8

Railing 213
Railings used to create fences in a field.
You can create a r ailing object either by specifying
the orientation and height of the railing, or by
picking a spline p ath and applying the railing to
that path. When 3ds Max applies railing to a spline
path, t he latter is called a
rail path .Later,ifyou
edittherailpath,therailingobjectautomatically
updatestofollowthechangesyoumade.Youcan
use three-dimensional splines as rail paths.
When you create the lower rails, posts, and fencing
components of a railing, you use the
Spacing
tool (page 1–440)
to specify the spacing of those
components. 3ds Max names the Spacing tool
dialog for each railing comp onent: Lower Rail
Spacing, Post Spacing, or Picket Spacing.
Tip: Use Railing to create complete railings
for stairs. See
Stairs (page 1–226) for more
information.
R ailings and Ma teria ls
By default, 3ds Max assigns five different material
IDs to r ailings. The
aectemplates.mat material
library includes
Rail-Template ,a multi/sub-object
material (page 2–1403)
designed to be used with
railings. Each component of the railing/material is
listed below along with its corresponding Material
ID.
Mater ial ID Railing/Mater ial Component
1
Lower rails
2
Posts of the railing
3
Solid fill of the railing
4
Top of the railing
5
Picke ts of the railing
Note: 3ds Max does not automatically assign a
material to the railing object. To use the included
material, open the librar y and then assign the
material to your object.
Procedures
The following procedures describe how to create
railings combining each of the components: upper
rail, lower rails, posts, picket fencing, and solid
filled fencing.
You can create a railing object in any viewport,
but for b est results, use a Perspect ive, Camera, or
Top v i e w p o r t .
To create a railing:
1.
Click and drag the railing to the desired length.
2. Release the m ouse button, and then move the
mouse vertically to set the height. Click to
finish.
Bydefault,3dsMaxcreatesthetoprailalong
w ith two posts, a lower rail at half the railing
height, and two evenly spaced pickets.
3. If you need to, change any of the parameters
to adjust t he segments, leng th, profile, depth,
width, and height of the rail.
To adjust lower rails:
1.
To modify the lower rail, or add more, choose
an option from the Lower Rail(s) group >
Profile list.