i have 3ds max 9 and im having a problem when i some times start the boolean it deletes my object that i want to stay when i have it hilighted first then when i click the pick button the objects i want to make subtract in to the existing shape it deletes the one that i have hi lighted behind it. do you know what problems im having or what im doing wrong.

Boolean or ProBoolean? Was the 1st object already a boolean? A bit more detail needed i think because a simple boolean between 2 objects shouldn’t do that.

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

Under the Boolean parameters you select what gets subtracted from what.  It’s not just a matter of selecting one object and clicking on another.  I suggest you read up on Booleans in the User’s Reference under Help.

Bruce Hammond
e-nimation.com
Peterborough, NH USA

Max8-32 SP3, Max9-32 SP2, WinXP

	Attachment

I’ve found that if one Boolean tool fails, the the other one usually will be successful.
Such as:
Creating boolean using Power boolean tool causes the object to be subtracted from to disappear, using the regular boolean tool instead causes the boolean to succeed,
main object subtracted “from” and not the main object itself disappearing.
Can’t hurt to try.

Don

Max 2012
Windows 7 64 SP1

ill try that and see if it works thanks for your help i think the first object was a boolean soo if it was can i not do it again

Theoretically it shouldn’t matter if the object is already a boolean object, but if nothing else works, another possible work around is to convert the object(s) to an editable mesh before doing further boolean operations. This has worked in the past for me, but I haven’t needed it recently. If you are really interested in working with booleans in Max it is worth considering PowerNURBS, a plugin for Max that really brings modeling with booleans to a new level. The PowerBooleans tool in Max is derived from the same company, not sure it the Max version is still in development, while the original owner’s package is very much still in development. There is a demo you could try, though you may find the learning curve a bit daunting, or maybe not. I’ve been working with it on and off for quite some time (I won’t discourage you by telling you how long) and have made a lot of progress, but I don’t concentrate on a single package, I have probably ten major ones (the ones left standing after weeding out the ones I have let drop by the wayside) I’ve been trying to learn all at once for the last five (and more) years.
The company site is at:
http://www.npowersoftware.com/

Hopefully, you will find a way to get your work done that suits you,
Don

Max 2012
Windows 7 64 SP1

Dude your awesome and ill check out that link that you posted.

If you’re using the standard Boolean (i.e. not the ProBooleans) then applying a boolean to an object which already the result of a boolean operation is generally a bad idea. Collapsing the stack between boolean operations may well help.

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

Hi Brendan! for simple operations i use Pro Boolean , for more complex Boolean operations i prefer the Npower plugin , don is right it’s a very complex tool, what i always try to do is never convert the boolean to a mesh until i finished all operations, then i make a copy of it and convert it, as long as you have the boolean you can go back and easily modify ,extract or remove .