Shapemerge Fail!

[whitebirchstudios]

This is getting old, Autodesk. I can hardly work anymore. Why doesn't shapemerge work anymore, at least most of the time? Has something changed?

[kgokhangurbuz · Accepted solution]

Hello @whitebirchstudios ;

Can you tryo to apply Normalize Spline Modifier to the spline then convert it to Editable Spline and apply Shapemerge again?

If it does not work, can you also repeat these steps and apply reset xform and Convert to Editable Spline just before you apply Shapemerge?

Kind regards;

[whitebirchstudios]

I will sure give it a try. Thank you!

[irishman_team_kilber]

what i found out is sometimes the shape merge end up on the bottom of the mesh i am not sure what causing this,

[domo.spaji]

All your spline verts are out of mesh projection and that makes it invisible.

And that is not specific to splines, every modifier, force or tool work "natively" with (mesh or any) vertices.

[lynn_zhang]

Hello @whitebirchstudios ,

Just checking to see if your problem has been solved. Have you tried the suggestions from our experts above and did you have any success? If you find the suggestions helpful, please click on the "ACCEPT SOLUTION" button in their reply so this helps other users in the community find the solution too. Thanks!

[whitebirchstudios]

That seems to work, which is odd...

[whitebirchstudios]

Really, how are people building their sites? It is Sunday, I am working, because I can't get simple things done in MAX anymore. I have a site and I have to put my roads in. I have been trying for three days without any luck. Wait, kill MAX, try again. Once in a while, it'll partially work, but not usable, so I try again. I pick my spline under Compound Object wait up to 30 minutes and kill MAX, because it obviously isn't going to work. Try a few more times with the same results. After a few tries, an hour or so later, it might merge the outside of my closed spline, but nothing inside, undo and try again, just to get back into the loop. I can extrude my spline, so I know my spline is closed. MAX is obviously broken, this is 101 stuff. How are people actually getting work done in MAX?

[domo.spaji]

You need (only) one spline shape vertex to be "above" ShapeMerge mesh!

So, in your case, add edit spline modifier to rectangle shape and make one vert. above mesh...

Here, left to right:

1st rect. all verts "outside" of plane mesh

2nd - 2 verts above

3rd - edit spline modifier on rectangle, vertex level, Refine and click to create vertex

4rth - not closed line spline - doesn't have to be closed, as you can see (notice vert. in the middle of it)

[whitebirchstudios]

Easy with a sample scene, but in reality, it is broken. I have been working all weekend to try and build a site plan, but after about 20 hours, I can't get anything to work. This used to be an easy thing to do, but since MAX 2017, it is broken. Do a search on shape merge being broken and you'll see all the posts since, I don't know, MAX 2017!. Here is a screen recording of what I am fighting with. 

[whitebirchstudios]

So, it partially worked again, which means when I hit CTRL poly, it selects the wrong stuff, so I have to now go in and manually select my road, poly-by-poly. Also, I picked the poly I used and MAX has been Not Responding for the last five minutes!

[whitebirchstudios]

Okay, it is definitely an AutoCAD import thing. I ended up making an image of the site from the PDF, manually drawing the roads, and it worked in seconds. The modeling by hand took an hour or so, so it is an AutoCAD import thing. Using my hand-drawn spline and Shapemerge worked in seconds and selecting the poly worked as expected, too. I originally imported the CAD, cleaned up, and optimized the spline, which doesn't work. I spent about an hour reading through various weblogs, and I read it repeatedly that importing CAD is a disaster in MAX.