Lab 1 - Basic Model Building: EEE3454 Augmented and Virtual Reality Engineering

Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Shatin)
Computer and Electronic Engineering (Lab 1B) AVR Engineering (EEE3454)
EEE3454 Augmented and Virtual Reality Engineering
Lab 1 – Basic Model Building

Objective: To familiarize the use of model building tools in building models
Tools: Windows PC
Software: Autodesk 3ds Max 2018
Topics covered:
 Configurations of Autodesk 3ds Max 2018
 Creation of basic 3D objects
 Using 2D line drawing tools
 Conversion of 2D drawings into 3D objects
 Application of Boolean operations on 3D objects
Component list:
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Introduction
In this laboratory exercise, you are going to learn the way to configure the Autodesk
3ds Max and some basic useful techniques in building models. After going through
this lab, you should be able to use 3ds Max to:
1. Create 3D models of some basic objects including box, sphere, cylinder etc.
2. Draw 2D lines and convert it into 3D object using extrusion tool
3. Apply Boolean operations on 3D objects
3ds Max is a 3D computer graphics program which provides a wide range of useful
tools allowing user to create 3D animations, models, games and images.
Before starting
Open the Autodesk 3ds Max on your windows. There are many tools in the user
interface (UI). Here, we give a very brief introduction to toolbars.
1. Application button and Quick Access toolbar

2. InfoCenter
3. Menu bar
4. Main toolbar
5. Ribbon
6. Scene Explorer
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7. Viewport Layouts
8. Command panel
9. Viewports
10. MAXScript Mini Listener
11. Status line and Prompt line
12. Isolate Selection toggle and Selection Lock toggle
13. Coordinate display
14. Animation and Time controls
15. Viewport Navigation controls
Resetting all the tools

Sometimes, the settings of the program are changed accidentally. To reset all the tools,
Click “File > Reset” as shown below. Alternatively, close the program and restart
again can also reset the program.
Set the workspace

The workspace refers to the arrangement of toolbars. We set the workspace to
“default”. On the top right corner, in the drop-down list of Workspaces, select
“Default”.
To reset all the menu and user interface, click the “Reset to Default State”.
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This reset method is sometimes useful to help you restore the default menus when you
accidentally close a tool bar or close the time slider for animation.
Set the layout of viewports

Everything in 3ds Max is located in a three-dimensional world. You can view the 3D
world through one or more windows called viewports. In this tutorial, we use four
viewports namely, top, left, front and perspective. The layout of the four viewports
can be set using the Viewport Layouts. Go to the bottom left of the UI and click the
preset layouts to tryout. In this tutorial, we use the “Quad 4” layout as shown below.
The top viewport gives you the view of the top of the object. Similarly, the front
viewport and the left viewport give you the front view and the left view of the object.
The perspective viewport gives you the perspective view of the object. In another
word, we have four cameras to view the 3D object. (i)The camera at the top of the
object gives you top view, (ii) the camera at the front of the object gives you front
view, (iii) the camera at the left of the object gives you the left view and (iv) the
camera with arbitrary viewing angle give you the perspective view.
View Navigation
To navigate the view of the camera means we control the camera to see different part
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of the 3D object. In the bottom right of the UI, there is a viewport navigation control.
Zoom in/out – Right click one of the four viewports. Alternatively, you can
simply right click the viewport and then rotate the wheel of the mouse to zoom in
or zoom out of the view.
All zoom – When you rotate the wheel of the mouse, all the four view ports zoom
in or zoom out.
Pan view – Left click and drag the view port to move the 3D object left, right, top
or left. Alternatively, you can simply click and hold the wheel of the mouse and
drag the mouse to pan the view.
Orbit – Left click, hold the mouse and drag the mouse. This can allow you to
orbit the 3D object. Alternatively, you can do the same thing by holding the “Alt”
key on the keyboard, pressing and holding down the wheel and drag the mouse
to change the angle of the camera.
Try yourself to navigate the viewports. It is important to use this technique well in
using 3ds max.
Setting unit
It is important to set up the unit to be used in the 3ds max. In the menu bar, click the
“Customize > Units Setup…”.
In the popup menu, select the “Metric” radio button. Select “Millimeters” in the
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dropdown list as shown below. In this project, we are going to use millimeter to be the
unit.
Click the “System Unit Setup” button. A popup window appears. Set the system unit
scale to 1 unit = 1.0 Millimeters as shown below.
Press “OK” button twice to finish the setup.

We can set the size of the grid (a box in the viewport) by clicking in the menu bar
“Tools > Grids and Snaps > Grid and Snap Settings…”
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A dialog pops up. Click the “Home Grid” tab and set the Grid Spacing to 10.0mm
(default setting). This sets each grid to be 10mm in length. Click the “All viewports”
radio button.
Finally, close the window by clicking the top right cross .
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Save the project with filename

“Object.max”
Click “File > Save As…”. A dialog window pops up. Type “Object” in the “File
name:” and click “Save” button to save the project.
Create a box
To create a box, we go to the command panel on the right of the UI. Then, click the
“Create panel” and the “Geometry” . In the “Standard Primitive” rollout, click
the “Box” button.
In the Top viewport, try using the mouse to click and drag to create a 3D box. You can
change the width, height and length of the created box and change the number of
segments along the length, height and width of the box by typing in the parameter
rollout.
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Note that after you creating a box, on the left of the UI, there is one item added in the
scene explorer. You can click the eye to hide/unhide the created box.
The box you created is named “Box001”. You can rename the created box by right
clicking the “Box001”. Select rename in the pop-up menu.
You can delete the object using similar method by selecting the “Delete”.
There is a video in the help manual showing the way to drag a 3D box.
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To open the help manual, on the menu bar, click the “Help > Tutorials…”.
A browser will pop up.

Step 1: Click the search tab
Step 2: type “box” in the box as shown below
Step 3: click the search button
Step 4: click the “box” in the search result list.
This will open the box menu and the menu have a video showing you the way to
create a box.
Similarly, you can create other objects using the other buttons in the “Object type”
rollout.
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1. Create several 3D objects including

(i) a box (20mmx20mmx20mm),
(ii) a sphere (radius=20mm),
(iii) a cylinder (radius=20mm, height=30mm),
(iv) a torus (radius 1= 20mm radius 2= 10mm),
(v) a tube (radius 1= 20mm, radius 2=10mm, height= 50mm),
(vi) a cone (radius 1= 20mm, radius 2=0mm, height= 50mm),
(vii) a pyramid (width = 20mm, depth= 30mm, height= 50mm),
(viii) a plane (50mmx50mm),
(ix) a teapot (radius= 30mm), and,
(x) a text with “your name” (e.g. “Chan Tai Man”) (size = 30mm).
After creating all these 3D objects, go to the perspective viewport. Use the Zoom
in/out button to control the zooming of the camera. Alternatively, you can simply
right click the perspective viewport and then rotate the wheel of the mouse to
zoom in or zoom out of the view.
Now, we capture an image of the perspective viewport and write a PNG file. Click the
perspective viewport to select this viewport. In the main toolbar, press the button
“Rendered frame window” button.
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A window pops up. Press the “Render” button on the top right. The image will be
updated. Press the “Save” button on the left.
A “Save Image” window pops up. We save the image on the Desktop. On the left,
press “Desktop”. In the “File name”, we type Q1 to be the name of the image file. In
the “Save as type”, we select “PNG Image File (*.png)” as the file type. Finally, press
“Save” button.
A “PNG Configuration” window pops up. Select the radio button “RGB 24 bit (16.7
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Million)”. Press the “OK” button to save the image.
Now, you know how to capture the viewport and save it as a PNG file.
You can find the created image on the Desktop. Put this image in your answer
document “Lab2_ChanTaiMan.docx”.
Drawing a 2D shape and convert it into 3D

object
Another method in creating 3D objects is to draw the 2D shape and create 3D object
by extrusion tool. In this example, we draw a 3D key. Create a new project and save it
as the filename “Key.max”.
Step 1: We work on the top viewport. Right click the top viewport so that we work on
the top viewport.
Step 2: On the Command Panel, click the “Create > Shape > Line”. Then, in the
Creation method rollout, select the radio button “Corner” in the initial type and
“Corner” in the drag type.
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Step 3: Draw on the top viewport the following shape using your mouse. (Note: when
you hold the “shift” key on the keyboard, you can easily draw horizontal line or
vertical line.) When we draw the point 5, try to make point 5 close to point 1. A
window will pop up asking you do you want to close spline. Click “Yes”. You just
create a line with a closed loop.
Step 4: Create a circle on the top viewport.
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Step 5: Move the circle to overlap the previously created line.
To move the circle, select the circle. Click the button “Select and move” button .
Click and hold the “Y axis” and drag the mouse to move the circle vertically.
Similarly, click and hold the “X axis” and drag the mouse to move the circle
horizontally.
Move the circle until the circle overlap the previously created line as follows.
Step 6: Convert both the line and the circle to “editable spline”.
In the “Scene explorer” on the left of the UI, there are two lines corresponding to the
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line and the circle that we drew. Hold the “Ctrl” button and click the two lines to
select both the line and the circle. (The line is named “Line001” and the circle is
named ‘Circle001”.)
Right click on the Line001 or the Circle001 on the top viewport. Select “Convert To:
> Convert to Editable Spline”.
Step 7: We make the line and the circle become one object using “Attach”.
Select only the Line001 on the top viewport. On the Command Panel, click “Modify”.
In the Geometry rollout, click the button “Attach”.
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Click the Circle001 on the top viewport.
Click the “Attach” button again to disable the attach function.
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Now, you can see on the “Scene explorer” on the left of the UI, the Line001 and the
Circle001 is combined into one Line001.
Step 8: We cut out unwanted lines using “Trim” function.

Select the new Line001 object on the top viewport. In the Command Panel, click
“Modify”. In the Selection rollout, click the spline button .
Scroll down the Command Panel to search for the button “Trim”. Click the “Trim”
button.
Go back to the top viewport, click the unwanted lines to delete it.
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Similarly, delete other unwanted lines until we get the following line.
Click the “Trim” button again to disable the trim function.
Step 9: We weld the points to form a closed loop.

Now, there are two sets of point pairs which are very close to each other. We need to
make each point pair to form a single point. A point in 3D is call a vertex.
In the Command panel, click the Vertex button.
Select point pair set A in the top viewport by dragging the mouse.
Now, the two vertexes of point pair set A are selected. Go to the Command Panel,
search for the button “Weld” and click it. This action weld the two selected vertexes
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into one vertex. In fact, this action means that the two selected vertexes which are
close to each other with distance less than 0.1mm is weld together to form one vertex.
You can change the threshold value 0.1 as well.
Similarly, we weld the two vertexes of point pair set B.
Step 10: Extrude the shape to form 3D object.

Now, we have a shape which are closed loop. A closed loop is important to use
extrusion tool. We select the newly created shape. In the Command Panel, click
“Modify”. Click the drop down list of “Modifier List”.
A long list appears. Type “E” and select “Extrude”.
Note that, in the Command Panel, there is one more layer called “Extrude” above the
“Line”. That means the “Line” is modified by the tool “Extrude”. We can change the
amount of extrusion by setting values in the “Amount”. We can also set the number of
segments to extrude.
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A 3D object of a key is successfully generated.
2. Capture the perspective viewport and save it as an image. Put the saved image in
the answer document.
3D object boolean operations

We keep using the key that we drew before and punch a hole through it.
Step 1: In the top viewport, we draw a cylinder.
In the Command Panel, click “Create > Geometry”. Click the button “Cylinder”.
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In the top viewport, use a mouse to draw a 3D cylinder. (You can control the radius
and the height of cylinder to appropriate values. The height of the cylinder should be
larger than the thickness of the key 5mm.)
Step 2: We move the cylinder to overlap the key.

To move the cylinder, select the cylinder. Click the button “Select and move” button
in the main toolbar. In the front viewport, click and hold the “Y axis” and drag
the mouse to move the cylinder vertically. Similarly, click and hold the “X axis” and
drag the mouse to move the cylinder horizontally. We move the cylinder to overlap
the key. Make sure the cylinder punch through the key in the front view.
Step 3: Create a hole using the Boolean function

Select the key by clicking the key in the top viewport. In the Command Panel, click
“Create > Geometry”. In the rollout, choose “Compound Objects”. Click the
“ProBoolean” button.
Select “Subtraction” as follows. Since we need the key to subtract from the cylinder,
we select “Subtraction”. Then, click the button “Start Picking”.
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In the top viewport, click the cylinder. This action will subtract the cylinder from the
key. Note that in the Scene Explorer on the left, the cylinder disappears and only the
key remains (named “Line001”).
You can try other functions in the parameters rollout.

Union – adding the cylinder to the key
Intersection – only the overlapping part of the key and the cylinder remains.
For the other functions, please refer to the help menu.
3. Capture the perspective viewport of the key with the hole and save it as an image.
Put the saved image in the answer document.
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Classwork
In above example, as we learned earlier we can use all function tools to draw a new
3D key with your style. Create a new project and save it as the filename
“NewKey.max”.
After answering all the questions and classwork, show the answer document to the
lecturer for assessment.
<End>
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Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Shatin)

Computer and Electronic Engineering (Lab 1B) AVR Engineering (EEE3454)

EEE3454 Augmented and Virtual Reality Engineering

Lab 1 – Basic Model Building

Software: Autodesk 3ds Max 2018

1. Application button and Quick Access toolbar

Resetting all the tools

Set the workspace

Set the layout of viewports

Press “OK” button twice to finish the setup.

Finally, close the window by clicking the top right cross .

Save the project with filename

A browser will pop up.

1. Create several 3D objects including

“Rendered frame window” button.

Million)”. Press the “OK” button to save the image.

Drawing a 2D shape and convert it into 3D

Step 4: Create a circle on the top viewport.

Step 5: Move the circle to overlap the previously created line.

Click the Circle001 on the top viewport.

Click the “Attach” button again to disable the attach function.

Step 8: We cut out unwanted lines using “Trim” function.

“Modify”. In the Selection rollout, click the spline button .

Click the “Trim” button again to disable the trim function.

Step 9: We weld the points to form a closed loop.

In the Command panel, click the Vertex button.

Similarly, we weld the two vertexes of point pair set B.

Step 10: Extrude the shape to form 3D object.

A long list appears. Type “E” and select “Extrude”.

A 3D object of a key is successfully generated.

3D object boolean operations

Step 2: We move the cylinder to overlap the key.

Step 3: Create a hole using the Boolean function

You can try other functions in the parameters rollout.

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