Making a hole
 

How do I create a hole or 'bore' through a surface.

So you understand what it is I am trying to do, I am replicating my desk, including computer etc... I have the basic shape for the monitor but I am about to create the circular buttons in which there is a slight recess between monitor and button, how do i make this, or make a 'hole' then fill it with a slightly smaller cylinder for the button?

If you're using polys you could do it be using a difference boolean...

Just create a cylinder and place it where you want the hole to be, select the two meshes, and go to polygons -> boolean -> difference...

At least I think so :)

I tried that but everything went 'tits up' so to speak, all i was left with was a grey work area and the rest appeared to have been deleted, maybe i'm using it wrong though :(

I haven't really used difference, but sometimes with union the objects you try to use the boolean on, just dissapears... I have no idea why though :(

I'd be interested to know how to cut a circular hole in a polygon face myself actually. Or at least, how to make a circular curve on the face that could be extruded.
Anybody?

Draw a square (or a higher-sided polygon, depending wich level of smoothnes are you working at) on the surface you want to extrude with the "Split polygons Tool"; once you've hit "enter" you can select the faces inside the new shape and delete 'em to have a simple hole, or extrude 'em in/outwards.
(Once you've done, beware of three and five sided polygons and clean'em up to 4-sided ones).

HTH

cià
ale

Hmm ... with the Split Polygons Tool I was only able to cut from edge to edge. So I cut 3 times with Subdivisions set to 4, and moved the points around to form a circle like shape. Is this what u mean?

I'm not clear on the 3- 4- 5-sided polygon part. What should I do with the newly create polygons? Cut their edges to divide them all up in 4-sided?
Sorry for my ignorance, but what's the purpose of this? I'm from 3DS Max, in where all polygons are automatically arranged in a number of triangular faces with invisible edges. I have no idea how Maya does this coz I haven't been able to get to this triangular faces level in Maya.

This is how I would do it.

One - make the poly cube and cylinder, position where you want.
Two - Select the poly first (as thats the one you want to keep), then the cylinder second.
Three - click polygons -> boolean -> difference
Four - Select edges the you want extruded. Extrude :D

Something like this

Pic 1 - the two objects
Pic 2 - objects selected. Notice the white of the cube vs. the green of the cylinder. This is key if you want to keep the cube, and lose most of the cylinder. If you find that the wrong object has been changed when performing the difference tool in the past, try selecting them the other way round.
Pic 3 - Whats left after the difference tool has been applied, with the edges selected.
Pic 4 - Edges extruded and X-Ray view just to see the edges that are left. Delete what's not necessary

Thinking about it of course, if you only need a round hole in the poly cube surface you could stop after point 3, then just delete the edges that are left by the cylinder.

Well... That's just another way to do it.
Only ten thousand times easier, faster and immediate.
Nothing more... :p :D

cià
ale

edges and curves don't make good...
 

Bedfellows.

A good way to do what you're attempting is to start with a NURBS plane and a basic NURBS circle. Project the curve onto the surface of the plane and trim the center of the circle. Convert the NURBS geometry to Polygon and adjust the settings in the bottom of the channel box(sorry to be so vague here, I'm not looking at Maya right now.) When you initially convert it, it will look like garbage. But the history connection, adjusted with the settings at the bottom of the channel box, will allow you to optimize the conversion after the fact. By increasing the sections and spans in the NURBS history info, you will also be increasing your edge count in the poly shape until the shape is what you originally intended. Once you have the Poly shape you can extrude it like normal.

This is one of the things I really don't like about 3D. NURBS patches are a pain in the a$$ to attach, most of the time, but NURBS are the only geometry type that will give really nice flowing curves/creases AND completely flat surfaces around them. Booleans work, mut most of the time they make the geometry "Heavy" when you use them too much and after one boolean operation on one particular object, typically, you can't perform any more without a work around. FormZ actually is a little better with these types of operations, Amapi seems like it might be better as well, but these processes benefit greatly from using NURBS and having more robust NURBS tools.

Another way, in Maya, could be to use the create poly tool to first build the plane and then, it's either cntrl or option, to create a subtractive shape. Basically it will allow you to build the geometry with a hole in it, but I don't think there's a way to build a shape that isn't open with that method.

Re: edges and curves don't make good...
 

A somewhat late response. I've been away for a couple of days.

Imhotep, I wasn't really sure what you were doing here, but after a bit playing around, I figured it out. ;) With this, you might just not convert to a polygon mesh after all.
Your other solution to create polygons with holes is a nice quick and dirty one. Like it :tup:

Azimuth suggested the boolean solution (most straight forward solution). Although I try my best to avoid booleans as much as possible due to their unstable behavior (not only in Maya).

Thanks for the tips.
I put together some screenshots as a tiny tutorial for those whom might stumble on this thread with a similar question:

Nurbs, Live & Trim
1 create NURBS model
2 select face to and Modify > Make Live
3 draw a curve on the Live surface
4 Edit Curves > Open/Close Curves to close the curve
(don't know if it's required, but it's a good practice)
5 un-Live the face
6 Use Edit Nurbs > Trim Tool on the face
(dotted area will be deleted)
7 a hole in your face ;) (still rough looking)
8 increase Patches U and Patches V in you input history of the NURBS model to make the hole smooth.
9 ready to convert to polygon (if still desired so)

Polygon mesh & Append
1 polygon mesh model
2 delete a face
3 Polygons > Append to Polygon Tool and click an open-faced edge.
4 Click the opposite edge to create a 4 sided polygon
(click adjacent edge to create triangular polygon)
5 [Ctrl]+left_mouse_click to place the first vertex of the hole. Click following vertices without [Ctrl] button
6 Press [Enter] .. Done. :)

Holes
 

Sorry about the late response, I'm glad I could help.

Why not just consider this the thread on different ways to create holes? :)

Here's another way in polys:

1. Place the cylinder (or whatever) over where you want the hole.
2. Open the Split Polygon Tool options and UNcheck Snap to Edge.
3. Draw a new edge where you want the hole to be.
4. Snap the vertives into place using the point snap (hold down V and MMB drag onto point). Remember to select which axis to snap and do it one at a time, unless you wan't it exactly on that point.
5. Remove the cylinder and delete the face, and you've got a hole...

CUT (trim in Maya) holes
 

i use to use rhino 3d and must say, cutting (Triming) holes in surfaces is so much easier than in Maya!

so thank you for the nice explanation.

But just like to say that i found it only works if you use Project curve on surface, with NURBS circles!!!!

It doesn't work if you make the NURBS surface live then draw the NURBS circle on and try to trim it out.



In Rhino 3D all you do is make 2 intersecting surfaces and click split! thats it!

is there a feature like this in Maya, where you can use one surface to split another?

yea, but it's only available for polygons... they're called booleans, and some people will say they're faulty operations, but for me they work just fine as long as your geometry is made correctly.