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950 Chapter 9: Surface Modeling
Output Type group
Specifies the type of object that results from the
collapse.
Modi fi er S ta ck R es ult—The resultant object will be
thesameasifyouhadcollapseditsstack.Inmost
cases, this results in a mesh object, as when using
theMeshoption.However,iftheobjecthasanEdit
Patch modifier so that its stack produces a patch,
then the result w ill be a patch object rather than a
mesh. Likewise, a shape with Edit Spline modifiers
becomes an editable spline. When this option is
used, the Collapse To options are unavailable, and
all selected objects remain independent objects.
Mesh—All selected objects become editable
meshes regardless of their type before they were
collapsed.
Collapse To group
Specifies how the selected objects are combined.
Theseoptionsareavailableonlywhenyouchoose
the Mesh option.
Multiple Objects—Collapses each object in the
selectionbutmaintainseachasanindependent
object. When this option is selected, the Boolean
options are disabled.
Single Object—Collapses a ll selec ted objects into a
single , editable mesh object.
B oolean —P erforms Boolean operations on the
selected objects. During the Boolean calculation, a
progress bar appears along with a Cancel button.
If any objects in the Boolean operation fail, that
object is skipped, but the Collapse proceeds. The
result is not a Bo olean compound object, but
asingleeditablemesh. ThetypeofBooleanis
specified by the following option.
Union—Combines the several objects, removing
intersecting geometry.
Intersection—Removes all but the intersecting
geometry.
Subtraction—Maintains the first object selected
while subtracting the subsequently selected
objects. For exa mple, to subtract several c ylinders
from a box, click to select the box, hold down
CTRL, and reg ion-select the cylinders.
Clo se—Exits the Collapse utility.
Editable Patches
Create or select an objec t > M odify panel > Rig ht-c lick
object’s entry in the stack display > Convert To: Editable
Patch
Create or select an object > R ight-click th e object >
Transform (lower-right) quadrant of the quad menu >
Convert To: > Convert to Editable Patch
EditablePatchprovidescontrolsformanipulating
an object as a patch object and at five sub-object
levels: vertex, handle, edge, patch, and element.
Editable Patch objects provide the same basic
functionality as the
Edit Patch modifier (page
1–617)
. B ecause working w ith them requires less
processing and memory, we recommend you use
Editable Patch objects rather than the Edit Patch
modifier whenever possible.
When you convert an object to Editable Pa tch
format or apply an Edit Patch modifier, 3ds Max
converts the object’s geometr y into a collect ion of
separate Bezier
patches (page 3–1085) ,eachpatch
made up of a framework of vertices and edges,
plus a surface.
•The
framework of control points and
connect ing tangents defines the surface.
Transforming the components of this
fram ework is the primary technique in patch
modeling. The framework does not appear in
scanline renderings.
•The
surface is the Bezier patch sur face, whose
shapeiscontrolledbytheverticesandedges.