Creating Editable Poly Objects


The Create panel has no method for making mesh objects-mesh objects must be converted from another object type or produced as the result of a modifier. Object types that you can convert include shapes, primitives, Booleans, patches, and NURBS. Many models that are imported appear as mesh objects. Most 3D formats, including 3DS and DXF, import as mesh objects.

Note 

You can even convert spline shapes to editable meshes, whether they are open or closed. Closed splines are filled with a polygon, whereas open splines are only a single edge and can be hard to see.

Before you can use many of the mesh editing functions discussed in this chapter, you need to convert the object to an Editable Mesh object or an Editable Poly object, collapse an object with modifiers applied, or apply the Edit Mesh or Edit Poly modifiers.

Converting objects

To convert an object into an Editable Mesh or an Editable Poly object, right-click the object and choose Convert To image from book Convert to Editable Mesh or Convert to Editable Poly from the pop-up quadmenu. You can also convert an object by right-clicking the object within the Modifier Stack and selecting one of the convert options from the pop-up menu.

Collapsing to a mesh object

When an object is collapsed, it loses its parametric nature and the parameters associated with any applied modifiers. Only objects that have had modifiers applied to them can be collapsed. Objects are made into an Editable Mesh object when you use the Collapse To option available from the right-click pop-up menu in the Modifier Stack or when you use the Collapse utility.

Tip 

You can also collapse objects using the Collapse utility found in the Utilities panel.

Most objects collapse to Editable Mesh objects, but objects with the Select Poly modifier applied collapse to Editable Poly objects.

Applying the Edit Poly modifier

Another way to enable the mesh editing features is to apply the Edit Poly modifier to an object. You apply this modifier by selecting the object and choosing Modifiers image from book Mesh Editing image from book Edit Poly, or selecting Edit Poly from the Modifier drop-down list in the Modify panel.

The Edit Poly modifier is different from the Editable Poly object in that, as an applied modifier, it maintains the parametric nature of the original object. For example, you cannot change the Radius value of a sphere object that has been converted to an Editable Poly, but you could if the Edit Poly modifier were applied.

NEW FEATURE 

New to 3ds Max 9 is a set of keyboard shortcuts for the Edit Poly modifier. These shortcuts pro-videaccess to all of the major editing and selection features using the keyboard. You can find a list of these keyboard shortcuts in Appendix C, "Max Keyboard Shortcuts".




3ds Max 9 Bible
3ds Max 9 Bible
ISBN: 0470100893
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 383

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