Cutting into a Model (3Ds Max 9)

[CADken]

Aight, so i have my car shell modeled out pretty well, my only question was... how can i "cut out" my headlights?

I modeled the front bumper solid so that i could keep the uniform shape under control, now i need to cut out my lights... should i use a cylinder and then somehow cut out the insides??

i have no clue...

here's what i've modeled (just the front bumper and hood view):



here's what the bumper needs to look like:

[Cad64]

I've never tried to model a car before, but when I saw your question, I thought, "Well that's a pretty simple one to answer". But upon actually trying it myself, I've found it to be a rather difficult thing to do. The best thing I can offer is to point you in the direction of the Boolean function. It's a hit or miss tool that sometimes works brilliantly and other times it just makes a mess of your model. It will allow you to subtract a cylinder from your model and in the process will cut a round hole straight through. You will then have to go in and extrude the hole and chamfer the edges. It's the curvature of the front end that makes this so difficult. It's going to be especially hard to keep the topology flowing smoothly with those two lights so close together. The result of my experiment is shown below. My topology's not that great, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it.

[Cad64]

To use the Boolean tool, Place a cylinder where you want a headlight to be and then select your front end so that it's highlighted. Now switch to "Compound Objects", click the Boolean button and then click the "Pick Operand B" button. Select the cylinder and it will disappear leaving a hole where the headlight should be. Now right click and select Convert To > Editable Poly from the pop-up menu. Now you can start extruding and chamfering, etc.

You might want to practice and experiment on a copy of your model before messing around with the real thing.

[CADken]

thanks man!

results are what i wanted!

[Lazer]

Holy smoke! CADken that looks wicked

[CADken]

thanks! i'm really wishing i had gotten to use MAX before... i love this program.

[matramurena]

Looks awesome! I'm busy modelling my own car in Max, but haven't had much time lately to continue.... This images makes me wanna have a go at it again! Thanx!

[James]

looks very good, i was looking at importing revit into max last night on the web and gonna give it ago in the next few weeks.

[BruceB7]

Thanks so much for posting how to cut holes in objects, I've been trying to figure that out for a long time.

[nocturne00]

thanks! i'm really wishing i had gotten to use MAX before... i love this program.

Likewise