "insert sphere and use it as eyeball" doesn't exactly work in this case due to eye size. 

  • NegInfinity
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    NegInfinity polycounter lvl 3
    @perna Erm... did I ask this question in a wrong forum/thread? If so, my apologies. This is something that has been bothering me for quite some time, and this thread looked like the right place to ask about it.... 
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    @perna Erm... did I ask this question in a wrong forum/thread? If so, my apologies. This is something that has been bothering me for quite some time, and this thread looked like the right place to ask about it.... 
    study the guys who do this great. you will not be able to translate this 1:1 into 3d as the reference doesn't care about correct perspective from any angle.

    https://sketchfab.com/search?q=anime

    just searching anime on sketchfab gives you a ton of reference to check out :)
  • NegInfinity
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    NegInfinity polycounter lvl 3
    Neox said:
    @perna Erm... did I ask this question in a wrong forum/thread? If so, my apologies. This is something that has been bothering me for quite some time, and this thread looked like the right place to ask about it.... 
    study the guys who do this great. you will not be able to translate this 1:1 into 3d as the reference doesn't care about correct perspective from any angle.

    https://sketchfab.com/search?q=anime

    just searching anime on sketchfab gives you a ton of reference to check out :)
    Thanks.
    Somehow I keep forgetting that sketchfab models made by other people can be used as learning material/reference. :-\

    Back to the "drawing board", as they say.
  • 8th_Scepter
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    8th_Scepter polycounter lvl 6
    Hello, I'm having trouble with rounded shapes. 

    The nail:




    Ref: (sort of)


    If I may ask for a bonus model. Halo prop:




    Ref:


    Thanks.



  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    8th_Scepter  please do everyone a favor and read a bit into this thread. this topic has been tackled in here probably a few dozen times. i know it's a bit of work and you might learn a trick or two which you did not ask about, but thats not a bad thing :)
  • 8th_Scepter
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    8th_Scepter polycounter lvl 6
    Neox said:
    8th_Scepter  please do everyone a favor and read a bit into this thread. this topic has been tackled in here probably a few dozen times. i know it's a bit of work and you might learn a trick or two which you did not ask about, but thats not a bad thing :)
    Thanks and will do.  :#
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    8th Scepter yes you ll thank us later, I have made a full reference folder filled with cool tricks posted here from page 1 to 146 took me couple of hours to do so. Would suggest you do so same ;) Also someone shared all the pics too from this thread somewhere here. 
  • cookedpeanut
  • sheheryar_noor
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    sheheryar_noor polycounter lvl 10
    8th spencer, http://prntscr.com/f4bqlo <might help you.
    A suggestion ( i could be wrong) http://image.prntscr.com/image/159eac11504146c1852b905a35f056a1.png In ref image red dot surface and green line surface are not of same height. Give supporting loops like blue line rather than making triangle.

    Edit: In most cases beginners like me see things wrong or incorrect because of less ref images study. Just few days ago i had problem with with gun belt, perna and one another guy helped me to put on path, it took me hours to model what i wanted. Practice,practice and practice makes a man perfect :)
  • mverta
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    mverta polycounter lvl 7
    Being both brand-new to sub-d's and thoroughly intimidated by the responses in the thread, I'll ask my regrettably basic question as a simple yes or no:




    It's all quads, but it's leading to pinching in the reflection.  Is the only way to avoid this simply having a denser base mesh so the distance between vertexes is shorter? 

    (However, even increasing the base mesh resolution substantially doesn't fully address the problem:)




    I keep seeing the principle that on curved surfaces, use existing base geometry as control loops, but this would appear to need an insanely high level of detail to accomplish that.  Is this nonetheless the solution?

  • mverta
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    mverta polycounter lvl 7
    Thank you - in retrospect it was an entirely irrelevant detail so I've edited it out.  Simply looking at the quads I've modeled suffices. I will endeavor to be more efficient in the future.
  • Algecir
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    Algecir null
    Hey guys, any thoughts on how to improve this twisted cord edge topology? Because my current attempt looks terrible:

    Ref:


    Thanks.
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    Algecir said:
    Hey guys, any thoughts on how to improve this twisted cord edge topology? Because my current attempt looks terrible:

    Thanks.
    pretty straight forward. i have to go to work so here is a 3 min try. 
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/56y0wymjl3832sv/hereyougo.max?dl=0
    and the file there, to see how i broke it down. 

  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @mverta  hope this help you understand and solve your problem. Also removing this kind of detail wont help you learn mate! put it back on. Also note that in order to get mine L corner on curve super smooth I manually adjusted vertices on edge constraints. 


  • mverta
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    mverta polycounter lvl 7
    Thank you - but I'm not sure how it directly applies.  My dilemma is that I have dozens of cylinders to make, each with notches cut out of the ends as seen above.  The notches are of all different sizes and depths, so if I was to attempt to use base geometry as control loops, I'd need to start with a cylinder with about 1000 sides just to make sure I was covered, which is retarded.  But the cylinders will ultimately be reflective, so it needs to have as little distortion in it as possible. So far increasing the base mesh's subdivisions doesn't really solve it.  I have also tried using a high-res target mesh to snap points to after the notches are cut out, but this too fails.  
  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    @8th_Scepter, part of why you're having a hard time is that you're modeling two separate pieces as one, so you're either suffering because you didn't study your references well enough or simply didn't find good ones. In future, try this: http://deicidenbf.thanez.net/
    Credits to anything found there go to DeicideNBF. I just host the pix.
  • sheheryar_noor
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    sheheryar_noor polycounter lvl 10
    Algecir
    Sliced cylinder http://prntscr.com/f5th54
    Pull vertices and shell,http://prntscr.com/f5thmw
    Turbosmooth http://prntscr.com/f5thze

    Not sure if it looks same as this.



  • mverta
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    mverta polycounter lvl 7
    @perna  Thank you, and yes I've seen it asked and answered in various ways, none of which seem to make sense enough to me to directly apply.  As I said, the first suggestion (more base resolution) is impractical, and when it comes to things like you've illustrated in that link, they seem to point to early termination and n-gons/triangles/whatever to localize the problem.  I've tried that, too, and seem to come up with artifacts, so perhaps it's just that I'm not terminating things the right way.  I suppose I'll just have to keep playing.  I have to learn to do this and can't give up.
  • admiralpixel15
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    admiralpixel15 polycounter lvl 2
    Hey everyone. Second time posting a problem here. I'm practicing some hard-surface shapes and I encounter this type of shape and I have no idea how to block out the shape. I tried different methods but they don't work perfectly. Thanks in advance. 

    Link: http://imgur.com/a/0tONk (I can't upload images I don't know why)




  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter


    take a box, angle it, subtract bool it from your shape, clean up, profit
  • admiralpixel15
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    admiralpixel15 polycounter lvl 2
    @perna @Neox Hey there Sir, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for solving my problem with the shape. Here's my attempt of making it. I tried to increase the loops to compensate with the shading problem for the corners. Is that bad? and please critique my work in case there's flaws with it.

    @perna Yes sir I do really need more practice with booleans as I rarely use them. I will definitely do some hard-surface block-outs as well. Thanks for the advice Sir PER.





  • admiralpixel15
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    admiralpixel15 polycounter lvl 2
    @perna Hey there sir and sorry for late reply. I just want to say your methodologies/techniques are the most easiest and most efficient way of modeling shapes. Before I posted my problem I did try your method with the three edges but I was having difficulties getting  the hard edge in the middle and I was desperate to perfect it but fails every time. I tried to use booleans as you told me solves it, but not the most efficient but it's effective. I keep forgetting the fundamental part of subD and that increasing the resolution of the model is not the right path to go to. Anyways thanks for making an effort solving my problem and showing your way of approaching the shape.

    Seeing your model makes me wanna kill myself. I wonder how did you get the hard edge in the middle part. Was it one of your modifiers? I used Maya instead of 3DS Max because it's the university's main tool for 3D stuffs. Sorry to bother you.
  • admiralpixel15
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    admiralpixel15 polycounter lvl 2
    @perna The edge with the boolean cut-out, the one circled in the image from the post above. I was really hoping that some features in Max is implemented in Maya. Like the Quad-chamfer for edges instead of Bevel and Shell for thickness instead of Extrude because it gives you more control in my opinion. I need practice in terms of edge loop efficiency like how Vitaly Bulgarov do to his 3D models and some block-outs. Blocking out the shape is my enemy especially if there is a complex/complicated cut/inset. Any tips/advice from that one? 

    Anyways here's a sample of Bulgarovs 3D stuffs from his Ultraborg kitbash. Currently studying edge loops efficiency to make the shape but also terminating tris to make it quads. Anyways thanks for your time. I won't ask anymore and abuse you.
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    I really liked the simplicity of Perna's approach so I decided to have a go at it without the Quad Chamfer modifier, and using again using Open Sub-Div. I'm trying to get used to using Open SubDiv so this was a learning experiment!



    Without Quad chamfer both required a fair about of cleanup to control edge hardness. Using Max's chamfer modifier I was really limited to how soft I could get the edges in tight spots without the chamfers overlapping each other. Using open subdiv there wasn't enough mesh density around the 'slice' to give a nice bevel. I ended up adding loops later on to clean this up.



    The other problem with Open Subdiv I found was editing the poly added new hard edges that I had to clean up, or it messed up my crease settings. I also had to really fine tune my creasing on an edge by edge basis that was quite tedious.


    @perna by the way, do you have anything set up to stop max from smoothing the entire mesh by default when you chamfer an edge? having to always uncheck that box is annoying as hell. Especially when if I miss it I might not notice for a while.

    anyway this shape is fun, I'm going to detail it out!
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    @perna you absolute saint. Yes setting all those up manually is constant annoyance. I can't wait to give this a run!  <3

    Yeah in reality I could get more consistent edges at the smoothness I wanted if I just built the model with that in mind. But I wasn't really paying attention to proportions when I threw it together and stuck in some too-thin bevels. Mind you, having consistent edges is something I always struggle with!!
    There are all sorts of tricks and approaches to avoid overlapping chamfers, so you should strive to learn those instead of turning to Creases, which is an absolute nightmarish disaster for hard-surface and I strongly recommend against using it for anything but unimportant background objects.
    What a ringing endorsement! /s. Ha! Yes, from detailing out the rest of the model yesterday I eventually started getting sick of having to constantly reset crease values on edges, remove creasing from flat edges that where adjacent to a creased edge I had chamfered. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a disaster, but the Open SubDiv tool in max are not solid enough IMO, and it definitely lacks the control you get from support geo, to the point that I ended up putting in loops in place regardless. 
  • sanfuer
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    sanfuer polycounter lvl 6
    Hello everyone, I'm trying to model 2 twisted pipes but I'm struggling with the ends and the pinch I'm getting, if any of you kind sirs could help me out that'd be awesome
    Here is what I'm looking for :



     And here's my attempt :

     As you can see I'm not getting the shape i want and I faces overlapping. Thank you everyone
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    perna said:
    @admiralpixel15 , I zoned out and went overboard with this



    I just wanted to address you increasing the density of the rounded corner geometry. For a clean, controllable curve all you need is three edges, as shown above.

    This way it's extremely easy to tweak the angle of each curve.  Simply move one single edge up or down:



    It's also extremely easy to change the profile of the entire curve, make it sharper, etc.

    Below is the cage model for the complete mesh, without modifiers. I manually remove the edge created by the symmetry modifier for the rightmost edge (you can see in the above wireframe images that there's no centerline running through the rounded corner.




    Modifier stack:
    • TurboSmooth
    • Quad Chamfer
    • Radial Symmetry
    • Symmetry (vertical)
    • Symmetry (the special case one, this is hidden until I need to mirror some manual work)

    Cage without Quad Chamfer and Turbosmooth:


    This is probably the best and easiest expl. anybody ever got. It's so incredible powerful! Thank you once again Wise one! 
  • ajr2764
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    ajr2764 polycounter lvl 10

    Perna advised to check out this thread. I had a little pinch issue on a mesh in another thread. I  did a paint over on my image since im not home. So I think I need to use more edges to begin with so those extra edges can also be used as support loops. Also make sure to check the edge spacing. I originally created this flat, cut in the edges, cloned and bent the segments to get the shape.

  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    Hi all, Ok so I may get a lot of flak for this but one must seek help from the polycount council and @perna .
    Right I am using spline > outline > extrude > chamfer workflow and came across an issue of maintaining width on an angled surface due to outline parameter in edit spline. I know I can do old school poly modelling (grey plane) also max is not cad tool but would like to know if there is a way I can approach this in faster way while keeping equal width on an angled surface. 


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