Page 399 - Kitab3DsMax

Chapter 13: Modeling with Polygons and Patches

Creating Editable Poly Objects

The Create panel has no method for making mesh objects—mesh objects must be converted from another
object type or produced as the result of a modifier. Object types that you can convert include shapes, primi-
tives, Booleans, patches, and NURBS. Many models that are imported appear as mesh objects. Most 3D for-
mats, including 3DS and DXF, import as mesh objects.
Note
You can even convert spline shapes to Editable Poly objects, whether they are open or closed. Closed splines are
filled with a polygon, whereas open splines are only a single edge and can be hard to see. n
Before you can use many of the mesh editing functions discussed in this chapter, you need to convert the
object to an Editable Poly object, collapse an object with modifiers applied, or apply the Edit Poly modifier.
Converting objects
To convert an object into an Editable Poly object, right-click the object and choose Convert To ➪ Convert to
Editable Poly from the pop-up quadmenu. You can also convert an object by right-clicking the object
within the Modifier Stack and selecting one of the convert options from the pop-up menu.

Collapsing to a mesh object
When an object is collapsed, it loses its parametric nature and the parameters associated with any applied
modifiers. Only objects that have had modifiers applied to them can be collapsed. Objects are made into an
Editable Poly object when you use the Collapse To option available from the right-click pop-up menu in
the Modifier Stack or when you use the Collapse utility.

Tip
You can also collapse objects using the Collapse utility found in the Utilities panel. n
Most objects collapse to Editable Poly objects, but some objects, such as the compound objects, give you an
option of which structure to collapse to.

Applying the Edit Poly modifier
Another way to enable the mesh editing features is to apply the Edit Poly modifier to an object. You apply
this modifier by selecting the object and choosing Modifiers ➪ Mesh Editing ➪ Edit Poly, or selecting Edit
Poly from the Modifier drop-down list in the Modify panel.
The Edit Poly modifier is different from the Editable Poly object in that, as an applied modifier, it maintains
the parametric nature of the original object. For example, you cannot change the Radius value of a sphere
object that has been converted to an Editable Poly, but you could if the Edit Poly modifier were applied.

Editing Poly Objects

After an object has been converted to an Editable Poly, you can alter its shape by applying modifiers, or you
can work with the mesh subobjects. You can find the editing features for these objects in the Modify panel,
but the better place to look for the Editable Poly features is in the Graphite Modeling tools.

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