Can't remove edge - please help

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,
I followed this tutorial to create a gear wheel: http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Making-a-gear-with-3ds-max/3721

I followed everything in the tutorial but I used a 5 sided N-Gon instead of a circle for the teeth of the gear.

After step 13 when I extrude my flat gear with 5 segments and convert it into an editable poly, 3DS always throws in an additional edge that makes it impossible for me to continue modelling (creating bridges and chamfering) without getting serious rendering errors (SEE IMAGE!).

If I remove the edge (or better 2 edges - one "in" the top polygon and one "in" the bottom polygon) my surface disappears. The "Remove" button in the Edges SO mode doesn't work and nothing happens - the edges remain there.

I also tried to actually to delete the 2 edges (loosing my surface) and selecting both borders of the outer and inner "circle" to create a new surface with the "CAP" function - of course that's not working either since it's closing the entire surface and I have no hole anymore.

I'm quite new to all this but what I want to achieve is a more complex (later high-res) gear wheel WITH chamfered edges and I thought that chamfering only works properly on editable poly objects. I bet there are more ways to chamfer but I was looking for the fastest way.

So how do I get rid of those 2 edges without losing my surface on top and the bottom so I can convert it into an editable poly and chamfer those edges?

[Anonymous]

There you go. It took 12m19s for 5100x3400 pixel

Vray 1.5 SP1 on 3DS MAX 2008 32 - WIN MC - DELL XPS 720 Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core - 4GB - 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

[Anonymous]

NICE!
Can you post your vray settings?

[Steve_Curley]

Yep - nice image - glad you finally got what you needed 🙂

I'd really like to see a low poly version which gives the same (or at least equivalent) results with MR for a couple of reasons.
While I understand that in this instance the poly count was immaterial there are many (if not most) circumstances where such a high poly count would be unthinkable. Maybe your next project?
In fairness to Cap's construction method which certainly gives the required results, it does seem to be a bit "jumping through hoops" - there ought to be an easier, more straightforward way to construct the objects, but hey! what do I know?.(ans. not a lot 😛 )
VRay is nice, but it costs. MR is nice, and it's free. 'Nuff said.

[Anonymous]

In fairness to Cap’s construction method which certainly gives the required results, it does seem to be a bit “jumping through hoops” - there ought to be an easier, more straightforward way to construct the objects

I totally agree with that. Still scratching my head...

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine once told me - if you get the result you were looking for, who cares how you achieved it...

Of course this only makes sense if you are working within acceptable time frames. This solution was more than adequate for what I wanted and the render time was a breeze.

To count the polys I select an object and go to sub-object level "Polygons" and select all (CTRL+A)? If that is correct, the entire scene had 7292 polygons (plus the Mesh Smooth while rendering - iterations 3) - I honestly can't tell you if that is good or bad. Probably not too good lol

Thanks again for your great help!

Here are my VRAY settings (if you need more info just PM me:

[Steve_Curley]

If you get what you need then the "how" is immaterial. This is now more of an intellectual brainteaser than anything else. We're just curious to know if there's an easier / better way to make it. There's always something new to learn in Max and this seems like a perfect opportunity 🙂

[Anonymous]

Caprier, I have to admit, you have some really good modeling skills.