#Invisible windows…
5 messages in this thread
I've been playing with a drawing of the building that I work in. It is a 3D
Autocad R11 drawing, mainly of the floor that I work on. (I'm going to use
it for a walkthrough tour of our labs) I've tried to isolate each different
material on its own layer, so that our tan cinder block walls are on a
different layer from our tan metal prefab walls, for instance. That makes
it easier to apply colors and textures to the objects when I move them to
3DSR2 (I've been importing the DXF file by layer).
One strange thing: Some of our labs have doors with windows in them, so
I've defined a "DOOR" layer, a "GLASS" layer and a "KNOB" layer. I made the
door by extruding a closed rectangular polyline and the hole for the window
by extruding another one inside the first. I put 3D surfaces on the door in
4 panels on each side, being careful to define the patch vertices clockwise
so the normals point out. I then put a single glass panel into the door
(halfway in so the pane is in the center of the thickness of the door) and
the knobs and kick plates on the outside.
No matter what I do, the doors come out solid! The window is there because
it shows up if I hide the door. I've even tried removing the boundary
polylines and replacing them with 3D faces, but no luck so far. I can't use
AME to cut a hole by subtraction because my AME 2 magic number hasn't
arrived yet.
Ideas? Chris
Chris, when you use two closed polylines together (in a "nested" fashion),
Acad doesn't set that up when DXF-ing out as a hierarchically-nested
object. The boundary polyline is being capped as a closed rectangular
object, and the window inside of it is likewise treated in a discreet
manner. You'll need to use AME to actually cut a hole in the door, or
build the hole into the door with the 3D Face command.
If you have any more questions about Acad technique, try Jamie Clay.
– G
I thought that the window hole was probably being skinned over when it was
translated into 3DS. I figured that AME would fix the problems **if** my
magic number to turn it on would ever come. I should go beat on our
procurement people and find out if they've ordered it.
I thought that I tried to remove the polylines and replace them with 3D
faces and it didn't work. In fact, I just figured out why it didn't work –
I have the doors defined as external blocks. I modified the block file and
inserted another door, but I bet that it used the existing door block
instead of the new one. I should rename the modified block and import the
new one.
Thanks,
Chris
P.S. I did a test animation of the building this week – 30 frames with just
a simple linear camera movement. What I didn't think of was that the
building is about 150' long and I started about that distance outside of
it. My model looks **Real interesting** when you run at it at 300
feet/sec!!
It sounds like you're on your way to doors with windows… <g>
Regarding your animation test — we usually START with a 6 or 7 second shot
and then go UP from there. It's a good rule of thumb.
– G
My 30 frame test animation was just that – a test. I wanted to see if it
looked like a hallway when I animated ot, or if any more holes would show
up. (I keep finding little pieces of wall that aren't there at all or that
have their normals flipped.)
Once I get the holes filed up and the windows showing, I'll start to work
on the final materials and do some tests that are more like what I want for
the finished animation. Thanks for the advice on the length for the test
shots. It will be easier to try some longer ones when I get my Weitek
installed.
Chris