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the best way to fill in holes from scans?

7 REPLIES 7
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Message 1 of 8
brit.b
8372 Views, 7 Replies

the best way to fill in holes from scans?

 

What is the best way to fill in holes from scans for complex (not flat) surfaces? Using the “cap holes” modifier fills it but it is a flat fill. And it only puts in a few triangles to work with. I am guessing the correct method would involve polygons and subdivisions? I am fairly new to polygon modelling, but there must be a way. Thanks in advance. (I was able to fill it in OK using Meshmixer as shown in the attached illustration…the statue to the left, but it did not keep the texture mapping.)

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Message 2 of 8
luxxeon
in reply to: brit.b

I can't tell from your sceenshot without seeing the wires, but I'm assuming, if it's a 3d scanned model, the topology is a delaunay triangulation?  It's not a quad surface, unfortunately.  Quad surfaces would be much easier to fix/repair than triangulation.  In this case, the easiest method to cap those holes is to use the cap holes modifier, to fill the holes with Ngons, as you've already done.  In the modifier, check "triangulate cap" and "smooth result with old faces".  This will result in a fast, but very messy topology.  Your object will be manifold, but may require additional manual editing to smooth it out.  One way to do that quickly is to then add an edit poly modifier, go to the Graphite Ribbon, and under the Freeform tab, select the relax/soften brush from the Paint Deform brush list.  Test the results of relaxing the capped areas to smooth them into the original geometry surface.  If you get an acceptable result, collapse the stack.

 

The alternative, and much better solution in my opinion, would require using some Maxscript or Plugin technology.  There's a fantastic plugin for quad capping holes in any mesh, called Quad Cap Pro.  It's a solution which can automatically cap holes in your geometry much more intelligently than the default capping technology found in Max.  It's not free, but for the price, it's well worth it.  Check it out here:  Quad Cap Pro.  and decide for yourself if that might be something you could benefit from.

 

I don't know your level of modeling skill, but you can also attempt to fix the Ngons generated by the native capping solution, manually.  You can cut edges into the Ngon yourself using the cut tool, to create a better surface, and also experiment with some of the smoothing and relaxing modifiers and techniques.

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My 3d Modeling Tutorials
Message 3 of 8
brit.b
in reply to: luxxeon

Thank you. I think that I will try Quad Cap Pro. As you can see the Meshmixer example in the attached (that was exported to Meshmixer, then imported back in Max) had the hole filled in reasonably well, but the model lost its inherent mapping from Recap360 ...and I can’t seem to replicate the texture mapping. Meshmixer is free, but Max might do a better job with Quad Cap Pro?

Message 4 of 8
luxxeon
in reply to: brit.b

I'd like to give you a definitive answer on that, but I can't say if quad cap will provide a better result than mesh mixer, because I've never used mesh mixer.  I think Quad Cap Pro does an excellent job at patching holes on quad topology, and even on some scanned meshes, but it might not be ideal for some surfaces with delaunay triangulated topology.  However, it's better than Ngons, because you'll be able to control the smoothness and edge profile a little better.  Personally, I'd shopt around in the 3D print forums, and try some other free resources first, before investing.  There's some software specifically designed to repair scanned meshes.  Take a look at these:

http://www.meshrepair.org/

 

There's more than a dozen opensource softwares to repair all kinds of scanned and other mesh topology.  3dsmax is one of the best packages for fixing and creating quad and game mesh topology, but not so great for scanned meshes.  It can do it, but not as easily as some other solutions that are specifically created to do that.  Meshlab is known as a great package for fixing geometry from scans, and there's tons of others out there.

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Message 5 of 8
brit.b
in reply to: brit.b

Meshmixer (a free Mudbox-lite-like program) does the trick. It won't keep the mapping, but it is better to re-apply the texture. see: http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-3D-print-of-a-real-object-using-123D-Catc/step4/Filling-in-...

Message 6 of 8
paulneale
in reply to: brit.b

Have you looked at using Mudbox for this instead?

Paul Neale
PEN Productions
http://paulneale.com
Win 10 64bit
Nvidia GeForce 1060
Message 7 of 8
brit.b
in reply to: paulneale

Yes, I have a faculty copy, but it looks like it is a larger learning curve than Meshmixer (not easy with limited time). What is the Mudbox equivalet to the "inspector" hole filling capapbilities of Meshmixer?

 

I have also been going back and forth between Max's freeform tools and Mesehmixer (since unlike Max it refines the mesh as it smoothes and draws).

Message 8 of 8
cgg27
in reply to: paulneale

How would I use mudbox to do this? I have mudbox and Maya and I am trying to fill extremely complicated holes in my mesh which I got from an MRI of a heart

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