GMAX FACES ARENT SHOWING

[Sgt.ZigZag]

i have a problem in GMAX...i am currently working on a ground vehicle design after finally fixing my earlier prob with gmax...but i am using the extrude function along with the editable poly...and this happens...i switch on the function smooth+highlites and i but still i only see certain faces on my shape

[Travis]

Offhand, I would say that the face is hidden.  Try selecting 'Faces' or whatever in the 'Editable Poly' pulldown, and then in the box bellow that (where it says 'Soft Selection' and 'Edit Geometry') scroll around until you see 'Hide' and 'Unhide All'.  Click 'Unhide All' and see if that helps.

[Sgt.ZigZag]

tht isnt working at all....i dunno wut else to do

[Felix/FFDS]

I really don't see the problem.

It appears, in the perspective view, that the polygons on the front and left side (as you view the image) are facing out, so that you would not see the left polygon (because it's facing "outward".  It appears that the far ('back') and right side polygons are facing inward, so you CAN see them.

Assuming you want all polygons to face outward, then in polygon sub-object mode, select the "offending" polygons and and scroll down the modifier panel to the "flip normals" button.

[Sgt.ZigZag]

sorry felix i found out that all the polygons are showing but my problem is thath the closed shape doesnt have a base and top....its not closing up...when i extrude my lines it just extrudes them to form walls of a closed shape...when i did the powercharger tutorial and when i extruded there i formed a totally closed shape...i hope that explains it

[Felix/FFDS]

Can I assume that you made an ngon, or line, then applied the extrude modifier?

*possibly* when you did that you unchecked the "Cap Start" and "Cap End" boxes?  

Unchecking teh cap start and end boxes gives me an "open" extrusion.

[Sgt.ZigZag]

sorry felix but tht just isnt solving it for me...maybe its becuz im using the mirror/copy function and then welding vertices

[Felix/FFDS]

the what have you cloned and mirrored, and how did you mirror it?  

Note that if your project is going to end up in FS, you DO NOT want to use the mirror tool in the menu, rather clone, and apply the mirror parametric modifier to the mesh.

sorry felix but tht just isnt solving it for me...maybe its becuz im using the mirror/copy function and then welding vertices

[X_eidos2]

To get a spline to extrude properly (has a top and bottom cap as well as sides) - it has to be a "closed" spline. Usually a spline will be closed if you use a ngon, or rectangle tool. If you use the line tool you should put the last vertice on top of the first. There will be a dialog box that pops up and ask if you want to close the spline. Click yes.  There are other ways to close open splines - a quick look in the help files should provide most of them.

If you use the mirror tool instead of the mirror modifier, you can still work with the shape, you just have to do two extra steps.  Select the "mirrored" object. Go to the utilities (under the hammer tab) and select "Reset XForm" A button will appear at the bottom "Reset Selected" Click on that button. With your object still selected go back to the modifier tab and select "normals" and then put a check in the box that says "flip normals." That'll fix the mirror problem.

You might want to spend a few minutes and customize the modifier box so that you have easy access to the most commonly used modifiers. That way you don't waste a lot of time scrolling through a big long list of modifiers you'll never need.

[Sgt.ZigZag]

xeidos i cant seem to find the normals under the modifier tab...sorry to bother you but i just got GMAX working yesterday...and i started yesterday

[X_eidos2]

My first reply disappeared into the ether so I'll try this again.

There are a couple ways to find the normal modifier.

Here's the easy way.

Have the object you want to modify selected.
Select the "modifiers" menu up at the top, it's right next to "Create"

On the drop down menu select "Mesh Editing"

From the pop up menu select "Normal Modifier"

The Normal Modifier now shows up in the modifier stack over to the right. This is where you'll find the "flip normals" under the parameters section. This will flip the normals of every polygon in the selected object.