Modeling Problem

[ran205]

I have this model that was made with Mechanical Desktop 6.0. I then converted it to a 3ds format and imported it into LW. My question is how do I go about reducing the polys in this model? I tried the reduce polys inside LW but won't reduce them enough Eventually the internal bits that are inside will need to be animated and put on a web site or on a CD and I want to significantly reduce the polys. any suggestion wouldbe greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

\image{845 lower}

[Capt Lightwave]

PolygonCruncher might be a good idea to look into at this moment, my friend.

http://www.mootools.com

[ran205]

thanks but I was hoping for a modeling approach.

[ThreeDBFX]

Have you tried qemloss?

[BeeVee]

You can also try MergeTrigonsX which will convert those tris into quads...

http://www7.wisnet.ne.jp/~dprj/lw_tips/files/fiathama/M_TrigonsX-i-1_00_2.zip

[Anthony_Locke]

Hey there,

I have to do basically the exact same thing for models in my company. It took me many days to finally realise that it is just quicker to rebuild the model using the CAD supplied model as a template. It still does save heaps of time, and you have exact control over how things look (unlike the polygon removal method).

Just my 2c, I hope this helps.

Anthony

[wizlon]

pick a series of points from a curve on your cad file, use the make open curve command, and continue on through the entire cad model until you have a complete spline cage, then just patch it.
should be really quick on a model like the one shown, and will render faster and smoother also.

Lee.

[ran205]

Thanks for all of you valuable information. I've tried modeling individual parts then booleaning them together but somtimed to boolean wont take matter what I do. I haven't tried patch them yet I'm not very good at spline patching. and my first attempt was using the cad model as a template ( I will post that screen shotif the still have it) but everything got messed up.