Make Hole Tool

[acrodave120]

Noob Here,

I am fairly new at maya and a student in 3D. I need to know if anyone has some good suggestions or tutorials for using the "Make Hole Tool" I want to use a polygon cylinder to cut a circular hole, like a hole saw in a face of a polygon cube. I am building a running model of my saltwater aquarium. Any suggestions or tutorial links would be helpful.

Thanks,
Dave.

[joojaa]

Make hole makes holes in individual polygons, so what you do is you take one polygon face and punch 1 other polygon face with a hole. And thus im not sure if make hole is applicable here. So at total it only ever affacts one face. So it may not be apllicable here

Look into using boolean's. However theres a caveat, one can not just split polygonal surfaces at ones pure arbitrary leisure without getting ito topographical problems. In general one cant work with negative spaces thinking with polygons as the flow of the surface edges is way too important to any cyrved surface.

Carteainly both ways will work fo a single one face flat surface.

[adam-clear]

AcroDave120 - Here's a post from awhile ago wherein I was learning how to safely cut holes in objects.

http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=234275

I hope it helps.

[ansel-kirchubel]

k soo i have been digging for a little bit here.  I too am a 3d student, and i am making a kitchen scene, and was wondering if anyone can help because this is no longer HE3D... sooo none of the links or pictures work... 

I have looked at http://www.creativecrash.com/forums/modeling/topics/circular-cuts-on-a-polygon?page=1
 and i ended up with a mess... soo if there is any suggestions i would appreciate it.  Thanks

Fyi... the pink thing is the drain area i want a hole in 

[sqrlcub]

Depending on what you are trying to do, a boolean may be a better choice. You can basically extract geometry of a given shape by making a boolean a stamp, add the two objects together, or have it cut to fill. It does cause some problem geometry, but the make hole tool would most likely do the same.

Also, you'll be able to find many more tutorials on booleans rather than make hole.

[fubar3d]

Well, having a little spare time I'll show you a pretty neat way to do this.  This method allows more control over your model when it comes time to texture.  The overall process isn't very difficult, you just have to use a few tools at your disposal, namely insert edge loop, merge edge, and extrude.  First with your cube you'll want to use the insert edge loop tool near the edges of your cube, kind of like framing it.  This is so when you smooth it or convert it to subdivisions, the edges of the cube will remain square.  I've put some cylinders in as a reference for where to put the edge loops.

Continue using the insert edge loop tool to make a square around your reference object.

inserting more edge loops for the second hole

Now that all the polygons are in place, select the faces where you want the hole to be.  Make sure to select both the top and bottom faces, then extrude

Now, when you extrude the first time, you'll want to scale the faces, not move them.  Click the cube portion of the manipulator to make the center scale handle show up..  I can't think of a better name for it right now, so that's what i'm calling it.  using your center scale handle, scale inward just slightly, hit extrude again, then move the face inwards slightly, extrude again, and move the faces toward eachother.

Once you get the faces moved close to eachother, delete the faces, go into wireframe mode (4 on the keyboard), select your polygon and go to the merge edge tool.  the edges of the hole will look thicker because those are the only ones you can merge together.  Connect them up, one pair of edges at a time.

more detail

Once you have your hole or holes closed up, it's good to go for texturing or conversion to subdivisions or smoothing.  You can hit 5 to switch back to shaded mode.

After converting to subdiv, hit 3 to refine the mesh and voila!  those square holes are now round!  Here's a quick render of the final product.

I hope this helps!  Feel free to drop me a line or add me to your friends list.

[joojaa]

Ok now try the same thing on sphere. Nost so easy or clean anymore.

[fubar3d]

I was just showing him how to do what he was asking about, but I agree..  certain topology is very difficult to do this with.

[ansel-kirchubel]

TYvm!  this is exactly what im talking about, and thanks for the pictures!  I appreciate the effort!

[ansel-kirchubel]

now, is there a way i can do it without converting to a subdiv?  Just wondering.

[fubar3d]

You can keep it as a polygon and smooth it, you get the same effect..  but you have to turn the smoothing way up to get the holes completely round

[ansel-kirchubel]

gotcha... ty