Elementary Stuff - Confusion about edge loop

[betaW8244]

Hello,

I’m a total noob coming from Blender and I have a question which I assume refers to pretty elementary stuff, yet I haven’t figured out a solution.

I have this internal edge loop, from which I would like to create a single face within the same mesh. I tried to use “cap poly” and nothing happens. Bridge also didn’t work. I resorted to “Create Shape from Selection” and after converting the spline to editable poly, attach it to the initial mesh. In Blender that would be achieved by hitting the “F” (fill) button with the edge loop selected.

Do I have a misconception regarding the proper 3ds Max workflow, am I using the tools wrong or both?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[Byteman]

Although there may be some, way more easier methods, I would select the mid segment (all 4 edges) and apply a Chamfer command to those edges. That creates two duplicates of the 4 segments at each side of the first. There is one checkbox in the Chamfer interface, which is checked in the image. The second one from the bottom. That checkbox creates an empty area with parallel borders. 

Select those borders in Border Sub-object selection mode and Press Cap. (You can see below, Border and Cap and the place of Chamfer, too)

I strongly recommend checking the number of vertices when you're modeling with Edit Poly tools. It won't be doing something it shouldn't, but there are times you may create bad models without knowing where the command adds the new faces or edges. You can also use the StlCheck modifier for errors in a model. 

Hope this helps. 

[betaW8244]

Thank you very much for your detailed response!

The answer you suggested is actually one I had already tried, but it creates two faces instead of just one that I'm after.

By the way, thanks for the StlCheck modifier, I had no idea about it and it's super cool!

[Byteman · Accepted solution]

I believe single quad face, with edges on a rectangular middle segment as in your model would not be possible unless it is a separate element. Then you can simply attach. You can not weld the selected two vertices in the image. If that is what you are asking.

[betaW8244]

Thanks Byteman. Yeap, that's exactly what I was referring to! It's nice to have a definite answer as to whether this is achievable within the Max app.

I spent hours beating my brains out and you saved me a lot of extra hours searching for a solution in vain!

[Byteman]

You're welcome.

I am curious, is such a face possible in Blender? I presume it would be a bad surface in Blender, too.

[betaW8244]

Actually yes there is the posibility to create a face based on an internal (closed) edge loop just like the one I displayed, without distracting the edge flow. As long as you make sure that the normals of the surfaces are all pointing to the same direction of the camera, there shouldn't be a problem (I'm referring mainly on stills and not on animations).

[dmitriy.shpilevoy · Accepted solution]

You can do this with EditableMesh.

Switch to faces and use Create. Go counter clockwise clicking on vertices of your inner loop, right click after last one.

Note that in max universe this creates bad mesh and you should feel bad that can give you problems later on. EditablePoly treats this as impossible geometry and will try to fix it automatically.

[betaW8244]

Many thanks dmitriy! Actually I hadn't tried this with EditableMesh. I guess I'll adapt to the Max workflow sooner or later.

[Byteman]

Although you can create a face, sharing the edge between two adjacent faces with triangular "mesh" model type, the resulting model with 3 adjacent faces will have 3 separate edges on each other, sharing the same two vertices, eventually having the model error, as named in Stl-Check modifier as "Multiple Edge" 

[betaW8244]

Indeed! I was playing the other day just to test how Max responds to different geometry approach and there have been a few times when I got error message from Stl-Check Modifier.

Eventually this workflow will become muscle memory after a lot of testing and trial and error...

[RGhost77]

Additionally a little bit theory about what a difference between mesh and poly in this thread. I hope it helps too.

[betaW8244]

Thanks RGhost77!
Given that in Blender there is no such distinction, at least modelling-wise, it's a really helpful tip!