CompuServe Messages

Tim, I too have tried to bevel text that the Deform/Bevel couldn't handle (which includes such highly intricate fonts as HELVETICA!! <g>), and have resorted to using Create/Outline in the Shaper. That's not a perfect solution either, as the resulting outlines are very often distorted and don't properly follow the curves of the original letter. Also, you use the INSIDE outline as your face? You'd be better off to do a Copy (in-place — do NOT move them!) on the letters first, then do the Outline, then redraw the viewport so you can see the original polygons (which will appear IN BETWEEN the outlines — you actually Outlined the COPY!). Then delete the INSIDE outline, and use the outside for the bevel and the ORIGINAL for the letter face. That way, even if the bevel outline isn't perfect, at least you have the letter faces themselves being the right shapes of the letters. You may need to do some Modify/Segment/Refines to add vertices to match the count of the outline. Steve is right. Lofter/Deform/Bevel in 3DS (any version to date) is PATHETIC and an EMBARRASMENT. It's tantamount to someone still trying to use the ORIGINAL Apple ][ VisiCalc 1.0 whose total spreadsheet was limited to the size of the screen and couldn't scroll! It's THAT PRIMITIVE compared to way cheaper competition! In a head-to-head competition between 3DS and, say, Crystal TOPAS Pro, all the Crystal rep would have to do is say, "Watch us bevel some text! Look at all these preset bevels that we can easily modify! Look how quickly it works, and it works with ANY fonts or shapes! Okay, AutoDesk, your turn." The ADesk rep would be doing some impressive hemming and hawing and "well, uh, well, ah, … but we have PLUG-INS!!" right about then… Which brings up another point: how come Crystal Topas can morph between objects of dissimilar vertex counts and 3DS can't, hmmmMMMMM? <g>