How would you model these splines?

[keith112]

Hi guys,

So I've had to move over to Max from Maya and I'm trying to figure out some things.

I work a lot with splines from autocad and other software.

How would you go about creating geometry from these splines in Max?

Below is an example where I've optimized the spline, then used a cross section and then a surface modifier. 

As you can see not a great result. I could manually add the cross sections myself but since I'll be getting these types of splines a lot I'm sure there is a better way to model this in MAX.

The goal is to have, whats called in Maya, a loft from one spline to the next.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[keith112]

Terrain in compound objects seems to have some good results. But I would like cleaner topology

[keith112]

I create this in Maya quite quickly......

[10DSpace · Accepted solution]

@keith112 

Here is a link to a video describing the process of going from Autocad to max with splines to create a terrain object.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnCAx51nCo

While you know most of it based on your post, the video mentions a free script called "Populate Terrain", which cleans the messy topology produced by the Max terrain object.   My limited experience with the terrain object is like yours -- messy topology results.   However, even without the script, there are ways of cleaning this up in max of course.  You can use the retopology tools. There are a number of good videos on how to use them.  Here is a link to one.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8W4aMqiY68

Of course if you have Zbrush, you can take the messy mesh in there and run ZRemesher on it using curves to define the flow you want, and then bring it back in to max to tweak it further if even necessary.  

Hope this helps.

[keith112]

Hi,

That's a great response. Thanks a million. 

I unfortunately don't have zbrush at work so I can't use that. Would love to though.