Bend just corners of a cylinder?

[Anonymous]

I've search and searched and can't find any info on this! I just recently built a frame in 3ds and when I would make the cage with cylinders I remember being able to only cut the 2 ends of a cylinder and I think it was a Modifier because I could adjust the angles of the 2 sides on the cylinder so if i had 2 pieces 45 Degree I could put them perfectly together where the new corners line up perfect

[PROH]

Hi. I'm not absolutely sure what you're asking for, but I think it could be the "Slice" modifier.

Hope it helps

[leeminardi]

Another approach is to loft a circle along a line.Create the ell shaped line and circle then use Create, Compound Object, Loft...

~Lee

[Anonymous]

well i remember it being like this

i could adjust only the 2 corners of the cylinder and i could type in whatever angle i needed and both sides of the cylinder would be the angle i set it to

i didnt use slice or anything like that but i do remember it being a modifier that i could adjust the corners of the cylinder to what angle i wanted.

sorry for sounding all scrambled its bugging me because i did this not even 2 weeks ago and now i cant figure out how

And thats 2 seperate cylinders that i made both 45 degree ends with so i can put them together flush and the end goal was this. still 2 seperate cylinders 

and i also remember when i would adjust the angles slowly the cylinder would move or rotate also

[PROH]

Hi. What you describe sure sounds like using the slice modifier. Not the build in slice tool, but the modifier, where you rotate the slice plane. I can't recall any other modifier that matches the described workflow.

Having said that, I too would use some other tools instead for this job. As already mentioned you could use loft, but is this particular case I think using the Sweep modifier on a spline/shape would be the easiest way.

Hope it helps

[Anonymous]

ill have to give that a shot ! the 3d model i used for my first truck i made as just garbage as you can see here the purple frame i made myself and now that ive got it down i can redo the green one from first truck

[Anonymous]

the slice modifier only gives the option to delete top or bottom and either split mesh or refine mesh and the other 2 seem pretty difficult compared to the way i described because i remember it being simple as typing in 45 degrees and both sides of cylinder were 45 degrees. and it only had 2 box's to type in one was for the angle you needed and i dont rememeber what the other was.


EDIT.. loft is VERY easy to use and seems like a much faster way to achieve my end goal. not sure how to get exact 45 degree angle on the bend but ill figure it out

[leeminardi]

I suggested using LOFT but PROH's suggestion to use the SWEEP is even easier.  Here's a picture of the lines before the SWEEP modifier (cylindrical and box) is applied and the result.  This took about 2 minutes to construct.

~Lee

[Anonymous]

that way is alot easier! is there a way to make then line an exact angle instead of just guessing or trying to get it close as possible? i know autocad has dynamic input but i dont see that on 3ds max

[leeminardi]

Cretaing line geometry with precise coordinates, lenghts, and angles in Max is a bear.   The angle snaps only apply to rotation not to geometry input.  If you have access to AutoCAD I woud create the line geometry there and then import the .dwg file.  When in AutoCAD build your geometry relative to 0,0,0 so that when you import it everything will be positioned correctly.  Once in Max you can move the pivot points of objects if necessary.  Use layers in AutoCAD to group similar geoemtry.  For example, I would have all pipes of diameter D1 on the same layer and use a different layer for pipes of diameter D2, etc.  This way you can apply the SWEEP modifier with different value for each set of lines. 

~Lee