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Making Landing Gear Struts Quick

lionheart

lionheart

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Hey all,

In case you didnt know...

I found a quick way of making landing gear strut cylinders which have various changes in diameter, etc, in them.

Find a photo of the gear to make your part from. Then make a Spline outline of 'one side'. Add 'Lathe' modifier and click on the Lathe line in the Control Panel so its active. Drag the Gizmo 'outwards' to make the Lathe 'fit' the other side of the photograph. Adjust number of sides, (like 20, etc), make sure Polygons are facing outward, and Done! Collapse, save as Editable Poly, continue.

rherytj.JPG
ryrtymrytm.JPG
bsryjswry.JPG


I used to make these by making a cylinder and dragging out and extruding and chamfering and scaling all the various edges and changes in diameter and angle. It could take a while and needed adjustments done. This takes like several seconds.
 
This is also great for making gauge bezels. Did you know the spline segments corresponding to faces that won't be seen can be deleted and the Lathe modifier still produces the goods?
 
hairyspin said:
This is also great for making gauge bezels. Did you know the spline segments corresponding to faces that won't be seen can be deleted and the Lathe modifier still produces the goods?
Click to expand...

No, I didnt know that.

Did you know... That if you make a copy of a part, like hold Shift key, drag out a part, and the popup says 'did you want a copy of this, or a clone?', you also have a 'number' slider. You can then click say 10, and you suddenly have 10 units that are evenly spaced out from the first one, all in a row....... :D
 
Oh yes, although the Array tool is more controllable for final spacing. It's amazing how many tools there are right under our noses in (G)Max!

I learned about Lathe from the last time you posted about it.
 
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It is also can be use with Pagoda if you are scenery guys. I made this pagoda by Lathe method too. Very useful.
watbd.jpg
 
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