Creating ‘Thin’ models

and if you want to have a hole through the middle of the diamond, you want to do this with a transparent bit in the applied texture rather than building a model with more faces than absolutely necessary. This will improve game performance.

Just getting comfortable with 3DC. andnbsp;Have a question about creating objects with a andquot;thinandquot; profile such as crossing signs, speed indicator signs, whistle posts, etc. andnbsp;Do I extrude these the same as regular objects? andnbsp;Will they create ace files properly inspite of their thin crossing section? andnbsp;The crossing sign I am attempting is a diamond shape (not the usual crossbuck). andnbsp; When I create the diamond to proper scale I will have a ‘solid’ diamond with the correct dimensions. andnbsp;How do I andquot;cutoutandquot; the inside of the diamond to create the sign itself or make the interior transparent? andnbsp;Any help greatly appreciated. andnbsp;Sunday is my big 3DC workday.. Thanks for all the help Richard. andnbsp;(and everyone else)…Joe Cooney

Thanks Jon, I’ll check out that tutorial again. andnbsp;It’s been a while!
Joe C.

Deanville andnbsp; andnbsp; another follow up…. after merging the two faces can I then apply the lettering texture and fiddle with it as I would with a regular object???

A similar technique is described in Ian Morgan’s 4-wheel-wagon tutorial to create a buffer from 2 end faces of a cylinder – the side faces all deleted and the width brought down to 0.001m.

Might be worth a look, but it was written for 4.24 (seems so long ago but only a few months old!!)

Jon

Thanks for the help. andnbsp;Once I locate all the items you noted I should be able to figure it out (in two or three days/weeks/etc). andnbsp; Just kidding. andnbsp; I assume the plug-in is already in my 5.5 and won’t require another download???

There may be a easier way, but try:

1 – use the Tools/plugins/CreateFace menu to create a face with 4 points
2 – rotate the face 45 degrees
3 – size the diamond with the edit tool
4 – clone the diamond with 0 x,y,z offsets and a y rotation of 180 degrees
5 – Merge the two faces

You should end up with a zero depth diamond with two faces

Deanville

Thanks Ian…. excuse my ignorance but do I create the hole within 3DC LP or separately with a Targa file in PaintShopPro? andnbsp; andnbsp;I think I know how to attempt this but I am a raw andquot;rookieandquot;!