Making a hole - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 16 18-07-2008 , 05:15 AM

19 year Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: U.S.A.

Posts: 2,140

DjBlazer's modeling threads are the best reference's for making holes IMO. Just do a search in the WIP modeling thread.

Quote

# 17 24-08-2008 , 05:22 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Feb 2008

Location: Arizona

Posts: 30

But the hole collapses...

I'm making a hole in the wall using the Boolean function and my success is tenuous at best. It fails and looks crappy initially, but renders fine.

In the prep phase, I created a wall and an object to be used for the boolean operation.

user added image

I pushed the "green object" through the wall so that it intersects completely.

user added image

I selected the wall, THEN the green object and chose Mesh > Boolean > Difference and voila! ... a hole. But appearances can be deceiving as I have just created an n-gon that contains many edges and results in non-quads. There is a fix though...

user added image

I selected the faces around the inside of the hole and delete them.

user added image

I then selected an edge or two and then from the menu chose Select>Select Contiguous Edges but had to double-check to make sure the entire edge was selected.

user added image

Then I chose the Edit Mesh>Extrude command and pushing inward on the Green Arrow, I created a slight bevel.

user added image

I chose Extrude again and immediately switched to the Move tool and pushed the edge backwards until the edge was aligned with the back of the wall.

user added image

I created yet another bevel to close the gap...

user added image

I merged the paired-up vertices to complete the operation.

user added image

This is the result! I've performed this operation a half-dozen times, being careful to keep things clean, but the result is the same each time. The kicker is, it looks perfectly fine when it's rendered.

BUT, if I use the Mesh>Smooth command it ruins the hole and rendering no longer works. Is this everyone else's result? If not, what am I doing wrong?

user added image

Quote

# 18 25-08-2008 , 11:37 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2008

Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Posts: 1,162

I think this is a great question as Im forever wanting to make extruded like indents in surfaces, but the split poly's tool can be quite a long process. That booleans post with the cylinder 'stamping' the cylindrical shape into the cube looks like it could be the answer, but I have tried this on one of my models, and when i did an error message came up saying:must have exactly 2 polygons selected. ???

The way I used it was, im modelling a keyboard, and the cylinder/booleans thing I was going to use for the headphones socket. So the keyboard body itself has already had quite a bit of work, so the only difference between the example in the post and mine was that two basic primitives were used rather than a more complex model, but the body of my keyboard was just a cube to start, ive beveled in some areas and extruded a bit, but at heart its just a cube. IT looks great in the example so why wont it work for me do you think?

Quote

# 19 26-08-2008 , 03:18 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: London

Posts: 1,135

cut out by hand using the split poly tool its really not that hard
draw on the surface so you have enough vert for the shape.
line uup the other object on the surface of what u r wanting to extract. use snap to point(vert) option and move into plae.
delete inner face
extrude in
dup -1 to mirror and join the vert

this technique works even if u want to cut out circles doesnt matter what shape u want

Now at SMU doing BSc 3D Computer Animation so its hard to get on here
My wire render tut https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=20973

Quote

# 20 21-04-2011 , 11:23 AM

Registered User
Join Date: May 2008

Posts: 245

that is very easy, 2 step
1- smooth everyhting before booleans
2- select both object, apply boolean

Quote

# 21 21-04-2011 , 04:48 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

that is very easy, 2 step
1- smooth everyhting before booleans
2- select both object, apply boolean

Originally Posted by dubai3d

Have you tried that? LOL dave

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

Quote

# 22 22-04-2011 , 11:06 AM

Lifetime Member
Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

yes dubai3D that is the way to do it I have found, it is easier to smooth both geo's then do the boolean, you cant however smooth it again.

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

Quote

# 23 22-04-2011 , 02:13 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

You don't have to smooth first, you just have to clean up the geometry after the boolean command, which hasn't been done in this case. It's collapsing because the face around the archway has so many verts, it's never going to subdivide cleanly. Adding in some more edges and tidying it up would fix it and you could smooth it again if you needed to.

Quote

# 24 22-04-2011 , 02:46 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

Quite right gubar
Left side fixed right side not.............dave

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version

Name: Boaleen.jpg
Views: 712
Size: 137.7 KB
ID: 46837

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

Quote

# 25 22-04-2011 , 11:41 PM

Lifetime Member
Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

no you dont have to do smooth first...its just easier....I use booleans all the time and yes your way dave is a neater geo but a lot of work. I have used both methods and it depends on the geo. If you look at the jetpack on my marine it would have been a lot of work with the split poly tool...so I smoothed first and did it the easy way. You also have to presplit the 2nd surface because you cant do it after the boolean...as I said it depends on how complex the geo is in which way I do it.

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

Quote