8

Work ing with AEC Design Elements 207
make. Rail paths can occupy three-dimensional
space.
When you create the lower rails, posts, and fencing
components of a Railing object, you use a special
version of the Spacing Tool to specify the spaci ng
ofthosecomponents.Theprogramdisplaysthe
Spacing Tool dialog for each railing component:
Lower Rail, Post Spacing, or Picket Spacing. For
moreinformationontheSpacingTool,see
Spacing
Tool (page 1–440)
.
For details on Rai ling parameters and information
on creating a Railing object, see
Railing (page
1–212)
.
Cr e atin g Walls
Use the Wall button (page 1–218) on the Create
panel, in the AEC Extended categor y, to produce
straight-wall objects. A wall object is made up of
sub-object segments that you can edit with the
Modify panel.
Yo u c a n :
• Break or insert wa ll segments to create separate
wall objects.
• Delete wal l segments.
• Connect two wall objects.
When you create two wall segments that meet at a
corner, 3ds Max removes any duplicate geometr y.
This “cleaning up” of the corners might involve
trimming. 3ds Max cleans up only the first two
wall segments of a corner, not other wall segments
that might share the corner. 3ds Max does not
clean up intersections.
You can edit the segments of a wall using
sub-objectselectionmodeontheModifypanel.
For example, you can define a wall’s height profile.
3dsMaxmovestheactivegridtotheplaneofthe
wall you’re editing. This allows you to snap to the
profileverticesintheplaneofthewall.
If you move, scale, or rotate the wall object, the
linked do or and window moves, scales, or rotates
along with the wall. If you move the linked door or
windowalongthewall,usingthedoororwindow’s
Local coordinate system and activating Restrict
to XY Plane in the
Axis Constraints toolbar (page
1–418)
,theopeningwillfollow.Also,ifyouchange
adoororwindow’soverallwidthandheightinthe
Modifypanel,theholewillreflectthosechanges.
Usage Tips
The following are a few tips for working with wall
objects:
• Use the Top v iewport when creating wall
objects.
• Single walls with many windows and doors can
slow down snap calculations and movement
of the wall object. To speed up insertion and
editing, use multiple walls instead of a single
wall.
• Youcanspeedupperformanceinascenewith
many walls, windows, and doors by collapsing
them. First save an uncollapsed version for any
future parametric changes you mig ht want to
make. Then right-click the wall and pick Select
Children from the right-click menu. Next use
Collapse in the Utility rollout to collapse them
all.
For complete information, see
Wall (page 1–218) .
To create a wall:
1.
OntheCreatepanel,intheAECExtended
categor y, click Wall.
2. Use Customize > Units Setup to establish
precision, and then set the parameters for the
Width, Height, a nd Justification of the wal l.
3. In any viewport, click, release the mouse, drag
thewallsegmenttothelengthyouwantand
click again.