3ds Max - Hexagons with Classic Mesh Smooth
Tags: 3ds Max, Hexagons, Parametric modelingGet the Flash Player to see this player.
Software : 3d studio max
Category : 3d Modeling
Description : This Tutorial covers how to turn your mesh into Hexagon poly’s. This is a technique I learned from Toru Hasegawa while we were in school together at the GSAPP. You essentially triangulate a quad poly surface then collapse the triangles to have hexagons.
Creative Commons
DesignReform.net by David Fano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at designreform.net.
Great! thanks for the tutorial.
This is a quick way to do some early visualization of concepts. Albeit it gets very tricky if you want to have good control over the size of hexagons. It is hard to get the correct balance between changing the values in Mesh Smoothing in the beginning, weld vertices in the middle of the process and the inset values in edit poly at the last step. I tried to use this on meshes that look like the Greater London Authority Building and the Swiss Re Building in London. I am guessing that the weld vertices process wasn’t working on these curved surfaces since I did not notice the surface changing like it was in the video when the values are increased. Subsequently when I applied the inset to polygons, lots of “jaggies” pop out from everywhere. I ended up going back to the very first mesh smoothing operation, added some negative values to the “relax” box and that helped smooth it all the way in appearance. I did not try to make a big inset value to create thick hexagonal frames since I was afraid that jaggies would pop again, and when that happens the computer gets really taxed. In the final step of removing the original mesh, I noticed “left over pieces” just like in the video. The only way I know how to erase them is to go through each polygon individually so I just let them be for now. Next time I do this exercise, I would want to see if I can boolean the mesh with the hexagons frame to get individual hexagon tiles.
If you send me your file I’ll take a look at it. The jaggies can come from many different things. Many of them come from the shell modifier.
and as for “This is a quick way to do some early visualization of concepts.” That’s pretty much the only way I use 3ds Max. These are very fast ways to test design ideas. Once the general framework has been established I will then switch to a more precise modeling package.
Thanks for the comments
Also if you have not done so already watch the Hexagon screen video.
is there a trick when importing geometry from SketchUp without tessilating the object. I wish to maintain the poly’s the way the were imported without further triangulation.
Also, i know this is going too far but can the end product mesh be cleaned for a 3D print?
hmmm. I have to look into sketch up. Honestly i have never used it. We should be able to figure out a way to 3d print it. Can you post your mesh file in the forum? I’ll give it a shot.
You should check out SU, there are some pretty cool plug-ins being developed. There is a new FFD plug-in that is interesting
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=6029&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=Plugin
Although, i am more interested in how i can take a SU model into MAX and use meshsmooth
Thanks
I think we can figure that out. Check out the optimize modifier. I’ll make a video for that soon
files posted here: http://designreform.net/forum/index.php/topic,735.0.html
Hi david!first i wanna thank you for your tutorials!they’re great!I watched all your tutorials in 2 days!now i’m doing some exercises…Following your instructions i realized the exagon structure.I didn’t deleted the exagons,but used a delete mesh modifier.Now ,with those exagons,i wanna realize some trasparent shaped panels (like those made in EFTE,like Grimshaw’ s Eden project ones).I tried using a displace modifier with no useful results…can you advise me a method to do that?Thank you very much again and keep on doing great tutorials like this! (sorry for my bad english…)
Paolo
nice and smooth tutorial!
great!
Hi Dave-
How are you doing?
This is Ben - I was in your first meshing class at gsapp. Totally great class! Great site too!
If you dont mind - I have a relatively straight forward max question - I want make smooth dimensional shape in 3d max (For example I am starting with a nike swoosh spline or ups sheild shape) but it gets those ugly ripples - “jaggies”. I created my spline in max then extrude –> edit poly –> turbo smooth / mesh smooth but you get jaggies on there. Is there a way to make a dimensional smooth nike swoosh smooth in max?
Similar problem happens if you extrude text and try to chamfer it. Chamfer does not occur evenly and there is an intersection problem at the corners.
Is there a way around the jaggies? / Is there a way to do a even and smooth chamfer in max?
Add’t notes:
I tried making the line the in illustrator and in max
Sounds like it could be several different problems per your earlier response but the geometry is made using very straight forward techniques
I tried my everything meshsmooth, turbo smooth, subdivide chamfer, booleans, shape merge, shpereify etc
Can you help? Let me know if you want to see the file / printscreens. Thanks in advance.
Thanks
Ben
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