That is most likely because the normals of the cutting surface were the wrong direction. This is something that happens quite often and is no fault of yours. To fix it just remember the following...

When you perform a boolean and get an unexpected result then simply undo the boolean and reverse the normals on ONE of the surfaces and then reapply the boolean. If you again get unexpected results, undo once again and then flip the normals on the other object and reapply the boolean. One of the three will work as the normals only have three possible combinations - both out, one out and one in, and both in.

It also helps to uncheck lighting>show two sided lighting this will give you visual feedback that the normals are facing outward.

Oh just a note on the .ma file. I am using Maya 2010 if you are using a different version do the following:

1. select open>option box

2. under general options you will see a check box that reads "ignore version". check it!

3. now open the file and it will open.

Hope that helps.
-ctbram

ps- when you redo the nose blister you might want to see what happends if you split the sphere longitudinally through the poles. If you split at the equator as I did you will get some pinching at the pole.

pps - For maya 8.5 ... Ignore Version is in File -> Open Scene options. ... Along the top line Maya 8.5 appears four times ...

Hi Bullet
Dont know if you mean to do the lac with the grandslam bomb, heres a link to a slightly more detail drawing...dave
http://www.the-blueprints.com/bluepr...%28england%29/

Thanks ctbram,

jeez your good to me.

No Dave I was going to do it clean BUT I was DREAMING (again) to do it with doors open ready to drop. Thanks heaps for the ref!!

lanc_guns
 

Ok guys,

I got bored/stuck on the plane so I am going for the guns. How the hell do I combine/delete the heat sinks?? I can do it 1 by 1 but there has to be a better way. I tried grouping the heatsink bubbles but it will only do 2 poly's at a time, tried diff, inter etc?? Am I going about it the wrong way??

Cheers Ant

Look for ctbram making holes in tubes in this forum, its good...........dave

Thanks Dave,

happens every time (same as my Survey learning). I combined the spheres as one mesh then did a diff, it worked, sorry my stupidity guys. L = learner, I have been on it for 2 hours now, tried everything then realised at the last to combine then diff. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ok here it is after some soul searching and mind destroying learning!!!!

yayyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cheer! looks good.

...and you figured it out when using that method for booleaning out multiple holes you combine all the cutting objects into a single object, then apply the boolean. If you check out the revolver cylinder video I posted you can see that is how I booleaned the inner holes and the outer indents in the cylinder.

You just need to be careful when creating your initial geometry for both the cut and cutting objects so as to make the cleanup after the boolean as easy as possible.

Always shoot for all quads while maintaining your desired shape after cleaning things up. It's okay if you get a few triangles (I don't stress those as much as others do, but that being said, also try to minimize or eliminate them).

Thanks ctbram,

hmmmmm quads are weird for a Surveyor BUT I AM listening. I figured the multiple cuts through sheer trial and error and LOTS of thinking man. Its how I learn, probably not the best way in some eyes but that is how I became a good Surveyor, the hard way.

Again thanks a lot mate, all of you have been ace man!!!

awesome! I am going to add a tutorial to the holes in cylinder thread since it is related to that idea on creating a barrel radiator. I'll post the link in here once it is done.

I want to go through one possible thought process when using the boolean approach.

Hopefully it will prove to be helpful.

bullet check this tutorial I added to the methods to cut holes in cylinders thread out.

http://www.screencast.com/t/NzI3MjQ5N

Here is the link to the holes in cylinder thread...

http://srv01.simply3dworld.com/showt...868#post301868

Here is the piece modeled....

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...FirstFrame.jpg

I threw it together really fast and I noticed I say "scale" a couple times when it should be clear I meant to say "extrude".

THANKS ctbram!!!!!

That was really cool, I hope to be as good as that not too far away (wishful thinking). I realise what you mean about the quads. I will do one with your method right now.

Cheers bullet

revolver tutorial
 

Hi ctbram,

if you get time and can link to it, can you have a look and tell me what Im doing wrong please??

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4090628/gun_barrel_tutorial.wmv

I seem to extrude ok BUT the object doesnt appear to be planar to the original?? It has a very small lip on the outer edge of the hole. I have all settings in extrude set to 0 except for division.

Cheers bullet

no worries. from the video it looks like you extruded the small boarder around the holes just fine.

This extrude operation will create a small inset (off plane lip) on that small border but it should be almost inperceptable in the final.

What I did notice is that you merged the border edge verts around the holes and you don't want to do that.

The purpose of the small border of faces around the holes is to get three edges close together to keep the edges around the holes tight when you add thickness in later steps.

As you move inward to the hole that is an edge, then another edge right at the hole, then after adding some thickness you move around the corner and there will be another edge. The closer the three edges that form the corner are the sharper the corner of the hole will be. So you don't want to merge that border away.

If I managed to confuse you just drop me another message and I will give you a hand.

Cheers

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...oothing_ex.jpg

In the above you can see how maya smooths between 3 edges. The closer the 3 edges the tighter the corner.

----------------------------------\

We add the border around the holes to give us two of the three edges needed to form the corner around the hole (the third edge is added when we add thickness).

About the border edge created around the hole to control the tightness of the corner. There are two ways to do it using extrude. There will be a small inset as a result of the curvature in the surface regardless of which method is used.

1. Scale inward

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...r/th_scale.jpg

If you use scale uniform inward all the edges will have an inset below the main surface.


2. Offset inward

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x.../th_offset.jpg

If you use Offset inward notice the vertical point stay planar but the side edges will be off plane and have a small inward taper.

So both methods will produce a small lip, but if the border edge is very small it will not be to noticeable.

I prefer to use offset as for small insets it goes off plane the least.

For large insets I find scale is better as everything tends to go in or out the same amount and so you can manually adjust by just pulling or pushing the face that was extruded a tiny amount to try and get things as planer as possible.

ps - if you want to keep the border edge faces all planar you can cut the border edge around the hole manually using split polygon. You'd just have to give yourself a bit more room when you boolean the hole around the out side. But if the border edge is as close as it is in this example the small inset from the main surface should not present a problem.

It all depends on how perfect you want things to be. I came from an automotive drafting background and I used to spend lots of time trying to make everything perfect but soon realized maya and programs of its ilk were designed for artists not draftsmen and as such is more of a artsy fartsy if it looks good enough then well...it's good enough kinda philosophy.

So I drank the cool aid and don't swet the details as much as I did when I first started modeling with Maya. (smile).