I am trying to build a road surface simulating and on/off ramp. I have been provided Autocad 3d splines that act as the edges of the road. I am trying to build a surface between these two lines to map a road texture but when I go to convert the editable spline into a NURBS surface MAX is forcing me to build the ruled surface one section at a time. The problem is that the splines provided to me have close to a hundred vertices on each spline. Is there a simple way to convert these editable splines so I only have to pick each one to get a ruled surface instead of having to pick each individual section? I don’t understand why there are so many freakin vertices on these lines......

I could create a mesh in Autocad but when I bring it into Max Design 2009 I have no idea how to convert the Autocad mesh into a NURBS surface. Any help would be greatly appreciated

right click on the nurbs object, or expand the pulldown, and hit curves. click on the lines and you will see convert on the big menu. you can decide how many points you want on it, from there

tyree 18 June 2009 08:12 PM

right click on the nurbs object, or expand the pulldown, and hit curves. click on the lines and you will see convert on the big menu. you can decide how many points you want on it, from there

Does that override the numerious vertices that I have been seeing?
Also....could you suggest a way to convert and editable mesh brought in from autocad into a nurbs surface?

Thanks

tyree 18 June 2009 08:12 PM

right click on the nurbs object, or expand the pulldown, and hit curves. click on the lines and you will see convert on the big menu. you can decide how many points you want on it, from there

I right clicked on the editable spline and converted it to a NURB object. This one editable spline is seperated into 120 curves. Am I supposed to window around all of them before doing the convert? I don’t understand why the heck it wont just treat the thing as one curve. I saw where there was a single curve or seperate curve toggle but when I toggle the one curve option it still picks just one of the 120..arrrrrggggh

hsannis 18 June 2009 05:55 PM

...The problem is that the splines provided to me have close to a hundred vertices on each spline. Is there a simple way to convert these editable splines so I only have to pick each one to get a ruled surface instead of having to pick each individual section? I don’t understand why there are so many freakin vertices on these lines…

In CAD, when a complex curve line is drawn it tends to come in with many more vertices than Max needs.  I get this on occasion as well.  What I do is use the Normalize Spline modifier, which spaces vertices evenly along the spline.  Be careful, because it defaults to 20 units, which would be your system units.  If you’re working in mm, and have a spline that is hundreds of meters in length, it can take a while to add the modifier.  I usually draw a small spline, add the modifier, and set the size I want.  Next time you add the modifier, it will use that last value set.

Normalize Spline will make all vertices Smooth, so if you have any hard angles you want to keep I suggest breaking those vertices first.  Also, the shape of the spline can change a little, so sometimes I’ll use a copy of the spline then edit it a little afterwards, and align it better to the original spline.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA