It's from a book: 3D Graphics & Animation

I can get 3 or 4 corners rounded It won't let me do the last one, Here is the whole portion, hopefully someone can enlighten my noobie mind.


Before proceeding, go to the modules menu set, located in the upper left corner (just below the File drop-down menu), and make sure you are in Modeling mode. In future chapters, you will change this to Animation, Dynamics or Rendering modes depending on the topic. When doing so, notice that the drop-down menus change.

In the Hotbox* menu, choose Windows*Settings/Preferences*Preferences. In the Settings window, verify that the "working units" - Linear value is set to Centimeters (default).

In the Side viewport, choose the Create*NURBS Primitives*Square › Options window. Select Active View, make the Side 1 Length 6 centimeters, the Side 2 Length 4 centimeters and press create. Name it MonitorProfileShape01.

Normally I would use more abbreviated object and filenames like MonRefShape01, but for a tutorial project I thought it would be beneficial to spell everything out. Note that I like to use caps for generally non-rendering objects like shapes, cameras and lights.

With the square (MonitorProfileShape01) selected, Go to the Maya Outliner (you can select it in your viewport by selecting the Persp/Outliner Tab on the Left side Toolbar. You will see a List of all objects in your scene.

In the Outliner Press the (-) minus sign next to MonitorProfileShape01. You will see each side listed. Select the fist 2 sides and open the *Edit Curves*Attach Curves › Options Window. Set Attach Method to Blend and hit Apply. (leave the window open you will be using it again. Now select the first and third sides and repeat Attach Command. Next, select the first and fourth sides and repeat again (now you can close the › Options Window).

Finally, with the entire square selected, open the *Edit Curves*Open/Close Curve › Options Window. Set the Shape to Blend and hit Open/Close. You now have a square that is a Periodical Curve with no overlapping CV's.

Next, delete all this history of the square to give it a "clean slate" so to speak.

With the square still selected, use *Edit*Delete By Type*History. You'll notice, in the Outliner, that the MonitorProfileShape01. No longer consists of 4 separate sides. It now has only one continuous side with rounded corners.

In the Perspective View, select the MonitorProfileShape01. Open the Surface*Extrude › Options Window. Set the Style to Distance, the Extrude Length to .15, Direction to X-axis, the Surface Degree to Cubic, the Curve Range to Complete and the Output Geometry to Polygons (set to Quads). Set the Chord Height Ratio to .05. This will smooth out the corners. Press Extrude and extrude the shape into a thin 3D panel but the object will be hollow. Have no fear we can fix it! Use * Edit Polygons* Fill Hole.. (see fig. 4.40b). Name the Extruded Surface, MonitorScreen01.

Save your file as BlimpMonitor01.mb and close it. Proceed to the Open Sweep (More Extrudes) tutorial.

Note that usually an artist builds an entire model within a single scene, but that would cause problems in the tutorial because we would have pieces from all of the tutorial sections mixed together, raising the possibility of something getting messed up accidentally. Therefore, instead of building the entire blimp in a single file, we're going to save each section off separately and merge them together later.

How do you post pictures? I could show you what it is supposed to look like, all it is, is a square w/rounded edges.

Thanks