Need help on Booleans>Union problem!

# 1 17-02-2007 , 01:57 AM

Jr.Who

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K guys,

IÕm doing the Tree Frog modeling tut. IÕm on part 4 around the 4 minute mark (where he combines the eye to the body). So I select my eye, shift select my body, and then go Booleans>Union and my object disappears! user added image

I have no idea whatÕs going on, somebody please help!

I am currently using Maya 8.5 unlimited on a G5 if that helps any.

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# 2 17-02-2007 , 02:17 AM

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I hate it! Autodesk should work on this problem!
Booleans suddenly don´t work when Geomitry is too Tricky!
I had the same problem and I asked in a similiar thread about that topic, and everybody get lost when they road booleans!
Try to booleans 2 cubes in your frog scene and you will see that it works, but on your frog not.

I hope that anybody else can help you, but I don´t think so!

Probably you must remodel everything and do booleans a part bevor!

Sorry...

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# 3 17-02-2007 , 06:56 AM

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ok what is goin on exactly when booleans make geometry dissappear?

there are some multiple reasons.

conditions to make successful boolean

1) first of all - allways make sure you have no nonmanifold geomtry where you want to apply a boolean operation onto.

2) both geometries must be closed meshes. and with closed i mean really watertight.

3) conform distribution of normals on the surface. all normals of both geometries must point outwards or inwards at the same time.

basically that´s it. there are no more situations where you can run into a boolean problem. non-manifold/closed mesh/normals

use your scripteditor a lot. SE tells you most times which vertices to select (coz when they cause non-manifoldness).

sometimes when i have a very big geometry I break it into smaller peaces and convert them into subdivs and back to poly to find the spot that is screwed up. converting polys to subdiv doesnt work either when above conditions aren´t met.

hope that helped!

edit:

ah, and clean blindNodes in the hypergraph which you dont use anymore.

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

Last edited by Falott; 17-02-2007 at 07:00 AM.

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# 4 17-02-2007 , 09:10 AM

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advice

best advice i can give is do not use booleans.you will do twice as much work to fix it after.its not worth it.youl be a better modeler for it.dont rely on shortcuts.

SWEET!

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# 5 17-02-2007 , 07:00 PM

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dont know the tutorial Jr.Who is working on, but there will be a time maybe when you dont have the choice. sure booleans allways give crappy geometry. BUT - since I have to work on architecture projects a lot I can tell -> better you have some crappy geometry which doesnt show up at rendertime then to spend hours on building up by hand, what boleans can do in some minutes for you (considering angles and inclinations of two complex forms). in the end it´s all a matter of time is money. so it isn´t too bad being familiar with booleans.

one thing I did forget to mention is sometimes when you have 2 edges from both meshes sharing allmost the same spot in space, i mean lying on top of each other booleans wont work too. just rebuild the mesh (1edge) a little.

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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# 6 18-02-2007 , 03:49 AM

Jr.Who

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Originally posted by Falott
1) first of all - allways make sure you have no nonmanifold geomtry where you want to apply a boolean operation onto.

use your scripteditor a lot. SE tells you most times which vertices to select (coz when they cause non-manifoldness).

Originally Posted by

What do you mean exactly by nonmanifold geometry?

I checked my SE and all it says is: // Error: Cannot perform boolean operation //

Originally posted by colorado
best advice i can give is do not use booleans.you will do twice as much work to fix it after.its not worth it.youl be a better modeler for it.dont rely on shortcuts.

Originally Posted by

Then what do I do?

Originally posted by Falott
dont know the tutorial Jr.Who is working on

Originally Posted by

HereÕs the link:
https://www.simplymaya.com/movie_page...html?tut_id=90

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# 7 18-02-2007 , 08:42 AM

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here is a way

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by colorado
best advice i can give is do not use booleans.you will do twice as much work to fix it after.its not worth it.youl be a better modeler for it.dont rely on shortcuts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then what do I do?

you could try Polygon > combine > and then Edit Polygon > merge vertices ... depending on the complexity of what you are joining This could be the afore mentioned hours of work but it will get it done ...
however if any of the listed problems with performing the Bolean are present they may be worth cleaning up as they are bound to cause you similar problems later on when it gets harder to fix them
... thats what the monkey said

"Climbing the walls of the 'Uncanny Valley"

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# 8 18-02-2007 , 09:19 PM

Jr.Who

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Re: here is a way

Originally posted by bruce dwyer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by colorado
best advice i can give is do not use booleans.you will do twice as much work to fix it after.its not worth it.youl be a better modeler for it.dont rely on shortcuts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then what do I do?

you could try Polygon > combine > and then Edit Polygon > merge vertices ... depending on the complexity of what you are joining This could be the afore mentioned hours of work but it will get it done ...
however if any of the listed problems with performing the Bolean are present they may be worth cleaning up as they are bound to cause you similar problems later on when it gets harder to fix them
... thats what the monkey said

Originally Posted by

I really donÕt think that I can do that. HereÕs a pic of the frog:

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# 9 18-02-2007 , 10:48 PM

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Re: Re: here is a way

Originally posted by Jr.Who
I really donÕt think that I can do that. HereÕs a pic of the frog:

Originally Posted by

your frog isn't an enclosed space.

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# 10 18-02-2007 , 11:46 PM

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Re: Re: Re: here is a way

Originally posted by Radical Edward
your frog isn't an enclosed space.

Originally Posted by

Sorry, IÕm kind of new to MayaÉÉ What the heck are you talking about?! Can you explain how I fix it? user added image

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# 11 19-02-2007 , 12:05 AM

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what Radical Edward says is: your frog mesh is not a closed mesh. imagine a sphere. a sphere is closed geometry. cut it in halfs and delete one half. now you have a open mesh. your frogMesh is open. that´s why boolean doesn´t work.

just to remind you

1) first of all - allways make sure you have no nonmanifold geomtry where you want to apply a boolean operation onto.

2) both geometries must be closed meshes. and with closed i mean really watertight.

3) conform distribution of normals on the surface. all normals of both geometries must point outwards or inwards at the same time.

reading the manual might help too.

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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# 12 19-02-2007 , 12:58 AM

Jr.Who

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But I did booleans before and it worked on it. IÕll try it later and see if it works.

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# 13 19-02-2007 , 08:35 PM

Jr.Who

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Originally posted by Falott
what Radical Edward says is: your frog mesh is not a closed mesh. imagine a sphere. a sphere is closed geometry. cut it in halfs and delete one half. now you have a open mesh. your frogMesh is open. that´s why boolean doesn´t work.

just to remind you

1) first of all - allways make sure you have no nonmanifold geomtry where you want to apply a boolean operation onto.

2) both geometries must be closed meshes. and with closed i mean really watertight.

3) conform distribution of normals on the surface. all normals of both geometries must point outwards or inwards at the same time.

reading the manual might help too.

Originally Posted by

I sewed the back of it up (and the eye just to be safe) and it didnÕt work. I created 2 nurbs spheres, cut them both in half, and then did booleans>union and it worked. So my problem isnÕt because it isnÕt a closed surface, itÕs something else. :headbang:

I can email you the file if you want to look at it.

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