Modeling
VIArts
Posts: 1,499
I heard from a Hex user that you can use one object to cut a hole into another object. Example: use a cylinder tocut a round hole in ax flat plane.
Can you do this in Carrara 8 Pro? If so, how?
Comments
Yes you can. Its called BOOLENING (sp) And it works great ...... in theory... You can add, subtract, intersection, ect and would be really cool if it worked correctly.
I have use it ONLY where no other modeling technique wood not give me what I wished.
Your experiences may differ
Cool, then ho do I do it? Or rather, where is the feature found?
The Carrara manual is piteously out-of-date, but I'm quite certain that it covers the Boolean operations.
In short (and going off memory here; trust, but verify... ;-) ), in the Vertex Model Room, you would have the two meshes that you want to perform the operation against and they are positioned just where you need them to be -- for argument, we'll continue the cylinder through a cube example.
Select one of the meshes with a double-click.
Select the Boolean command from the menu.
Select the second mesh with a double-click.
You can now cycle through all the various Boolean operation types. When you have found the one you want, press Enter.
FYI: "Boolean" comes from the English mathematician George Boole who created the "language" and logic rules we use with sets. While the mathematics of boolean sets differs slightly from the meanings we give them in the 3D world ... they are close enough if you consider each mesh to be its own set.
Hi LOH :)
The Modelling function is called "Boolean", it can Cut out one object from another,. or Add objects together, or create the intersection from merging both shapes.
Boolean operations are a "Pro" feature. only available in Carrara pro.
You can use boolean in the Vertex Modeller,. or in the Assembly room.
In the Vertex modeller,. it's under the "Construct" menu,. (pic 1)
(boolean will only highlight when two objects are selected)
or,. it's also an icon on the top tool-bar,. there are options on the right hand panels to change the Boolean type from Add / Cut / intersection etc..
In the Assembly room,. it's an option in the "Edit" menu / 3D Boolean,.. (Pic 2)
then there's a pop up window where you can select the type of boolean,. Cut / Add / intersection.
Boolean is best used on models where you've matched the edges in both models to minimise the errors which can be created by this function.
The "Boolean" function is like a Power-tool,. and can often produce meshes where there are many issues with edges which need a lot of work to fix.
making your objects with edges which match, will allow Boolean to create a cleaner cut / add / intersection.
Boolean operations work extremely well on Poly-lines (2D shapes) to create complex shapes which can then be extruded.
If there's a way to model the object without using Boolean,.. (and there usually is).. then you should use that,. and you'll learn more by doing that, than you will by using boolean functions.
Hope it helps :)
Once you apply Boolean, the "+" and "-" keys cycle through the many end results from which you may choose, too.
I've found that in (8.1 pro) the Boolean operations selected from the construct menu differ from those by the Boolean tool icon in the way the resulting object is triangulated. The construct menu produces more errors (for me) where the objects intersect but will preserve surrounding geometry whereas the Boolean tool will usually merge coplanar faces and re-triangulate the geometry surrounding the operation.
The cut tool works similarly to the Boolean tool but with a polymesh and a polyline as opposed to two polymeshes.
Infini-D, a precursor of sorts to Carrara, had negative objects that could cut holes out of regular objects. The cool thing is that you could animate a negative object moving through a regular object. It would calculate a Boolean for each frame of an animation. It was also non-destructive. You could "subtract" one object from another and then later go back and change the subtraction. In some ways it was more functional that Carrara's Boolean, and less in others. I haven't found a way to reproduce this effect in Carrara.
Here's a way to model a hole with modeling. Actually, I'm utilizing a bug in Carrara. I already know how to make holes with a eight sided
polygon, but the smoothing algorithm does it automatically because it calculates the geometry of the octagon and 3x3 grid on the same working box level. :)
Anyway, this bug for making holes is for you. heh
Note: Forgot to add in the illustration to drag the 8 sided polygon to the empty polygon. Doesn't have to be perfectly centered that I've found.
Thanks guys. Yeah, I did a boolean, but it's not avery clean cut.
HI Jacob :)
What are you trying to make,...
it could be that there is an easier or simpler way to make the shape you're after. without resorting to boolean.
Andy :)
Doors, door frames, and doorways o different shapes. I made this doorway by matching verticeson the X and Z axes so they made the same shape as the door, then just deleted the polys.
But i forgot the door frame. lol