Hi,

I am newish to max and have grasped many advanced concepts, but what is really frustrating me is modeling accurately in MAX.

When I lay down a new AEC wall, I want to be able to dictate how long and at which angle each wall segment goes for numerically.

I can’t seem to click into the XYZ world position once a wall segment is started,

Also, how do you edit a wall legnth numerically afterwards once completed instead of doing it with the resize/ratio (R) key or selecting 2 of the end vertices from the wall and moving them visually.

I have looked in the edit modifier with no luck.

Am I missing something blatently obviously or is MAX all near enough guess work!!

Please help

Instead of using the AEC object, you could try draving you wall using tape objects, that way youll get exact lengths of your walls. Once youve completed a wall doing this you can turn on snap, turn on snap to pivot and trace your tapes using Line shape. Once thats done you can select the shape’s spline sub-object level and use the outline to give the wall its thickness. As long as u keep which edge of the wall your drawing consistant ie. always drawing the outer or inner edge you should get good results. Then add your extrude modifier to get the wall height and start all over again on the next wall. Also make sure youve got your Units set up first metres, feet and inches, or whatever your using.

As a side not it may help when tracing the tape objects if you have a tape at the beginning thats not actually part of the wall so you can snap to its pivot when beginning the spline.

Have a look at the Max 2008 file attached to get a better picture

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

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8244_sgCblidkuhs8DQwJctVu.zip

Hi!

In addition to how much described above, you see the Tutorialhelp of 3DSMax in section “ Working with AutoCAD Files “. Here, You have a panoramic of how to to use the wall the best and a few tips and trick.

Ciao
Michele71

If I want to build a room of exact dimensions using AEC Walls (great with Doors and Windows) I make a Plane object to the size of the room. Then Snap to Vertex in the Top viewport creating the AEC Walls.

Remember you have the option of creating the Walls with Left, Center, or Right justification. That along with the thickness of your wall may affect the dimensions of the Plane object.

For non-rectangular rooms, a series of Plane objects aligned to each other may get you what you need. Or draw out your floor plan with Shapes.

Tim Wilbers [FA]

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Visual Arts
University of Dayton
http://www.udayton.edu/
3ds Max: 7.5, 8, 9, 2008, 2009, 2010

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If you have snap to face (I think it is) turned on when you place a window or door object on an AEC wall it does automatically create the hole for the door/window.  It also updates the hole should you move the window or door around later.  Very neat.