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968 Chapter 9: Surface Modelin g
Output Type group
Specifies the ty pe of object that results from the
collapse.
Modi fi er S tack R esult —The resultant object w i ll 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 will be a p atch object rather than a
mesh. Likewise, a shape with Edit Spline modifiers
becomes an editable spline. When this option is
used, t he Collapse To options are unavailable, and
all selected objects remain independent objects.
Mesh—All selected objects b e come 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 all selected objects into a
single , editable mesh object.
B oolean —P erforms Boolean opera tions on the
selected objects. During the Boolean calculation, a
progress bar appears along with a Cancel button.
If any objects in the B oolean operation fai l, that
object is skipped, but the Collapse proceeds. The
result is not a Boolean 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 example, to subtract several cylinders
from a box, click to select the box, hold down
Ctrl , and region-sele ct the cylinders.
Clo se—Exits the Collapse utility.
Editable Patches
Create or select an objec t > Modify p anel > Right-click
object’s entr y in the stack display > Convert To: Editable
Patch
Create or select an object > Right-click the object >
Transform (lower-right) quadrant of the quad menu >
Convert T o: > Convert to Editable Patch
EditablePatchprovidescontrolsformanipulating
an object as a p atch 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
1–638). Because working with them requires less
processing and memory, we recommend you use
Editable Patch objects rather than the E dit Patch
modifier whenever possible.
When you convert an object to Editable Patch
format or apply an Edit Patch modifier, 3ds Max
converts the object’s geometr y into a collection of
separate B ezier patches (page 3–991),eachpatch
made up of a framework of vertices and edges,
plus a surface.
•Theframework of control points and connecting
tangents defines the surface. Transforming the
components of this framework is the primary
technique in patch modeling. The framework
does not appear in scanline renderings.
•Thesurface is the Bezier patch surface, whose
shapeiscontrolledbytheverticesandedges.