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218 Chapter 5: Creating Geometry
Railings used to create fences in a field.
You can create a r ailing object either by specifying
the or ientation and heig ht 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, the 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 1–455) to specif y the spacing of those
components. 3ds Max names the Spacing tool
dialog for each railing component: Lower Rai l
Spacing, Post Spacing, or Picket Spacing.
Tip: U se Railing to create complete railings
for stairs. See Stairs (page 1–231) for more
information.
R ailings a nd Ma teria ls
By default, 3ds Max assigns five different material
IDs to railings. The aectemplates.mat material
library includes Rail-Template,amulti/sub-object
material (page 2–1594) desig ned to b e used with
railings. Each component of the railing/material is
listed below along with its corresponding Mat erial
ID.
Mater ial ID Railing/Mater ial Component
1
Lower rails
2
Posts of the railing
3
Solid fill o f 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 library and then assign the
material to your object.
Procedures
The following procedures describe how to create
railings combining each of the comp onents: upper
rail, lower rails, posts, picket fencing, and solid
filled fencing.
You can create a railing object in any viewp ort,
but for best results, use a Perspective, Camer a, or
Top v iew p or t .
To create a railing:
1.
Click and drag the railing to the des ired length.
2. Release the mouse button, and then move the
mouse vert ical ly 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 the segments, length, profile, depth,
width, and height of the rail.
To adjust lower ra ils:
1.
To modify the lower ra il, or add more, choose
an option from the Lower Rail(s) group >
Profile list.