Topic awaiting preservation: connecting shapes - 3DSM newbie

totally new to 3D, I can't figure out how to connect a half cylinder to a box of the same height and width, I just want to make the two shapes into a single one

(also our install disc is scratched and the help files are corrupted, and being a web shop, we don't use it enough to warrant getting a new copy)

First, they have to be attatched. That is, sub-elements of the same object. Once that is taken care of, this is how I would do it:

1) Pick the sides that will be joined, then destroy them. Pick them with sub-object polygon and hit delete. This is so that there are no internal faces (internal faces may cause problems down the road).

2) Select sub-object element and move them into place, real close and nice and tight.

3) Sub-object vertex, select the "shared" vertices, and weld 'em together. This makes both elements the same element.

Blammo -- one object.

Is that too vague to figure out?



-Gonna getcha

Why wouldn't you just use a boolean union?

Who? Me? LOL

I wouldn't mainly because I'm old school. Old habits die hard. But there is something to be said for learning new tricks and gaining new habits, eh?

Believe it or not, but boolean union doesn't always work for me. Really odd. Sometimes union won't delete interal vertices/faces and just leaves them there for me to clean out by hand. Then I have to weld the "shared" verts together. I can't get this foible to happen consistantly, so I don't know what's causing it or why.

A few weeks ago I was working on a model with around 5 pieces that I booleaned together and it came out a absolute mess. I even STL-Checked the seperate pieces and they were all clean. Then I would boolean the pieces one at a time and back out as I did. Some of the pieces just wouldn't boolean union properly. Took me forever to clean it up.

It only happens sometimes with certain meshes (pseudo-consistantly) and I can't figure out the common denominator.


-We will get you

Booleans are more an art than a science

Easiest way to deal with the stubborn combos is to shift one of the operations a fraction and reattempt. Some meshes just won't work at all, and you just have to do the task manually (assuming that's possible - some complex booleans would be nearly impossible to do without a boolean).

I'll always try a boolean first, though. With Max 3 or later, it works far more often than it doesn't, and it's so much easier than dropping down to the point/poly level.

I'm not the only one then? Cool. Thanks, Das.


-Join us; we are Legion

It doesn't want to give me vertices or any points for the 1/2 cylinder after I attach them, and sometimes it mirrors the shapes when I try to edit the mesh. I wonder if the whole install is corrupted.

if you have now a half cylinder and a box with one side missing, then use them in Boolean's red-neck cousin operation, the joiner (I think that's what it's called)

Load then up into the operation as operands, and the operation will automatically find their empty side and great a bridge between each vertice.

Why not create a half cylinder and Extrude the flat side?

Just a thought...

Easiest solution to make the shape would probably be to create a 2D shape of a half-circle/half-square, and extrude it into the third dimension.

Except you have no vertices on the top or botton to mapiulate if you need to.

Sure you do. Just use capping type 'grid'.

Gotta disagree with ya, Das. Doing half a cylinder with the dialog is easier than making a flat and Extruding. Just use Slice From/To. Sure, you'll have to verts in the 'middle' that will be needed to Target Welded off to the side, but small price to pay. Simple and exact.

I don't think it gets much easier than that. But if I'm wrong, I'ld like to hear the method you are proposing because I don't work that way that often.

Making a half cylinder would be easier, yeah, but that isn't the task at hand. Making a half-circle/half-square and extruding it would be easier (to me, at least) than making a half-cylinder and a half-cube and joining them. Your milage may differ *shrug*

Joining two meshes is always a hassle to me. Either you delete some polys from each mesh and build new ones between the two, or you try a boolean and hope it works.

Edit: Ah, I didn't see your solution of extruding the square side of the half-cylinder. That would be easier, if it does work (I've sometimes had trouble extruding a poly out of a mesh, both with Max and LW).

[This message has been edited by Das (edited 10-23-2001).]

Oh my god. how come no one ever told me about Capping type "grid". I guess you learn something new every day