Trying to form a bay window for a station.   How do I get only the points on the edge to bevel .  Must I first "DIVIDE" the cube into smaller sections and adjust each section.   I'm puzzled???? HELPFUL suggestions greatly appreciated.
Joe Cooney

Hello Joe,

I thought I would try this since I haven't done this before either. This is what I came up with.

Starting with a cube, change to the "Point Selection Tool", then right click on the top edge, not face, of what will be your bay window side and select "Divide" then "Three edges". Now do the same for the bottom edge.  

Now select one of the points on the top edge and using the control key select the second corresponding point on the bottom edge. Then use the "Create Edge" operation. Do this for the other set of points and you now have a third face that you can now pull out to create your bay window.

Hope I explained that clearly. If not just ask

Joerg

Thanks Joerg... I'll give it  a  try.  Would you recommend merging these points and divisions after forming the bay?  Hope this works because otherwise I'd have to add another deformed cube to the basic cube and try to taper the ends!
Joe C.  (I'll let you know via this thread how I make out - probably tomorrow since its getting late tonite )!
Joe C.

There is no need to merge anything after this operation as your cube remains a single object with one side divided into 3 panels. What you are really doing is adding two edges to one side and pulling them out.

Joerg

I thought just to clarify I would illustrate using a five step illustrated tutorial.

First using the "Point Selection Tool" select the top edge and right click. Choose "Divide" and then "Three Edges"

Do the same again with the bottom edge. Now select one of the newly created points and holding down the control key select the corresponding point on the other edge.

Then use the "Create Edge" operation, circled in red, or you can right click on a point, once both are selected, and choose "Edge". Both methods do the same thing.

You have created the first edge. Now do the same thing for the remaining two points.

Now you can select the middle panel and pull it out. Notice that I have constrained two axes, in my case y and z, so that I get a nice straight bay window without it being pulled sideways or up and down.

Next select the newly created edges and pull sideways to approximate the general appearance of a bay window.

One final picture to show that this operation creates no new objects. The bay window shape is a single object. To render it in MSTS you will have 10 faces instead of 6 for an ordinary cube, 20 polygons instead of 12.

Joerg

Joerg..... Excellent, excellent, excellent.  Works like a charm.  Thanks for all the help.  Your original instructions were more than enough but the graphics help locate the correct tools on the object forming panel.  \
Thanks again.
Joe Cooney

jkcooney,
You can also add a "window frame" look by using the extrude tool.
Right-click on Extrude button, set extrude amount to 0.0, and bevel amount to something like 0.02, click OK, click Extrude.
There is also the "Inset" operation now that will do this same thing but the Extrude Operation will allow you to set the amounts.
Play with the bevel amount until you get a decent frame size, then use a negative(-) amount of extrude along with a bevel amount to get a recessed look for the window and frame. 0.02 seems to be a good amount for both Extrude and Bevel Amounts.(Extrude will be -0.02 Bevel 0.02)
I can't do a snapshot or I would post a pic.

Les

Great idea Les.   I will give it a try.   Joerg's method of creating a bay window works superbly.   The window frame you suggest would make the window textures look more realistic.   How does using the extrude affect the number of faces/ polys in the model itself???
Joe C.

Using the extrude feature to create a window frame will increase the number of faces/points, but if you only have just a few windows with frames, it shouldn't be too much of an increase. It will probably be about 8 extra faces per window pane and frame area.
On a three paned window like this you will probably need to expect about 24 extra faces minimum and somewhere near that number of added points.
Les

Thanks Les... Since this will be a single station placed on line how much of a frame hit would something like that cause?   Minimal I would guess!