TUTORIAL: Mapping Tiles and Bricks with RailClone (advanced) - cap holes / geome

[lukasso]

hello,

so I've done tutorial about randomizing material for bricks from one file.


-So when im trying to apply this for example on circle shape, edges are not capped. I even ticked "cap holes" option but holes are still present at the edges of circle.
manually adding cap holes just breaks geometry. So I've figured out that railclone sometimes like to do those things when geometry is not present at the scene, but I've found it and nothing have changed.



in the attachment is image what I am getting but should not be getting it...
Any other ideas ?

[Paul Roberts]

Hi,

Thanks for your question. In order for RailClone to cap geometry, it uses a native 3ds Max boolean function. As with any boolean, a watertight mesh is required for it to work correctly. Since the mesh you are using is open on the bottom it won't cap, the solution, therefore, is to create closed meshes if you intend to use this feature. Once you've made that change, you may still find the occasional gap, again, unfortunately this is a limitation of Max's boolean algorithms, although I have found that increasing the Curve Steps property in RailClone's Style rollout can improve it a little. Another trick is to convert the source geometry to an editable mesh and then make all edges visible, This seems to significantly improve the boolean results.

I hope that helps,

Paul

[lukasso]

oh wow...I was sure that tutorial that railclone is showing would be properly done from basics....
real shock cause I now have checked those starting bricks and they are indeed hollow.

thank You for answer Paul

[Paul Roberts]

No problem, that tutorial was released long before we had the capping features so hollow bricks didn't matter. Nowadays we'd do it differently!

Cheers,

Paul.

[grue]

i just found that my .25" thick tile collapsed edges when i tried to cap tiles on a vertical tile wall.  i tried adding subdivisions to the tile but deleted those b/c it still collapsed the edges i was trying to cap.  the thing that fixed it for me was to make the tile 0.3" thick or thereabouts. 

[Paul Roberts]

Hello,

We use a 3ds Max function for capping, but unfortunately, it offers no controls we can use to change the weld threshold. In some cases, this can result in behaviour as you describe. One solution can be to change the systems units, for example, if you're working in meters or feet you may encounter more issues than if you are working in CM or Inches.

Best,

Paul