Hi,

I want to create a circle,line or any possible shape on the face of a box and then extrude it.What is the best approach:

1)Create the circle as a separate object, shapemerge it with box and extrude it?
2)Create the circle as a separate object, extrude it and then attach it to the box?
3)Create many edges/segments on the box, move the vertices of these edges in order to form a circle/whatever shape and then extrude that face?
4) Other??

Which is more “clean” and more close to the philosophy of 3ds max? I would say 3 but seems more difficult if you have shapes with arcs/circle.

Thank you very much

It depends on “what comes next”.

If you have any intention of smoothing (MeshSmooth etc) then absolutely (3) - and keep to Quads wherever possible.

If not then (1) can work for complex shapes, but it will create a heck of a mess of the rest of the surface you shapemerge onto. May or may not matter.

(2) works well, but be aware that you won’t be able to smooth (that’s smoothing groups, not the modifiers) between the 2 objects - the junction will always be a sharp corner. Again, may or may not matter - it’s project dependant.

In the case of (1) or (3) turn Off “Show edges only” in the object properties. That will show you all the hidden edges - you can then decide if it’s too “messy” or not.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

Thank you Steve,

I’ve tested all three options and 1 and 3 are indeed messy as you say. And 3 is diffucult, can’t make a perfect circle.

Only 2 is clean but that’s because it’s not really part of the object (just attached as another element).

So that means that there is no way to make a good clean extruded circle on the face of a box??? Or i understand something wrong?

You can always use a proboolean union (use the ‘make quads’ option if you’re planning to meshsmooth the result).

If the extrude has to happen later for some reason, then boolean subtract with imprint mode turned on, and use an edit poly modifier to select the circular polygon and extrude it.

:: UVSAR :: Dave Merchant :: Adobe Community Professional ::

I wouldn’t try - do it “backwards”. Start with a Cylinder, remove the bottom poly, extrude (select and uniform scale + shift) the resulting border, chamfer the corner (if you want a rounded joint like a weld), MeshSmooth or NURMS - 1 or at most 2 iterations should be enough. Slice off the unwanted stuff to create the flat side you would have started with if doing it the “normal” way. Be aware that you should slice the rest of the model to match all the new edges. “T” junctions between edges are bad.

[edit] The “I wouldn’t try” is not aimed at Uvsar’s suggestion - crossed posts ;) [/edit]

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

..or (if we’re collecting every possible method) you could buy Power Nurbs, and use the PowerDetailer to stamp a circle onto a box (or PowerJoin to glue a cylinder on) - certainly not the cheapest way to do it, but you can apply a perfect fillet. Sometimes, a perfect fillet is worth a thousand dollars - ask the guy who went for the cheap Fugu.

:: UVSAR :: Dave Merchant :: Adobe Community Professional ::