Academic Year Pharos University

2019 - 2020 Faculty of Engineering

Spring Term Engineering Architecture Department
EA256 CAD 2

Lecture Handouts

Lecture V

MODIFIERS (continued)

After having created 3D geometries using the 3Ds max presets, you might want to change
the standard appearance of these geometries. And to do so, 3Ds Max offers a long list of
modifiers located in the COMMAND PANEL UNDER THE MODIFY-ICON. In order to activate
a certain modifier, press the little black triangle at the right side of the modifier list tab and
type the first letter of the modifier on your keyboard. Below is a list of the modifiers
discussed during several lectures:

1. CLOTH
2. MESH SMOOTH
3. TURBO SMOOTH
4. SHELL
5. FFD BOX
6. RELAX
WORKING WITH AUTOCAD REFERENCE FILES (continued)

When creating 3D scenes in 3Ds Max, it is often very useful to use previously drawn
AutoCAD 2D drawings as a reference and trace these using 3Ds max shapes. BUT YOU
CAN EVEN MAKE IT EASIER AND DIRECTLY USE THE LINES DRAWN IN AUTOCAD WITHOUT
TRACING. This is especially useful when you have complicated curves, e.g. arches,
ornaments, landscape etc. This can easily be done by following the next steps:

1. Import the AutoCAD file as explained in previous lectures.

2. Select the drawing you need to extract certain lines / curves from to work with
separately in 3Ds max. IN ORDER TO SELECT MULTILE LINES / CURVES AT ONCE,
YOU’LL HAVE TO PRESS THE CONTROL KEY AFTER EACH SELECTION.
3. Activate the SEGMENT selection mode.
4. Go to “EDIT GEOMETRY” and press “DETACH”.
5. The detached lines / curves will be extracted as a separate element and you’ll be
prompted to specify a name for it. Please do so.
6. Now, the detached curves/ lines make an editable spline.
7. Then, you have to make sure that there are NO POINT CROSSINGS OR GAPS all
along the detached editable spline.
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 Academic Year Pharos University
2019 - 2020 Faculty of Engineering
Spring Term Engineering Architecture Department
EA256 CAD 2

8. Activate the vertex selection mode.

9. Go to “ EDIT GEOMETRY” “WELD” TAB. MAKE SURE THAT THE WELDING VALUE IS
NEITHER TOO HIGH NOR TOO LOW. (0.05 m is advisable).
10. Return to the editable spline, go to vertex by vertex and choose each vertex by a
right-to-left selection window and press weld. This step allows for fixing any point
crossings or gaps.
11. After repeating the last step for EACH spline vertex, return to the normal selection
mode, right click the spline and choose editable poly
12. Make sure to activate the “smooth” visual style.
13. If everything has been done correctly, you should get a polygon created within the
boundaries of your spline. If not, the spline WILL DISAPPEAR.
14. If you experience this problem, press CTRL + Z and recheck that all vertices are
correctly blended. You might need to increase the WELD VALUE.
15. You can also attach further splines to your spline before taking the step of turning it
into an editable poly.
16. This makes it easier to model facades with complicated openings.

USING SOFT SELECTION FOR ORGANIC MODELLING

After having created 3D geometries using the 3Ds max presets, you might want to turn
these into editable polys. For, editable polys allow for a much more flexible range of
selection techniques (selection by vertex/ edge/ border/ polygon) which provide a much
better chance for a more precise selection and modeling. Yet, when you need to model
a soft and organic geometry, the regular selection techniques of editable polys are not
best suited. In that case, turn your geometry into an editable poly, ACTIVATE EITHER THE
VERTEX OR THE SEGMENT SELECTION MODE and put a check mark on “USE SOFT
SELECTION”.

1. DO NOT PUT A CHECK MARK ON “EDGE DISTANCE”.

2. You can either choose to put a check mark on “AFFECT BACKFACING” or not. This
depends on whether you want to selection to take effect ONLY on the side you
currently see or also on the side hidden behind.
3. You can change the values of: FALLOFF / PINCH / BUBBLE to change the
appearance of the vertices / edges when you move them using SOFT SELECTION
MODE. The white box below these three values shows a preview of how the curve
will appear by changing any of the values.