Shaker end table

[cgexperience]

I hope you like this piece, I drew it myself in autocad and then modelled it in max. The drawing is accurate to the inch but unfortunately I couldn't get it that accurate in max. I was having trouble with the fractional inches so next time I'll be drawing in either decimal inch or mm that way at least I know it should be accurate. I know it's not important to be 100% but I think I'm moving in the direction of technical modelling so I am trying my best to be as accurate as I possibly can.

If your interested in modelling this piece I will be posting the plans on my site in the blueprint section soon enough. I'm sure you will find other useful things to download as well. Also if you wish you can actually make the end table for real as a weekend project.

BTW if you decide to build it then use a half blind dovetail the through doesn't look as good on this particular model as you can see.

[sandmanninja]

If you're having trouble with accuracy, did you import the autocad file?
Max can go down to 3 decimal places of a millimeter easily.
You won't be able to 'eye ball' that precision - need to use the spinners and/or input fields.

nice corner scene.
Reflection of model in window glass
everything looks to scale.
nice detailed joins on the drawer of the table.

good job!

[cgexperience]

thanks for the compliment, I used fractional inches and will never do so again I setup in the units to use 1/8 but the thickness of the top is 3/4 and that's where I had the problems also insetting the the side rails 3/4 was a problem. switching between 1/8 and 1/4 was didn't solve the problem as it gave me different reading.

I think I will refer to the help files about setting units up correctly, in the past it never mattered but since I'm taking an interest to technical modeling I would like to know how it's done.

[sandmanninja]

I work in metric and use decimal.

Metric is very decimal-friendly - as you just slide the decimal point left or right to go from millimeters to centimenters, etc.

I have done tutorials in American units (inches, feet) but would never use fractional.

If you need to convert from fractions to decimals, just divide on a calculator.

note: you can enter completely different units in the text-entry fields and it will automatically convert to whatever unit you have 3ds set up for.

i.e. enter 2.5cm and it will convert it to 1in

[cgexperience]

I just bought a unit conversion tool, I know autocad has a calculator with a conversion built into it so I should be ok now. It's a great little software it has everything you could think of just look up in google unit conversion tool 5.1 you'll be amazed.

[sandmanninja]

I use Convert. It's free and have a ba-zillion different conversions built in, plus you can add your own custom conversion. So, if you needed to convert 3ds' generic units to, say, Unreal World units, then click on Custom -> new -> and put Max on one side and Unreal on the other, and then the conversion scale/ratio.

I use it to convert Cubic Meters in 3ds to Hull Sizes in a game I play (Traveller).

[cgexperience]

sounds but a bit late now since I bought this one, did you have a look at it. It really is over the top isn't it. Hey are you one of the authors of that book arch viz you have in your sig.

[sandmanninja]

*blush*

I wish, although I will be attending a class they are putting on in the near future.

The program you're using looks great. I've been using this for a long time and find it does everything I need.
Man, converting inches to Light Years?? pretty Buck Rogers!

Those mental ray tutorials from Mentalboutmax - Video Training & Tutorials for 3Ds Max & Mental Ray are really great. They even have the odd free tutorial every now and then.

In fact, they announce one today! It covers poly editing rollout.

[cgexperience]

my biggest issue is still with the unit scale, I have the system unit scale setup with the default and I know if I change to mm I will change it to read 1 unit = 25.4mm, but I was now working with decimal inches and I input 7.25" max changed it to 7.30". This is what's getting to me.

[cgexperience]

I wonder if I switch to mm I would be getting the measurements I type