I have model where every 3rd face has normal on wrong direction. Is there any easy way to select only those normals and flip them to be same as the others?

Software: 3ds Max 2011
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430
Memory : 4GB DDR2
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Model: Dell Precision T7400

Here is the problem. I need to have all normals invisible from outside of the object, and visible from inside. But now every 3rd or so is visible and its pretty laborous to go trough all models.

Software: 3ds Max 2011
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430
Memory : 4GB DDR2
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Model: Dell Precision T7400

	Attachment

If your mesh is an edit poly, convert to an editable mesh(or add modifier) then add a normal modifier, and select unify normals. If you dont want to convert you could use element sub object mode to select large areas with a common normal

Quad Core Xeon X5355 - 8GB DDR2 - nVidia Quadro FX 4600 - 3Ds Max 2010

Why would you need to convert it to an editable mesh. Wouldn’t the editable poly work just as well?

Dean

Max Design 2012 SP2 / Win 7 Pro
NVidia Quadro FX 4800 x 2 (non sli)
HP Z800 - 2 Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz; 36 GB ram

Ok I thought it was normal problem, but can someone explain what exactly is going on here?

Software: 3ds Max 2011
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430
Memory : 4GB DDR2
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Model: Dell Precision T7400

	Attachment

Can you zip a file and post it?

Max Design 2012 SP2 / Win 7 Pro
NVidia Quadro FX 4800 x 2 (non sli)
HP Z800 - 2 Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz; 36 GB ram

to the best of my knowledge the unify normals command doesnt work with editable poly’s

Quad Core Xeon X5355 - 8GB DDR2 - nVidia Quadro FX 4600 - 3Ds Max 2010

Here is test file of the problem

Software: 3ds Max 2011
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430
Memory : 4GB DDR2
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Model: Dell Precision T7400

	Attachment
16639_40nFm9HNwS0deTP8z8EU.zip

that file has alot of overlapping faces and un-welded verticies, that will be the problem.

Quad Core Xeon X5355 - 8GB DDR2 - nVidia Quadro FX 4600 - 3Ds Max 2010

Do you have any recommendations for healing the model? What would be suitable workflow for fixing such model? Like, ok I know I can weld stuff, but Im not so familiar with the workflows what exactly to do and where to fix it. So any recommendations would be warmly welcome.

Edit: I think I found my problem. I was selecting whole model at once when trying to unify normals. Now I have been more succesful when I have only selected some portions of the model. Problem arise that after healing the model, when everything seems to be OK, and I select all faces and flip them, the whole model looks reeeeeally crappy.

Software: 3ds Max 2011
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430
Memory : 4GB DDR2
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Model: Dell Precision T7400

I’m guessing that the model was imported from a CAD package? It would be difficult to create it (in that condition) in Max. So, the first thing is to “fix” it in the CAD package before you export it. Then, depending on the options you have available in both packages (import/export file types) you may well have to experiment a bit to find the best one for these models, but they all depend on the quality of the original model. the better the original model, the less work you’ll have to do in Max.

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