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302 | ChAPter 8 AdvAnced Modeling And MAssing

Starting Voids as Solids
If you create the void as a void, it will immediately cut the solid mass and become invisible.
This can be really annoying when you’re trying to resolve your design and want to selectively
cut after you’ve intuitively resolved a design idea. Fortunately, there’s another way to create the
form as a void.
Follow these steps:
1. Rather than creating a void, start by creating a solid of a different color and category
to keep things clear during your design iteration. You can simply give the new solid a
different material type to change the color.
2. Select the solid mass and convert it to a void by changing the Solid/Void property in the
Properties palette, as shown in Figure 8.55.

Figure 8.55
converting a solid
to a void

Figure 8.56 shows the result of the void cutting the solid. Note how the form on the left side
of the image has changed from Figure 8.53. Keep in mind that if you want to convert the void
back to a solid, you’ll have to uncut any geometry that was being cut by the void. But the nice
thing about this technique (converting solids to voids and then cutting) is that you’ve selectively
cut only the solids that you wanted to cut. Had you originally modeled the void as a void, you
would have found that the void was cutting many solids and you’d have had to uncut solids that
weren’t even overlapping with the void!

c08.indd 302 05-05-2014 16:47:46