266 | CHAPTER 5 worKInG wIth external desIGn data 4. Back in the File Link Manager dialog box, click the Attach This File button. The contours appear in the 3ds Max Perspective viewport, as shown in Figure 5.3. 5. Close the File Link Manager. Turn Off the Grid If Necessary You may want to toggle the grid off if it makes the scene appear too cluttered. By linking an AutoCAD file, you keep the imported geometry associated with the original AutoCAD file. As you’ll see a bit later, this link will enable you to update the 3ds Max scene whenever changes occur to the AutoCAD file. Now let’s see how the contours can be turned into a surface model: 1. Click the Select by Name button to open the Select from Scene dialog box. Select both objects in the list; then click OK. 2. Make sure that the Geometry button is selected in the Create tab of the Command panel; then choose Compound Objects on the Create drop-down list. 3. Click Terrain on the Object Type rollout. Figure 5.4 shows the surface that appears over the contour lines. Figure 5.3 The imported contour lines in the Perspective viewport Figure 5.4 The surfaces created using the Terrain compound object CreatInG toPoGraPhY wIth sPlInes | 267 3ds Max creates a Terrain object based on the contour lines. You can improve the visibility of the terrain’s shape by using the Color by Elevation option: 1. In the Command panel, scroll down to the Color by Elevation rollout and open it. 2. Click the Create Defaults button in the Zones by Base Elevation group. The Terrain object changes to show a series of colored bands, as shown in Figure 5.5. The values in the Zones by Base Elevation list box tell you the base elevation for each of the colors. You can change the color and the base elevation: 1. Select the first elevation value in the list box of the Zones by Base Elevation group. 2. In the Color Zone group, click the Base Color swatch. 3. In the Color Selector dialog box, click a cyan color in the Hue/Blackness field and then click OK. 4. Click the Modify Zone button in the Color Zone group. The base of the Terrain object changes to the cyan color you selected. You can also change the vertical location for a color by changing the Base Elev value in the Color Zone group. This doesn’t have any effect on the shape of the Terrain object; it only changes the location of the color. Figure 5.5 The contour line surfaces shown as a series of colored bands 268 | CHAPTER 5 worKInG wIth external desIGn data Updating Changes from an AutoCAD File You imported the AutoCAD contour map by clicking the Application menu and choosing the References  File Link Manager option. By using this option, you link your 3ds Max scene to the contour.dwg file in a way that’s similar to XRef files in both 3ds Max and AutoCAD. The conceptual difference between file linking and external references is that with XRefs, you are bringing in native files, whereas with file linking, you are bringing in files that were made in another application. Just as with changes made to an XRef, changes in the contour.dwg file will affect any 3ds Max file to which it’s linked. Let’s suppose that you have some corrections to make to the AutoCAD contour drawing that will affect the Terrain object you’ve just created. You can change the AutoCAD drawing file and then update the 3ds Max scene to reflect those changes: 1. If you have AutoCAD 2004 or later, open the contour.dwg file in AutoCAD and make the changes shown in Figure 5.6. Save the file when you are done, overwriting the original. 2. If you don’t have AutoCAD, use Windows Explorer to delete the contour.dwg file; then make a copy of the modified contour.dwg file and rename it contour.dwg to replace the file you deleted. The modified contour.dwg file contains the changes shown in Figure 5.6. 3. In 3ds Max, click the Application menu and choose References  File Link Manager. 4. In the File Link Manager dialog box, select the Files tab; then click the contour.dwg list- ing in the Linked Files list box at the top of the dialog box. 5. Click the Reload button. The File Link Settings: DWG Files dialog box displays. 6. In the File Link Settings: DWG Files dialog box, click OK. The file is reloaded, and the changes are applied in the current 3ds Max scene. The Scene May Lose the Terrain Compound Object Parameters Some installs of 3ds Max Design have a problem updating changes from AutoCAD regarding the Terrain compound object. This is a known issue and is being looked into by Autodesk. If your file doesn’t update properly (in other words, the Terrain compound object gets deleted), reselect the two contour objects and re-create the Terrain compound object. Figure 5.6 Stretch these points outward. Stretch these points. CreatInG toPoGraPhY wIth sPlInes | 269 7. Close the File Link Manager dialog box. The changes to the drawing are reflected in the 3ds Max scene. See Figure 5.7. 8. Save your terrain as Mycontours.max. Like XRef files, 3ds Max scenes that are linked to AutoCAD files can be updated to reflect changes that are made to the source AutoCAD file. You’ll get a chance to take a closer look at this feature later in this chapter. Exploring Terrain Options The Terrain object has quite a few parameters that allow you to make adjustments to the ter- rain. For example, if you prefer, you can have the terrain appear as a terraced form instead of a smooth one, as shown in Figure 5.8. The Layered Solid Option Is Similar to a Traditional Model The Layered Solid option of the Terrain object creates a surface that resembles a traditional site- plan physical model made of plywood, foamcore, or similar a material. Figure 5.7 The modified DWG file after reloading it into the 3ds Max scene Figure 5.8 The Terrain object with the Layered Solid option. The scene is shown ren- dered for clarity. 270 | CHAPTER 5 worKInG wIth external desIGn data You’ve already seen how a few of the Color by Elevation rollout options work. Here’s a run- down of the rest of the Terrain object parameters. These options allow you to add additional splines to, or delete splines from, an existing Terrain object. th e Pi c K oP e r a n d ro l l o u t The Pick Operand rollout, shown in Figure 5.9, allows you to add other splines to an exist- ing Terrain object. The splines used for the Terrain object are referred to as the operands of the Terrain object. When a Terrain object is created, a Reference clone of the selected splines is added as part of the Terrain object. This is the default option in the Pick Operand rollout. When adding additional splines, you can choose the type of clone you want to use instead of the Reference clone. The Override option lets you replace one operand with another. th e Pa r a m e t e r S ro l l o u t The Parameters Rollout, shown in Figure 5.10, offers settings that control the overall form of the Terrain object. The Operands group lets you selectively delete operands from the terrain. The Form group gives you control over the way the contour data is shaped into the terrain. Graded Surface creates the type of terrain you’ve seen in previous exercises. Graded Solid cre- ates a solid form that encloses the entire terrain, including the underside. Layered Solid creates a terraced form. The Stitch Border option improves the formation of terrain where open splines are used in the contour. Retriangulate helps to generate a terrain that follows the contours more closely, especially when they are close together. The Display group allows you to view the terrain as a surface terrain only, as contour lines only, or as both. The default is to show only the terrain. Figure 5.9 The Pick Operand rollout Figure 5.10 The Parameters rollout CreatInG toPoGraPhY wIth sPlInes | 271 At the bottom of the rollout, the Update group lets you control the way that the Terrain object is revised when the operands are edited. The Always option updates the Terrain object as soon as a contour is modified. The When Rendering option updates when you render the scene. You can also use the Update button with the Manually option to selectively update the terrain. th e Si m P l i F i c a t i o n ro l l o u t 3ds Max uses the vertices of the original contour polylines to generate the Terrain object. The Simplification rollout (see Figure 5.11) options give you control over the number of vertices used to generate the terrain. In the Horizontal group, both the Use 1/2 of Points option and the Use 1/4 of Points option reduce the number of points used from the contour line. These procedures reduce the accuracy of the terrain, but they also reduce the complexity of the geometry, thereby making the terrain’s memory requirements smaller and rendering time shorter. The Interpolate Points options increase the number of points used. Interpolate Points * 2, for example, doubles the number of vertices used by interpolating new points between the existing points in the contour. The Vertical group determines whether all of the selected contour lines are used. You can reduce the terrain’s complexity by using either the Use 1/2 of Lines option or the Use 1/4 of Lines option. th e co l o r b Y el e V a t i o n ro l l o u t 3ds Max lets you color the Terrain object by elevation, using the rollout shown in Figure 5.12. This enables you to visualize the terrain more clearly and helps you identify elevations by color- coding them. Figure 5.11 The Simplification rollout Figure 5.12 The Color by Elevation rollout 272 | CHAPTER 5 worKInG wIth external desIGn data The Maximum Elev. and Minimum Elev. options display the maximum and minimum extents of the terrain, based on the contour data. The Reference Elev. option lets you establish a reference elevation that is used for assigning colors to the terrain. If this value is equal to or less than the lowest contour, 3ds Max generates five color zones for the terrain, as you saw in an earlier exercise. If the Reference Elev. is greater than the lowest contour, 3ds Max treats the lower elevations as water, using the Reference Elev. value as the water level. Water is given a blue color by default. The Zones by Base Elevation group gives you control over the individual colors for each color zone. As you’ve seen from the exercise, the Create Defaults button applies the colors to the Terrain object based on the current settings of the rollout. You can also change the color of each zone by selecting the zone elevation from the list box and using the Base Color swatch to select a color. The Blend to Color Above and Solid to Top of Zone options let you choose to blend colors between zones or to have each zone one solid color. By default, colors are blended. You can change from blended to solid by selecting the zone elevation from the Zones by Base Elevation list, selecting Solid to Top of Zone, and then clicking the Modify Zones button. The Add Zone and Delete Zone options add and delete zones. Setting Up an AutoCAD Plan for 3ds Max If you’re an experienced AutoCAD, Revit, AutoCAD Architecture, or AutoCAD Mechanical user, you may find it easier to create at least part of your 3D model in your CAD program and then import the model into 3ds Max to refine it. If this is the case, simply import or link the CAD model into 3ds Max and then resume your design visualization workflow at the point of assign- ing material, or adding lights and cameras. Then you can animate and render the scene. On the other hand, you can also import 2D plans and elevations and build your 3D model entirely in 3ds Max. In this section, you’ll explore the ways you can set up an AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT 2D drawing to take advantage of 3ds Max’s superior modeling tools. One of the drawbacks of importing fully developed 3D models from AutoCAD is that fre- quently, the surface normals of the AutoCAD model are not all oriented in the proper direction. You can use 3ds Max to adjust the normals to point in the correct direction, but that takes time. In this situation, it’s sometimes more efficient to apply two-sided materials to the offending objects and leave it at that. Using two-sided materials increases rendering time; however, this disadvantage is often offset by the amount of time it would have taken to identify and adjust misaligned normals. You can also use the Normal modifier or apply the Edit Poly modifier to selected objects and adjust individual sub-objects in order to correct problems with surface normals. This is less of a problem when the 3D geometry is created in Revit and then linked into 3ds Max Design using the Filmbox (FBX) file format. The geometry almost always comes in correctly using this method. Be sure to update to the latest FBX version by using the Web Update button in the FBX import dialog. The FBX importer has been updated since the release of 3ds Max 2011. FBX also imports materials and lights from Revit; its only real drawback is that it has a huge file size, so you often have to import pieces of your Revit project and assemble them inside 3ds Max Design 2011. You can avoid the normals problem altogether by importing a specially prepared 2D drawing from AutoCAD into 3ds Max. settInG uP an autoCad Plan For 3ds Max | 273 In the next set of exercises, you’ll use AutoCAD to prepare a plan for export to 3ds Max. If you don’t have AutoCAD, you can skip to the section “Importing AutoCAD Plans into 3ds Max Desig n.” 1. Open AutoCAD 2004 or later; then open the savoye-ground.dwg file, which you’ll find in the Chapter 5 archive at this book’s accompanying web page, www.sybex.com/go/mastering 3dsmaxdesign2011. This is the ground floor plan of the Villa Savoye. This is an early twentieth-century residential design built at Poissy, outside of Paris, France, by the world- famous architect Le Corbusier (see Figure 5.13). Using a Legacy Version of AutoCAD All the files provided with this book are saved in the AutoCAD 2004 file format. If you have a version of AutoCAD previous to 2004, you will not be able to open the provided files. You can download the Autodesk DWG TrueView application from www.autodesk.com and install it on your system to open and save the files to a previous version of AutoCAD’s file format so you can open the files and work along with these exercises. 2. Select WALL-3ds-EXT from the Layer drop-down list on the Layer Properties toolbar, as shown in Figure 5.14. You may need to unhide the toolbar if it is hidden in your AutoCAD UI layout. Figure 5.13 The Villa Savoye drawing Figure 5.14 Select the appropri- ate layer in the Layer drop-down list. 274 | CHAPTER 5 worKInG wIth external desIGn data 3. Use the Zoom Window tool to enlarge your view so that it looks similar to Figure 5.15. 4. Choose Draw  Boundary. The Boundary Creation dialog box displays. 5. In the Boundary Creation dialog box, click Pick Points. The dialog box temporarily disap- pears to allow you to select points. At times, you might encounter an error message while selecting areas with the Boundary Creation dialog box. This is usually caused by one of two reasons: either the area you select isn’t completely closed or a single line intrudes into the space you’re trying to out- line. In these cases, you will have to manually trim away intruding lines or join lines that do not meet. 6. Click the points shown in Figure 5.15. Press Enter when you’re finished. A magenta out- line of the wall appears, outlining the areas you selected. The magenta outline is a continuous closed polyline, which will become a closed spline in 3ds Max. Closed splines are preferable entities because they extrude without any problems with surface normals in 3ds Max. Because the WALL-3ds-EXT layer is current, the outline is placed on this layer. The layer’s color is magenta, so the wall acquires the layer’s color. Make Sure You Can See the Entire Boundary Depending on your version of AutoCAD, you may be required to see the entire boundary on the screen before picking a point to create a boundary object. The Boundary Creation tool may fail unless the boundary is visible because the older algorithm analyzes what is visible on the screen only. Try zooming out a bit and choosing Draw  Boundary again if you get the message “Boundary Definition Error: Valid hatch boundary not found.” Boundary creation will also fail if you click outside the lines, or if the point you click is directly on an object. Figure 5.15 Selecting points inside the exte- rior walls Click the interior of these objects. settInG uP an autoCad Plan For 3ds Max | 275 Next, continue to add the outlines of the exterior walls using the Boundary Creation dialog box: 1. Use the Pan tool to adjust your view to look similar to Figure 5.16. 2. Open the Boundary Creation dialog box again and then click the Pick Points button. 3. Select the points indicated in Figure 5.16. 4. Press Enter when you’ve selected all the points. 5. Adjust your view so it looks like Figure 5.17. 6. Use the Boundary Creation dialog box again to select the areas indicated in Figure 5.17. Press Enter when you’re done. 7. Select WALL-3ds-INT from the Layer drop-down list on the Layer Properties toolbar. 8. Use the Boundary Creation dialog box to create outlines of the interior walls. When you’re done, the interior walls should all appear in the cyan color, which is the color for the WALL-3ds-INT layer. Figure 5.16 Selecting other points for the exterior wall Select these locations. Figure 5.17 Select points in the walls near the curved glass. Select these locations. [...]... Chapter 5 Working with External Design Data 276  You want the interior walls to be on a different layer from the exterior walls so that when the drawing is imported into 3ds Max, you can apply separate materials to the interior and exterior wall objects By default, 3ds Max converts AutoCAD objects into 3ds Max objects based on their layers, although you can have 3ds Max use other criteria for converting... Chapter 5 Working with External Design Data 288  You’ve got all of the additional linework you need to export the floor of the second story to 3ds Max, but you still need to take a few more steps to complete the setup for 3ds Max: 1 Freeze all the layers except the FLOOR-2ND -3ds layer Importing Frozen Layers Frozen layers are automatically excluded from importing into 3ds Max However, it is possible to... on the WALL -3ds- EXT layer, the new rectangle will be extruded to the 1 14 height, just like all the other objects on the WALL -3ds- EXT layer New objects on that layer that have a thickness or that are extruded within AutoCAD will be ignored by 3ds Max unless they are placed on a newly created layer Understanding the Block Node Hierarchy Previous to 3ds Max 6, AutoCAD blocks translated into Maxblocks,... modified in 3ds Max The Bind option removes any links to the source AutoCAD file while maintaining the objects in the current 3ds Max scene The 3ds Max scene then becomes an independent scene file and can no longer be affected by the source AutoCAD file Binding Linked Files Eliminates Interoperability Binding a former link will increase your file size as the data is migrated from CAD into 3ds Max when... converted to 3ds Max files To help in the translation process, 3ds Max uses a type of node called Linked Geometry All linked AutoCAD objects are converted to Linked Geometry or 3ds Max blocks, which occurs only when you choose to derive AutoCAD primitives by Layer, Entity, Color, or One Object For example, objects in an AutoCAD file that reside on layer 0 are collected into a single 3ds Max block The... wall, 3ds Max hides most of the glass, and it is displayed only where it appears in an opening, as shown in Figure 5.32 3ds Max also takes care of the intersection of the vertical and horizontal mullions Figure 5.32 The window showing the glass | Chapter 5 Working with External Design Data 286  Radiosity Requires Better Modeling The creation methods used in these exercises are fine when using the 3ds Max. .. Maxblocks, which were collections of entities treated as a single object (which worked like a compound object) Encountering Maxblocks You can still encounter Maxblocks in 3ds Max 2011 if you choose to derive AutoCAD primitives by Layer, Entity, Color, or One Object only Beginning with 3ds Max 8, blocks are linked in a node hierarchy when you choose to derive AutoCAD primitives by Layer, Blocks as Node Hierarchy... example, the File Link Manager allowed you to update the 3ds Max terrain model when a change was made to the AutoCAD DWG file You can also use the File Link Manager with floor plans to help maintain design continuity between AutoCAD and 3ds Max Try using the File Link Manager with the second floor of the villa in the following exercises: 1 To reset 3ds Max, click the Application menu and choose Reset 2... savoye-second -max- mod.dwg file contains the modifications described in the preceding steps; however, linking to a different drawing will cause the Extrude modifiers to be deleted from the scene | Chapter 5 Working with External Design Data 2 94 You’ve seen how you can update 3ds Max scenes when changes occur in a linked AutoCAD object If you add objects in AutoCAD, those objects are also added to the 3ds Max. .. to freeze all the layers in AutoCAD except the Max- floor layer This allowed you to automatically limit the objects that were imported from AutoCAD into 3ds Max You can go back to the AutoCAD file; thaw the wall, header, and other layers; and then freeze the Max- floor layer Once you’ve done that, you can import the other second-story elements into a 3ds Max file and then merge the floor and the walls . them inside 3ds Max Design 2011. You can avoid the normals problem altogether by importing a specially prepared 2D drawing from AutoCAD into 3ds Max. settInG uP an autoCad Plan For 3ds Max | . accompanying web page, www.sybex.com/go /mastering 3dsmaxdesign2011. This is the ground floor plan of the Villa Savoye. This is an early twentieth-century residential design built at Poissy, outside. interior and exterior wall objects. By default, 3ds Max converts AutoCAD objects into 3ds Max objects based on their layers, although you can have 3ds Max use other criteria for converting objects